The Red Lion cocktail was created in 1933 by the head bartender Arthur Tarling at Café Royal in London.

The cocktail is the winner of the British Empire Cocktail Competition and since then remains a classic to this day.

First appears in print Arthur’s younger brother William James Billy Tarling’s 1937 Cafe Royal Cocktail Book, they both worked at the Cafe Royal.

If you wonder about the cocktail name, the story behind gives reference to the red lion logo of Booth’s Gin, the brand used in the original recipe.

Booth’s Gin was a well-known and widely consumed London dry gin, founded by a Lincolnshire branch of the ancient Booth family in about 1740. In 1833, King William IV granted a royal warrant to Booth’s Gin.