Cocktail recipe
Hanky Panky
A London classic with a bitter little secret beneath its silky gin-and-vermouth polish.
Ingredients
- 45 ml (1½ oz) London dry gin
- 45 ml (1½ oz) sweet red vermouth
- 2 dashes Fernet-Branca
- Garnish: expressed orange twist
Preparation
Give the gin and sweet vermouth equal footing in a mixing glass, then season with two measured dashes of Fernet-Branca. Stir on ice until the vermouth feels integrated rather than heavy. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and twist orange peel firmly over the top: the citrus oil softens the bitter herbal edge.
Glassware
Chilled coupe
History
Ada “Coley” Coleman created the Hanky Panky while leading the American Bar at London’s Savoy, reportedly for actor Sir Charles Hawtrey, who asked for something restorative. Two newspaper accounts from December 1925 and January 1926 recorded Coleman’s retirement and the Hawtrey naming anecdote; they agree on her authorship but differ in dialogue and timing. Harry Craddock printed the formula in *The Savoy Cocktail Book* (1930) as equal parts dry gin and Italian vermouth with two dashes of Fernet-Branca, shaken and finished with orange peel. Our stirred method is a deliberate modern textural choice, not a transcription of Craddock’s shake.
Mixology View
Coleman deserves explicit creator credit. Fernet is a sharp punctuation mark, never the main sentence.