Episode 31: By the Horns – Blood and Sand

You say Blood and Sand and it generates images of a switchblade fight on a beach. The consensus though is that this cocktail is named for the 1922 bullfighting movie starring silent-movie era heartthrob, Rudolph Valentino. Most likely originating from Harry Craddock, it appears in the Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930 first, and not many other places after that. There is no indication as to why Craddock called the cocktail a Blood and Sand, but we dive into the possibilities. Was he a fan of the film, or possibly Valentino? Did Rudy V. stop by the Savoy during his European visits in the 1920s? Or did it just look like a glass of bloody sand? Maybe none of these and all three! The individual ingredients just don’t show up in very many cocktails, so we explore these commonly uncommon cocktail components. Is it morally unethical to mix anything with Scotch? Or does it just fight with the other ingredients? We look at how opportunistic companies during prohibition may have had a hand in growing popularity of oran...