The Blue Moon cocktail suffered some changes since its first introduction in Hugo R. Ensslin 1917 Recipes for Mixed Drinks where he calls for gin, french vermouth, orange bitters, and crème Yvette.

However, the recipe didn’t continue like that and is in Jose Abeal y Otero 1934 Sloppy Joe’s Cocktail Manual that we resume the recipe to the base we know today. The cocktail is composed only of gin and Perfect Love liquor which is a purple liquor made of bittersweet oranges and violets.

Blue Moon cocktail is usually credited to Oscar Tschirky who was a Maître d’hotel of the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan, New York. Unfortunately, as the creator of his version of the Blue Moon does not appear to be based on historical facts, neither in the famous hotel’s cocktail book.

What does appear is in Oscar Haimo’s 1943 Cocktail Digest from The Hotel Pierre in New York, the USA with the addition of egg white.

David A. Embury came to confirm the recipe in his 1948 The Fine Art of Mixing Drink. He also added lemon juice.