Between the Sheets

Choose a VS or VSOP Cognac with enough fruit and oak character to remain noticeable after shaking. There is no need to use an exceptionally old Cognac—the cocktail benefits more from a lively, versatile style.

Use a clean white rum rather than a strongly flavoured dark or heavily aged rum. Its role is to add sugarcane character and strength without covering the Cognac.

For the orange liqueur, Cointreau is particularly well suited. Its bright orange character and relatively dry finish provide sweetness without making this already spirit-forward cocktail feel heavy.

Freshly squeezed lemon juice is essential. With no separate sugar syrup, the relationship between lemon and orange liqueur determines much of the final balance.

This is naturally a strong cocktail, so the goal is not to hide the spirits but to make them work together.

Equal 30 ml measures of Cognac and white rum provide a balanced split base. 22.5 ml orange liqueur supplies sweetness and orange character, while 15 ml fresh lemon juice provides enough acidity to keep the drink bright without overwhelming the spirits.

Proper shaking is equally important. The water introduced during shaking softens the alcohol and integrates the Cognac, rum, orange and lemon into a smoother finished drink.

The history of the Between the Sheets is more complicated than the frequently repeated story that it was simply created in Paris around 1930.

Cointreau attributes the cocktail to Harry MacElhone of Harry's New York Bar in Paris in 1930. However, cocktail historian Simon Difford documents an earlier 1929 printed recipe in Frank Shay's Drawn From the Wood. That version combined gin, rum and Cointreau rather than the Cognac-and-rum combination familiar today. cointreau.com

The Cognac, rum and Cointreau version appeared in Harry Craddock's influential 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book, helping establish the combination that became the modern standard. Over its history, versions using gin, Cognac or different combinations of the two have all appeared. Difford's Guide

For a deeper look at these historical variations, see Difford's Guide to the Between the Sheets

Add all four liquid ingredients to the shaker before adding ice.

Fill with approximately 150 g ice and shake firmly for 10–12 seconds. The aim is to chill the cocktail quickly while introducing enough dilution to soften its relatively high proportion of spirits.

Fine strain into a chilled coupe. There should be no ice in the serving glass

Don't oversweet it. The orange liqueur provides all the sweetness required, so there is no need for additional sugar syrup.

Use fresh lemon. Bottled lemon juice can make such a short ingredient list taste noticeably flatter.

Keep the rum light. A clean white rum allows the Cognac and orange character to remain clearly defined.

Try the IBA proportions. The International Bartenders Association currently specifies 30 ml each of white rum, Cognac and triple sec with 20 ml fresh lemon juice, producing a slightly more orange-forward and citrus-forward version.