Casino

The IBA Casino is a classic pre-Prohibition cocktail made with Old Tom gin, maraschino liqueur, orange bitters, and fresh lemon juice. The IBA recipe specifies 4 cl Old Tom gin, 1 cl maraschino liqueur, 1 cl fresh lemon juice, and 2 dashes of orange bitters. Old Tom gin — sweeter and more botanical than London Dry — is essential to its intended flavour profile.

The Casino is shaken with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass. It is garnished with a maraschino cherry and a lemon slice. Unlike many of its contemporaries, the Casino uses all four basic cocktail components — spirit, sweet, sour, and bitter — making it a complete, balanced drink in the classic sour style.

Old Tom gin is a sweeter style of gin that was the dominant style in 18th- and early-19th-century Britain before London Dry became the standard. It contains more residual sugar than London Dry and is often more botanical-forward. The Casino recipe was created for Old Tom and its balance depends on that sweetness — substituting London Dry gin will produce a noticeably drier, less harmonious drink. Old Tom has been revived by several craft distilleries since the early 2000s.