Zaza Cocktail is another classic cocktail you find in many cocktail books and it’s a combination of gin and Dubonnet. The history of Dubonnet starts 1846 when the chemist Joseph Dubonnet, in an effort to make French Foreign Legionnaires drink quinine to battle malaria in North Africa, blended it with fortified wine and herbs to make it less bitter. And voila, the Dubonnet aperitif was born.
The Zaza Cocktail is described in The Savoy Cocktail Book from 1930 and the proportions are equal parts gin and Dubonnet. We also found an alternative recipe from a very old Swedish cocktail book from 1917 (quoted in Mathin Lundgrens “Barmästarens Manual”). This recipe also uses orange curacao as well as Angostura.
Zaza Cocktail
2 oz Gin
1 oz Dubonnet
1/2 oz orange curacao
5 drops Angostura Bitter
Stir with ice and strain in a glass.