The Cooler

Horse's Neck with a Kick

Cooler is a loose term for a long, iced mixed drink, having a wine/spirit base mixed with soda, ginger ale or another carbonate (sometimes also with syrup/liqueur + bitters). The ration of soda to spirit is usually approximately three to one. May be built or shaken.

from The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks by David A. Embury

COOLERS

A Cooler is essentially a Horse's Neck with a Kick, although there are also Prohibition Coolers made with non-alcoholic ingredients.

[As a cocktail, the Horse’s Neck is rather unique in that it is equally well-known both as an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic drink. The standard recipe for the latter produces a high-ball glass filled with ginger ale and ice, garnished with a long strip of lemon peel (the “Horse’s Neck”). The alcoholic version used today sees the drink typically fortified with brandy, although some recipes call for whisky or bourbon instead. The alcoholic version is sometimes known as a “Horse’s Neck with a Kick”.

The earliest reference to the cocktail that I have found is from 1st September 1895 from the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Journal. This refers to it being a soft drink. A later article from December of 1897 mentions the possibility of adding a splash of whisky and, in The Mansfield News in 1900, it is stated that the version using brandy is known as a “Horse’s Collar”. In the latter publication there is also a story that says that the drink was invented by a bartender in attempt to stop his boss from firing him; needless to say it worked.
- from https://summerfruitcup.wordpress.com/]

So far as I have been able to ascertain, the original was the Remsen Cooler and, while most modern recipe books indicate gin for the Remsen Cooler, this is incorrect. This Cooler derived its name from the fact that it was made with Remsen Scotch whiskey, a brand no longer seen, at least in this country.

The Cooler is served in a Collins glass decorated with the skin of a whole lemon or orange cut in a continuous spiral and hung over the edge of the glass, exactly as in the Horse's Neck. Sometimes both a lemon peel and an orange peel are used for decoration.

Whereas the Horse's Neck is made with ginger ale, the original Remsen Cooler was made with club soda. Today some Coolers are made with charged water and some with ginger ale. There are also Coolers made with other carbonated beverages, at least one or two made with cider, and some modern recipes even stoop to prescribing plain water.

The Cooler should be very dry, but sugar can be used if desired and perhaps the best advice here is "sweeten according to taste." If you want the drink to be thirst-quenching, refreshing, and satisfying, however, you must keep it definitely on the dry side. The base of the Cooler may be a spirituous liquor, a wine, a liqueur, or even a fruit syrup. With sweet wines or liqueurs it is usually advisable to use a few dashes of lime or lemon juice, but this is optional. It is also optional whether or not to use bitters and how much.

With the above principles well in mind you should be able to "roll your own" Coolers with whatever ingredients may be at hand and of any type and strength to suit any taste from that of an Andy Volstead to that of the Old Soak. However, the following are offered as specimens:

REMSEN COOLER (The original Cooler) Decorate a Tom Collins glass with a lemon peel as above directed and place 3 or 4 large ice cubes in the glass. Add 2 to 3 ounces Scotch whisky and fill the glass with charged water. Stir quickly with bar spoon and serve. Note: The Remsen Cooler was in fact a gin drink [using Old Tom gin], named after a member of the Union league Club in New York; the Ramsay Cooler was a Scotch drink, based on the whisky of that name, made at Port Ellen, on Islay.

[There was confusion about the alcohol to use in earlier recipes, and the Remson Cooler got confused with the Ramsay Cooler. Harry Johnson, in the 1900 revised edition of his seminal (and exceedingly scarce) 1882 Bartender's Manual, instructs us to build the drink on "1 wine glass of Remsen Scotch whiskey [sic]." Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks (1895) lists both drinks and clearly states that the Remson Cooler is made with Old Tom gin whereas the Ramsay Cooler is made with Scotch whiskey. Hon. William T. "Cocktail Bill" Boothby's American Bartender, 2nd ed. (San Francisco, 1900) clears this up: "Some years ago, the late William Remsen, a retired naval officer and a popular member of the Union Club, N.Y., introduced a beverage to the members of that swell organization which has since taken his name and is now known to all clubmen by the appellation of Remsen cooler." What's in it? Old Tom gin.]

APPLEJACK COOLER or BRANDY COOLER or GIN COOLER or RUM COOLER or WHISKY COOLER Except for the liquor used, these are made exactly like the Remsen Cooler. Ginger ale maybe substituted for the charged water if desired.
The Rum Cooler, when made with Jamaica rum, is sometimes calleda BLACKSTONE COOLER.

STONE FENCE or STONEWALL JACKSON An Applejack Cooler with hard cider in place of the carbonated beverage.

BOSTON COOLER A Rum Cooler with the addition of 1 teaspoonful sugar syrup and the juice of half a lemon.

MOONLIGHT COOLER or HARVARD COOLER Made like a Boston Cooler but with applejack instead of rum.

LONG TOM COOLER Made like a Boston Cooler but Old Tom gin instead of rum.

WINE COOLERS Use any wine desired and make the same as other Coolers except that with the light, unfortified wines, a larger quantity should be used than in the case of spirituous liquors. With very sweet wines, such as sauterne and port, add 1 teaspoonful lemon juice. With very dry wines, such as Rhine wines, a teaspoonful of sugar syrup or of a liqueur such as maraschino or curaçao or may be added.
A Claret Cooler plus a few dashes of rum is sometimes called a MANHATTAN COOLER.

COUNTRY CLUB COOLER or VERMOUTH COOLER Use 1 ounce grenadine, 3 ounces French vermouth, and charged water. Italian vermouth may also be used, in which case omit the grenadine and add 1 teaspoonful lemon juice.

DUBONNET COOLER or BYRRH COOLER Italian Vermouth Cooler except for the base wine.

And now there are a few PROHIBITION COOLERS for your teetotaler friends:

MINT COOLER Crush one or two sprigs of mint with 1 or 2 teaspoonfuls sugar in the bottom of the glass, add the ice, decorate with the lemon peel, and fill glass with ginger ale.

RAIL SPLITTER One ounce sugar syrup, juice of 1 medium-sized lemon. Fill up with ginger ale.

SARATOGA COOLER Ginger ale and sarsaparilla, half and half.

The Rail Splitter plus a few dashes of Angostura is also sometimes called a Saratoga.

LONE TREE COOLER Juice of 1 lemon and ½ orange with 1 ounce grenadine. Fill up with charged water.