Monkey Gland
Gin and orange juice with a little grenadine and absinthe — a 1920s Paris classic with an anise edge.
- Difficulty
- easy
- Prep time
- 3 min
- Strength
- 18% ABV
- Glassware
- Coupe glass
- Base
- gin
- Serves
- 1
Ingredients
- Gin45ml
- Fresh orange juice30ml
- Grenadine8ml
A pomegranate grenadine, not a red cordial
- Absinthe3ml
Half a bar spoon
Garnish: Orange twist
Method
- Chill a coupe glass.
- Add the gin, orange juice, grenadine and absinthe to a shaker filled with ice.
- Shake hard for about 12 seconds.
- Strain into the chilled coupe and express an orange twist over the top.
Compared with the IBA specification
The International Bartenders Association lists this drink among its The Unforgettables. Its specification is a standard for training and competition — one reference, not the only right way to make the drink.
The IBA uses a tablespoon each of absinthe and grenadine and more orange juice. CocktailHQ keeps the absinthe to an accent.
CocktailHQ
- 45ml gin
- 30ml fresh orange juice
- 7.5ml grenadine
- 2.5ml absinthe
IBA
- 45 ml Dry Gin
- 45 ml Fresh Orange Juice
- 1 Tablespoon Absinthe
- 1 Tablespoon Grenadine Syrup
IBA ingredients as published at iba-world.com, retrieved 29 October 2026.
Allergen information
None of this recipe's ingredients, as commonly made, is associated with the fourteen major allergens.
Products vary, and this describes ingredients rather than the bottles you use — check every label. It is not a guarantee that a drink is suitable for anyone with an allergy. How this is worked out
Your version
— private notes, kept on this device
Change a measure, note what you changed and why. It stays in this browser — it is not sent to CocktailHQ, not counted by analytics, and not shown to anyone.
Equipment
Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.
Cocktail shaker
Household swap: A large jar with a tight lid.
Glass and ice
No ice in the glass
Served up, the drink was chilled and diluted in the shaker or mixing glass and goes into a chilled glass without ice.
Over a large cube it stays cold longer, but keeps diluting — it becomes a different, slowly lengthening drink.
About 121ml once mixed
The recipe's coupe glass is typically 150–250ml.
- Workable:
- nick & nora glass, martini glass, champagne flute, rocks glass
- Oversized but acceptable:
- wine glass
- Unsuitable:
- highball glass
Needs a glass of about 128–135ml brimful.
How this is worked out
- A drink with no ice needs a little of the glass left empty — about a tenth — so it can be carried without spilling and has room for aroma.
- Filled to the top with cubes or packed crushed ice, roughly half to three-fifths of a glass is left for the drink.
- A drink built in the glass dilutes from the ice already there, so its melt water is not added on top.
- One large cube takes up roughly 65–125ml, from a sphere to a 5cm cube.
- Glass capacities are brimful and vary by maker — your own glass, measured with water, is the figure to trust.
Missing an ingredient?
Each swap below says what it changes and how to correct for it, so you can decide whether you are making this drink or a neighbouring one.
Instead of Grenadine
Best substitute: Raspberry Syrup
This is the sweet element in this drink.
Quantity: Same amount
Flavour impact: Brighter and more berry-led, with the same blush of colour; the pomegranate's tartness is lost.
What changes
Expect less sweetness and more acidity. Still a good drink, and a slightly different one.
- Sweetness ↓
- Less sweetness leaves the acid and the spirit more exposed, so the drink will taste sharper and drier than it should.
- Acidity ↑
- More acidity makes the drink taste fresher and drier, and can push a balanced sour over into sharp.
- Character
- Both are tart-sweet and fruity, and you lose vivid and pomegranate, and you gain berry and bright. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.
To correct for it
- Add a little more syrup, a small amount at a time, until the edges come back together.
- Use slightly less of it, or add a touch more sweetener to hold the balance.
Moderate confidenceShifts the drink
Make it better
- Start with half a bar spoon of absinthe. The IBA uses a tablespoon, which is a lot for most tastes; add more next time if you want it.
- Squeeze the orange yourself. Carton juice makes it sweet and flat.
- A real pomegranate grenadine is tart; a red sugar cordial makes the drink cloying.
- Chill the glass in the freezer for a few minutes beforehand — a warm glass takes the edge off a well-made drink fast.
- Shake hard for 12-15 seconds with plenty of ice — a proper shake chills and dilutes the drink in one step.
- Use freshly squeezed citrus juice rather than bottled — the aromatic oils fade fast once juiced, so squeeze just before making the drink.
- Express the citrus peel by pinching it, skin-side down, over the drink before dropping it in — this releases aromatic oils across the surface.
- Adjust sweetness gradually and taste as you go — it's easy to add more syrup, impossible to take it out.
Rescue this drink
- Tastes of aniseed and nothing else
- Too much absinthe. Half a bar spoon, or rinse the glass with it instead.
- Sweet and flat
- Carton juice or cordial-style grenadine. Use fresh orange and a pomegranate grenadine.
- No cocktail shakergeneral guidance
- A large jar with a tight lid.
Make ahead & storage
Batch the base, finish at serving
Batch the 3 stable components days ahead and add fresh orange juice when you pour.
Add about 27% water to the batch to replace what the ice would otherwise contribute, or it will pour noticeably harsher than a fresh one.
- Fresh orange juice:
- Fresh citrus loses its aroma within hours and turns dull. Squeeze it on the day.
Make it lighter
As written, about 2 UK units at roughly 18% ABV once diluted. 4 of six ways to lighten it work for this recipe. Units are an estimate of what is in the glass, not advice about drinking.
A smaller serveSupportedabout 1.3 units, 18% ABV
Every measure at two-thirds. The balance is untouched because the proportions are; the only trade-off is a smaller drink — use a smaller glass so it doesn't look stingy.
- 30ml Gin
- 20ml Orange Juice
- 5ml Grenadine
- 2ml Absinthe
A longer serveSupportedsame 2 units, 11.1% ABV
Spirit, citrus and sugar topped with soda is how a sour becomes a Collins or a fizz — a well-trodden route. Note: the same alcohol in more liquid — weaker per sip, not fewer units.
- 45ml Gin
- 30ml Orange Juice
- 8ml Grenadine
- 3ml Absinthe
- 75ml Soda Water
Give it the spritz treatmentPossible, with a trade-offabout 1 units, 8.6% ABV
Sparkling wine for the spirit makes a lighter, French 75-like drink, but it loses the backbone that balanced the citrus — you may want less sugar. Add the fizz last, at the glass.
- 68ml Sparkling Wine
- 30ml Orange Juice
- 8ml Grenadine
- 3ml Absinthe
Replace part of it with an alcohol-free bottleSupportedabout 1.1 units, 9.7% ABV
Half the gin with alcohol-free spirit. Alcohol-free bottles are lighter-bodied than what they replace; at half-and-half the drink keeps most of its weight. Some alcohol-free bottles carry a trace of alcohol — check the label if that matters to you.
- 23ml Gin
- 23ml Alcohol-Free Spirit
- 30ml Orange Juice
- 8ml Grenadine
- 3ml Absinthe
Not recommended for this drink: reverse the ratio; split the base with a lower-strength modifier
- Reverse the ratio. There is no wine-strength modifier — vermouth, sherry or Lillet — to swap measures with.
- Split the base with a lower-strength modifier. The recipe has no wine-strength modifier to move measure into, and choosing one for it would be writing a new drink.
What it tastes like
The taste, and what drives it
sweet, balanced, light — a sour-structured drink served straight up, no ice.
Sweet
Dry → Sweet
Openly sweet, and balanced by something else rather than hidden.
What drives it: Grenadine — carries the most sugar into the glass.
Balanced
Soft → Sharp
Enough acidity to keep the drink awake without dominating it.
What drives it: Fresh orange juice — supplies the acidity.
Faintly bitter
Gentle → Bitter
A bitter edge you would only notice if you looked for it.
What drives it: Gin — provides the bitterness.
Light
Light → Rich
Light-bodied. It refreshes rather than satisfies, which is usually the intention.
What drives it: Gin — adds most of the weight.
Bold
Delicate → Bold
Bold. This drink is the loudest thing on the table.
What drives it: Gin — is the most concentrated thing in the glass.
What you smell first
- Citrus peelLeadsBefore the first sip
From Gin, Fresh orange juice, Orange twist
- Juniper and botanicals
From Gin
Aromas marked as sitting above the drink reach you before the first sip — skipping that garnish changes the drink more than its size suggests.
How it was worked out
Each reading comes from the recipe's own recorded taste scores combined with what each ingredient contributes, weighted by how much of it is in the glass. Almost everything in this drink has detailed ingredient data behind it.
How balance actually works →If it isn't right
What goes wrong with this drink, and why
Only the faults this particular recipe is actually prone to — open one for the likely cause, the adjustment, and what the adjustment costs you.
It's too sweet
- Likely cause
- Grenadine is carrying the sugar here, and it is the easiest thing in the drink to over-pour — syrup clings to a jigger and a "splash" is rarely the same twice.
- What to change
- Cut grenadine by about a third and rebuild. If it is already made, a little more of the base spirit or a dash of bitters will pull it back faster than starting again.
- What that does
- The drink will read sharper as well as less sweet, because the acid stops being balanced.
- The trade-off
- That is usually the intention, but it is a bigger change than it sounds — overshoot and the drink tips into sour.
It's too sour
- Likely cause
- Fresh orange juice varies more than any other ingredient in the drink. Limes differ by weeks of ripeness, and a sharp one can be half again as acidic as a mild one at the same measure.
- What to change
- Add sweetener a few millilitres at a time rather than diluting — you are correcting a ratio, not a concentration.
- What that does
- Sourness recedes and the drink gains a little weight.
- The trade-off
- Overshoot and you will be reading the too-sweet entry instead. Small additions, tasting between each, are slower but cheaper than a rebuild.
It tastes harsh or hot
- Likely cause
- Almost always under-dilution. Shaking is how this drink gets its water — around 30% of the finished drink — and stopping early leaves alcohol heat that dilution would have rounded off.
- What to change
- Shake hard for the full time with plenty of ice; a short, gentle shake chills a little and dilutes even less.
- What that does
- The heat recedes, the drink tastes rounder, and flavours that were masked by alcohol come forward.
- The trade-off
- Dilution is a target, not a direction: past it the drink goes watery and loses concentration, which is harder to undo than harshness.
It's watery
- Likely cause
- Shaking adds water while it chills, and the two cannot be separated. Wet ice from a freezer door, or small cubes, will over-dilute before the drink is properly cold.
- What to change
- Use bigger, drier, colder ice and stop sooner. Chilling the glass first buys you time you would otherwise spend diluting.
- What that does
- More flavour concentration at the same temperature.
- The trade-off
- Under-dilute instead and the drink will taste harsh — the aim is the right amount of water, not the least.
It isn't cold enough
- Likely cause
- Served without ice, this drink is at its coldest the moment it leaves the shaker and warms from the first sip. A room-temperature glass takes a surprising amount of that cold straight back out.
- What to change
- Chill the coupe glass first — ten minutes in the freezer, or filled with ice and water while you mix — and strain the moment you stop shaking.
- What that does
- The drink stays in its best range for longer, and the first sip tastes the way it was balanced.
- The trade-off
- Very cold drinks smell of less, because aroma needs some warmth to leave the glass. A smaller serve that is finished cold beats a bigger one that is finished warm.
It doesn't smell of anything
- Likely cause
- The aroma you are missing is probably citrus peel, which sits above the drink rather than in it — skipping or under-expressing the garnish removes it entirely.
- What to change
- Express the peel over the surface with the skin facing the drink, then drop it in. Herbs go in the glass, not on the side.
- What that does
- Aroma arrives before flavour does, so the whole drink reads as more intense without a single measure changing.
- The trade-off
- The oil does land in the drink, though — an over-expressed peel adds a faint bitterness to the first mouthful.
It tastes one-dimensional
- Likely cause
- With 4 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a drink this simple is exposed by design, so a dull one is usually a dull ingredient rather than a missing step.
- What to change
- Change the quality of what is there before adding anything new: a better base bottle, a dash of bitters. Bitters add layers at a scale nothing else matches.
- What that does
- More going on at the same strength and sweetness.
- The trade-off
- Adding a whole extra ingredient instead usually produces a muddier drink rather than a deeper one — and a better bottle costs more.
The garnish is all I can taste
- Likely cause
- The orange twist sits right under your nose, so it arrives before the drink does. Expressed peel oil is intense, and a peel left in keeps releasing it.
- What to change
- Express the peel over the drink, then discard it rather than dropping it in.
- What that does
- The garnish frames the drink rather than replacing it.
- The trade-off
- Too little and the drink loses its first impression — the garnish is doing a real aromatic job here, so ease off rather than leave it out.
Each drink comes out different
- Likely cause
- With 4 measured components, a few millilitres' drift in each adds up, and a shaker loaded for four chills and dilutes differently from one made for one.
- What to change
- Measure every pour with a jigger, and shake no more than two drinks at a time. Pre-mix gin, grenadine, absinthe in a bottle beforehand so each round starts from the same base.
- What that does
- The fifth drink of the evening tastes like the first, at the same strength and balance.
- The trade-off
- Smaller batches mean more rounds of shaking or stirring; pre-mixing saves time but only for what keeps.
Something else wrong? Open this drink in the Recipe Doctor.
Taste profile
- Sweetness
- 3/5
- Sourness
- 2/5
- Bitterness
- 1/5
- Strength
- 3/5
- Fruitiness
- 4/5
- Freshness
- 2/5
- Creaminess
- 0/5
- Smokiness
- 0/5
Nutrition & alcohol
Estimate only- Calories
- 140 kcal
- Sugar
- 8 g
- Carbohydrates
- 9 g
- Alcohol units (UK)
- 1.95
- US standard drinks
- 1.07
- ABV
- 18%
- Serving size
- 105 ml
Show calculation assumptions
Source: Calculated from standard measures
Calorie breakdown: ~104 kcal from alcohol, ~36 kcal from sugar and mixers.
Likely range: 105–175 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.
Assumes gin at 40% ABV, absinthe at 60%, and about 25% dilution from shaking.
These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.
Variations
Absinthe rinse
Rinse the chilled glass with absinthe and discard it, rather than shaking it in.
What kind of drink this is
The structure behind the recipe
A shaken build: a sour-structured gin-based drink, served straight up, no ice — light and lively in the mouth.
Sour-structured
Something sour and something sweet held in balance over a base — the structure behind the whole sour family and everything descended from it.
Base
Gin
Sour element
Fresh orange juice
Sweet element
Grenadine
Aromatic
Absinthe
Drinks built this way are collected as the Sour family.
Technique
shaken
Ice is thrown against the liquid and against itself, chipping fragments off and driving air through the mix. Chilling, dilution and aeration all happen at once and cannot be separated.
A lighter, briefly frothy body and a cloudy appearance that settles as it stands. The aeration blunts alcoholic heat, which is why a shaken drink tastes softer than a stirred one of the same strength.
What it ruins: Clarity, and any carbonation. A shaken spirits-only drink arrives cloudy with ice shards floating in it, and shaking anything fizzy is the one rule with no exceptions.
Everything about shaking →How the technique works →Dilution
During mixing, then strained
Water from ice typically makes up around 30% of the finished drink for a shaken build (commonly 25–35%). Dilution is an ingredient here, not a side effect.
Why dilution is an ingredient →Served
Straight up, no ice
Coupe glass · 105ml
Chilled during mixing and then strained away from the ice, so it arrives at its coldest and most concentrated and warms from the first sip — which is why 105ml is the right size for it.
Texture and aroma
Shaking whips air through the drink, giving a lighter, briefly frothy body that settles as it stands.
Aroma arrives before flavour does. A citrus twist is expressed over the surface so its oils sit on top of the drink — skipping it changes the drink more than its size suggests.
Where to go from here
Each of these is here because of something specific about this drink, not as a standard set of links.
Where it comes from
Origin and family
Origin of the Monkey Gland
Created by Harry MacElhone at Harry's New York Bar in Paris in the early 1920s, and named after the surgeon Serge Voronoff's much-publicised experiments grafting monkey tissue onto men.
The IBA spec is 45ml gin, 45ml orange juice and a tablespoon each of absinthe and grenadine. This uses less juice and much less absinthe.
Family
Sour2 parts spirit · 1 part citrus · 1 part sweetener — shaken, strained, served up or over ice.
On drinks history
Cocktail origin stories are frequently repeated and rarely evidenced. Our history section separates what is documented from what is folklore rather than picking whichever version reads best.
History and culture →Try this next
- Remember the MaineRemember the Maine
You may like this because it shares a strong-forward profile with the Monkey Gland, but uses whisky instead of gin.
- BronxBronx
You may like this because it shares a fruity taste profile with the Monkey Gland.
Last WordYou may like this because it shares a herbal taste profile with the Monkey Gland.
Use up your ingredients
Bought a bottle just for this? Here's what else it's good for.
Related tools
Scale this for a party
Work out bottles, mixers, ice and total alcohol units for any number of guests.
How far a bottle goes
Drinks per bottle, which bottle runs out first, batching — and the cost, at your own prices.
Recipe confidence
The creator and the source of the name are well documented.