Pegu Club

A bracingly dry gin cocktail from colonial Burma — orange curaçao, lime, and two types of bitters creating a perfectly layered complexity.

Pegu Club cocktail made with gin, served in a coupe
Base
gin
Glassware
Coupe
Flavor Profile
sourherbalbitter

Ingredients

  • 2 oz gin
  • 0.75 oz orange curaçao
  • 0.75 oz fresh lime juice
  • 1 dash Angostura bitters
  • 1 dash orange bitters
  • Lime wheel, to garnish

Instructions

  1. 1Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice.
  2. 2Shake until well chilled.
  3. 3Double strain into a chilled coupe and garnish with a lime wheel.

Origin & Story

Rangoon, Burma, 1920s

Named after the Pegu Club, the most prestigious British colonial club in Rangoon (now Yangon), Myanmar, where British officers sought something more interesting than plain gin and tonic. The recipe appeared in Harry Craddock's 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book and became a benchmark of pre-Prohibition mixology. Audrey Saunders later named her New York bar after it, helping revive interest in the drink during the early craft cocktail renaissance.