There aren’t any great wombat cocktail recipes out there (yet!) so I’m toasting this ambitious animal and her maker with a different drink that feels right at home down under. The drink first appears in the hallowed pages of one of my favorites, the Savoy Cocktail Book, 1930. The collection was legendary bartender Harry Craddock’s magnum opus of the art deco era. The drink features the fascinating Swedish Punsch, a Scandinavian spirit of rum and spice with a storied history dating back to 1733.

The original is a fine drink that rightly deserves a little more of the spotlight. It has nothing to do, however, with the modern-day “boomerang cocktail”, a covert practice which is thought to have sprung up in New York’s East Village in the late 2000s, which refers to a drink prepared by a bartender at one bar and secretly sent over by trusted courier to another. It is also completely illegal in almost all cities in the US, except New Orleans, where people are allowed to carry open alcoholic beverages in the streets. Remember, “The first rule of boomerangs is you don’t talk about boomerangs. It’s like Fight Club.” So if I happen to boomerang a Boomerang to you at an intriguing problem pow-wow, don’t mention it. Cheers!

Boomerang c. 1930

1 oz Swedish Punsch

1 oz rye whiskey

1 oz dry vermouth

1 barspoon lemon

1 dash Angostura bitters

1 das orange bitters

 Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a coupe. Lemon peel.

explore more: