Restless Chipotle

  • About
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
  • Shop
  • Recipe Box
menu icon
go to homepage
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
  • Shop
  • Recipe Box
subscribe
search icon
Homepage link
  • About
  • Recipes
  • Videos
  • Subscribe
  • Shop
  • Recipe Box
×
Home » Recipes » Whiskey

Commodore Cocktail Recipe

Published: May 23, 2024 by Marye

The Commodore Cocktail is elegant & easy. Bourbon, creme de cacao, and lemon juice are shaken with crushed ice and grenadine in this easy 1930s recipe.
Total time for the recipe to be finished.Total Time 5 minutes minutes
Jump to Recipe Pin Recipe
the commodore horizontal
Commodore Cocktail with text overlay for Pinterest.

First mentioned in the 1935 Waldorf Astoria Bar Book, the Commodore Cocktail recipe is a simple yet elegant cocktail that Zelda Fitzgerald might have sipped while chatting with friends about F. Scott's newest book. It personified the 1930s and you hardly ever hear someone order it or see it on a bar menu.

One taste and you'll be ready to repeal Prohibition yourself.

Closeup of the commodore cocktail in a martini glass with a red straw.
Table of Contents
  • 🗝️ Key takeaways
  • 🍴 Equipment
  • Marye's Tip
  • 💭 Things to know
  • 📚 Related recipes
  • 📞 The last word
  • 📖 Recipe
  • Commodore
  • 💬 Comments

Save this recipe by clicking on the ❤️ heart on the right-hand side of the screen or in the recipe card.

🗝️ Key takeaways

  • I love this bourbon-forward, well-balanced cocktail that's both easy to make and beautiful to look at.
  • This is the perfect sipper for cocktail parties, quiet evenings, and events with a 1920s/1930s theme. I've never done a theme party but I want to SO badly!
  • Be sure you're using real grenadine and not a corn syrup and red dye potion.

The commodore cocktail has a delicate sweetness from the creme de cacao, but the lemon juice keeps it from being too sweet.

To keep it authentic, you should shake it in a shaker with crushed ice and then double strain into a chilled martini glass or the glass of your choice that's been mounded with crushed ice. That's authentic.

Personally I like to blend it with the ice in the blender until the whole thing is frothy and slushy. Not authentic but super good. Especially on a 105F day!

🤫 Cook's secrets -

Did you know that most of the grenadine you get is not much more than corn syrup with flavoring and red dye added? Real grenadine is made from pomegranate and natural ingredients. Be sure to read the labels!

🍴 Equipment

  1. jigger or measuring spoons
  2. cocktail shaker
  3. strainer
  4. glasses

Marye's Tip

Shaking the ingredients with crushed ice helps develop the oxygen bubbles in the cocktail which gives it more flavor and a touch of fizz.

The commodore cocktail recipe is elegant and so yummy! From RestlessChipotle.com

💭 Things to know

  • Since there aren't many ingredients in this, you'll want to make sure that you have a high-quality bourbon -- it will make all of the difference.
  • White creme de cacao works best in this recipe.
  • I prefer to serve the commodore cocktail in a martini glass but a highball glass works as well.
  • Try a squeeze of orange and an orange wheel to finish it off. It's very similar to an old fashioned.

📚 Related recipes

  • Closeup of a cocktail with two straws.
    Jameson Irish Redhead Cocktail
  • Closeup of two whiskey cocktails garnished with cherries.
    Classic Whiskey Sour Cocktail Recipe
  • A glass with filled with peach whiskey mule cocktail.
    Peach Whiskey Mule
  • Two classes of tea on a table.
    Bourbon Peach Tea: Perfect Summer Cocktail in a Pitcher

📞 The last word

This easy bourbon cocktail makes me think of beautiful women in elegant gowns, draped with jewelry, and chatting in a roomful of calla lilies.

A small orchestra would be playing in the background and couples would move across the dance floor gracefully.

The 1920s were a decade of innocent hedonism if there is such a thing (and if there's not there should be). We think of it as being a time of decadence but compared to our society now it seems very innocent to me.

I get that times change but I must be getting old because I miss the days of my childhood.

I miss the simplicity of playing outside, having three channels to watch, and clipping playing cards to my bike tires with clothespins so that they would make a motor sound when I rode down hills.

Kids don't do those kinds of silly things anymore. We've forced them to become old before their times and I wonder if some of it isn't that we refuse to grow up ourselves.

We've somehow evolved past adulthood and become Peter Pan wannabees playing video games and indulging ourselves in busyness because there are very few real adults left in the world, and we know it.

What was hedonistic, self-indulgent, and shocking in 1927 is now a G-rated movie compared to what is considered normal now.

And I am just as guilty as anyone.

I just don't know how to fix it except to encourage y'all and myself to take back what we can of those simpler times.

Comfort food, family mealtimes, and conversations around the table are baby steps but they are at least baby steps in the right direction.

So, now that you have visited the dank, moody recesses of my mind let's all shake it off and have a cocktail, shall we?

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need.

If you love this recipe please comment below and give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 Recipe

the commodore horizontal

Commodore Cocktail Recipe

4.75 from 4 votes
Print Pin Recipe Save Recipe Saved! Rate Recipe
Prevent your screen from going dark
The Commodore Cocktail is elegant & easy. Bourbon, creme de cacao, and lemon juice are shaken with crushed ice and grenadine in this easy 1930s recipe.
Course Beverage
Cuisine American - Vintage
Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes minutes
Servings:1
Calories:162
Author:Marye Audet-White

Ingredients

  • 1-½ ounces bourbon
  • 1 ounce creme de cacao, white works best
  • 1 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1 teaspoon grenadine
  • Ice, cracked or crushed
  • 1 maraschino cherry, for garnish

Instructions

  • Add all ingredients to a shaker.
  • Shake vigorously and then double strain into a chilled glass filled with crushed ice.
  • Garnish with a Maraschino cherry or lemon twist.
  • You can also put all ingredients into a blender and blend until slushy.

Notes

Make sure you are using real grenadine and not a corn syrup mixture with red coloring added. Real grenadine is made with pomegranate juice.

Nutrition Facts

Calories: 162kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 0.1g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.01g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 32mg | Fiber: 0.3g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 4IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 0.1mg

Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

This recipe has been tested several times. If you choose to use other ingredients, or change the technique in some way, the results may not be the same.

First published March 20, 2016. Last updated May 23, 2024 for editorial improvements.

Commodore cocktail in a martini glass.

Save this cocktail recipe!

Commodore

Keep this recipe on hand - pin it to your favorite Pinterest board so you don't forget where you found it.

Pin it now→


More Whiskey & Bourbon

  • A closeup of the layers in an IRA shot.
    IRA Whiskey Shot Recipe
  • A finished and garnished old fashioned cocktail with a muddler in the foreground.
    Old Fashioned Cocktail Recipe: Muddled Fig
  • Green margarita in a glass with a gold rim and lime garnish.
    Irish Margarita Recipe: Green Cocktail for St Patrick's Day
  • maplesyrupoldfashionedisabourboncocktail perfectforfall!FromRestlessChipotle.com
    Maple Syrup Old Fashioned Cocktail

Love it? Share it!

  • Facebook
  • Flipboard

About Marye

Meet Marye Audet, a wizard in the kitchen and a storyteller at heart. Marye is like your eccentric but fun aunt who knows all the secret recipes and isn't afraid to spill them.

Comments

    4.75 from 4 votes (3 ratings without comment)

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Love it? Give it 5 stars!




  1. Marye Audet says

    March 22, 2016 at 8:40 am

    Thanks!

    Reply
  2. Jerry says

    March 22, 2016 at 12:44 am

    5 stars
    Now I'm craving a drink, a haircut, some Brill cream and a double breasted suit.

    Along with one of these cocktails, of course

    Reply
    • Marye Audet says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:43 am

      LOL! Jerry, you crack me up.

      Reply
  3. cynthia/What A Girl Eats says

    March 21, 2016 at 7:41 pm

    I love the sound of this Marye! And I love your description of who should be drinking it! I can just imagine the floaty gowns!

    Reply
    • Marye Audet says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:42 am

      🙂 sigh... So elegant then.

      Reply
  4. laura@motherwouldknow says

    March 21, 2016 at 4:57 pm

    I'm all for going back to simpler times - and for lovely, simple cocktails. As long as we don't have to wear stockings and garter belts 🙂

    Reply
    • Marye Audet says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:42 am

      nah... no stockings and garter belts...

      Reply
  5. Michelle | A Dish of Daily Life says

    March 21, 2016 at 3:37 pm

    I hear you on the old days. I don't really watch tv much so when I do and I ask the kids for help because I can't figure out the two remotes, they get frustrated with me. I said to my son, it was so much easier when you just turned it on and did it manually. And he made some comment about how there weren't any channels back then, etc, etc, and why would anyone want that? ME!
    Anyway, your cocktail looks wonderful! I'm looking forward to trying it!

    Reply
    • Marye Audet says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:41 am

      I KNOW! Thanks. 🙂

      Reply
  6. Ashley @ Wishes and Dishes says

    March 21, 2016 at 1:25 pm

    I need to get me some bourbon so I can make this!! Love finding new cocktail ideas.

    Reply
    • Marye Audet says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:41 am

      I am always happy to taste test them for y'all. 🙂

      Reply
  7. Citra Kale @Citra's Home Diary says

    March 21, 2016 at 8:13 am

    Oh Merye.... How I enjoy reading your heart speaking how you miss the simply of childhood time... It's completely reminds me of my own in my homeland. No gadget or other fancy technology whatsoever for made me happy enjoying green grass, under my mom's banana trees.... xo

    Reply
    • Marye Audet says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:40 am

      Those memories are always the best.

      Reply
  8. Christie says

    March 21, 2016 at 7:19 am

    This sounds delicious. I have just started to enjoy bourbon.

    Reply
    • Marye Audet says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:39 am

      🙂 I really liked it.

      Reply
  9. Kacey @ The Cookie Writer says

    March 21, 2016 at 7:05 am

    I always say I was born in the wrong era and wonder if I would have been in the "writers crowd!" I need more cocktails in my life 🙂

    Reply
    • Marye Audet says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:39 am

      I agree. I think it would have been a cool era to have lived in.

      Reply
  10. Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine says

    March 21, 2016 at 6:58 am

    That sounds like a lovely cocktail Marye!

    Reply
    • Marye Audet says

      March 22, 2016 at 8:38 am

      Thank you!

      Reply
Marye Audet-White, founder of Restless Chipotle Media

Hey Y'all, I'm Marye

Welcome to my kitchen! ☕

NY Times bestselling author. 10 cookbooks. Mom of 8 kids. Homeschooling mom for 22 years. Addicted to Hallmark Christmas Movies. Collector of old cookbooks.

Find out more

🍉 Summer Cookouts

  • Overhead view of potato salad in a glass bowl
    Mom's Homemade Potato Salad
  • Overhead view of the finished watermelon basket filled with an assortment of fruit.
    How to Make a Watermelon Basket
  • Closeup of a finished hamburger in a bun.
    Retro Lipton Onion Soup Burger (Vintage Recipe)
  • Closeup of a star shaped cake covered in white chocolate with red and blue sprinkles.
    Zebra Cake Recipe: Little Debbie Copycat

🫖 Picklefork Stories

Picklefork town crest.
Click here to visit Picklefork

👑 Reader Favorites

  • Square overhead of chicken for feature image.
    Crockpot Angel Chicken
  • Close up of the sauce showing the creamy texture.
    Copycat Red Robin Campfire Sauce Recipe
  • Wooden spatula removing fried potatoes out of iron skillet.
    Crispy Fried Potatoes in a Cast Iron Skillet (Southern Style)
  • Blue cocktail with a red and white straw.
    Sex in the Driveway Cocktail
  • A sliced loaf of english muffin bread.
    Easy English Muffin Bread – No Knead, Perfect for Toasting!
  • Two finished loaves of Amish white bread cooling on a table.
    No-Fail Amish White Bread

Footer

^ back to top

About

  • About Marye Audet-White
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Accessibility Policy
  • Contact
MaryeAudet Whiteandherchildren Dec

Featured In:

Places Restless Chipotle has been featured

We improve our products and advertising by using Microsoft Clarity to see how you use our website. By using our site, you agree that we and Microsoft can collect and use this data. Our privacy statement has more details.

Copyright ©2006 - 2025 Restless Chipotle Media, LLC

Picklefork Tales Copyright ©2025 Marye Audet, Restless Chipotle Media

Rate This Recipe

Your vote:




Let us know what you thought of this recipe:

This worked exactly as written, thanks!
My family loved this!
Thank you for sharing this recipe

Or write in your own words:

A rating is required
A name is required
An email is required

Recipe Ratings without Comment

Something went wrong. Please try again.