It’s time. Tonight, for my suffering home town, New York City, it’s the Gin Cocktail, in Jerry Thomas’s 1876 Improved version. Basically, NYC’s version of the Sazerac. 
Start with gin. But what we drank as gin in 1876: genever. If you’ve got some, any will do.
If you ain’t got, go with bourbon or rye, not Old Tom or London Dry or any modern gin. Genever is (lightly) flavored whiskey, and those are flavored vodka.
You’ll need some other stuff. The little bottle is rich simple syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water) you can use regular 1 to 1, too. Thomas liked maraschino in his Gin Cocktail. I prefer curaçao. Angostura or Peychaud’s or Abbott’s will work if you ain’t got the Bogart’s.
Tools. Whatever you use to make stirred drinks.
Barspoon rich simple (make it a spoon and a half of regular) and a barspoon of curaçao (you can use Grand Marnier if that’s whatcha got).
2-3 dashes bitters.
A dash of absinthe (you can use any absinthe; I keep some in a dasher bottle—the needle thing in the middle of this fine example of artistic drink photography—and top it up with what I’ve got). Don’t do the little-is-good-more-is-better thing with this. One dash is plenty.
And what would Hamlet be without the Prince? Two ounces genever. I went with the Old Duff because it had the most alcohol. Obvious reasons.
Ice, cracked.
Stir, stir, stir!
Now strain into the cocktail glass that you have rescued from the icy hell that is your freezer.
Now snapbyour lemon twist over the top:
Note the droplets of lemon oil dotting the surface. I thank each individual one for its service. (H/t to @mbrowley).
And there stands the glass. It’s my first one today.
Thank you all and be well. We’ll get through this.
