Twentieth Century

Gin, Lillet Blanc, crème de cacao, and lemon — C.A. Tuck's 1937 tribute to the Twentieth Century Limited, the NYC–Chicago flagship running from 1902 until 1967.

The Twentieth Century Cocktail was created by British bartender C.A. Tuck around 1937 and named for the Twentieth Century Limited — the flagship express passenger train of the New York Central Railroad that ran between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and La Salle Street Station in Chicago from June 15, 1902 until its final run on December 2, 1967. The Twentieth Century Limited was one of the most celebrated trains in American history: it covered the approximately 960-mile New York-Chicago route in sixteen hours, offered white-glove service including famous red carpet greeting at embarkation, and carried a celebrity clientele that made it a cultural symbol of luxury American rail travel during the mid-20th century. Tuck's cocktail appeared in W.J. Tarling's Café Royal Cocktail Book (1937), a British bartending manual named for London's celebrated Regent Street restaurant. The formula — gin, Lillet Blanc, crème de cacao, and fresh lemon juice — is remarkable for its combination of the bitter-almond sweetness of white crème de cacao with the botanical freshness of gin and the wine-and-quinine complexity of Lillet Blanc. The pairing of chocolate liqueur with citrus and gin produces a flavor that is simultaneously unusual and coherent, the cacao's vanilla and chocolate notes creating a bridge between the wine-forward Lillet and the herbal gin.