“A Horsefeather? What the hell is a Horsefeather?”
–Every bartender in America who has never been to Kansas City
We don’t generally think of cocktails as “belonging” to anyone.
There certainly are cocktails associated with specific cities—the Manhattan of New York, of course, or the Sazerac of New Orleans—but those drinks are international superstars, and they belong to all of us. Even when it’s more esoteric, when we know who invented a specific drink and where, that person will certainly get the credit for inventing it, but it’s not like it belongs to them. Recipes in the cocktail world are by tradition shared, and we’re all interconnected all the time, and everybody makes each other’s drinks everywhere. But then there’s a drink like the Horsefeather—a drink of which we don’t know who, where, when, or how it was invented—and yet we can confidently say that it belongs to the city of Lawrence, Kan.
Lawrence is a college town, home of the University of Kansas, with a population of about 100,000. If you’ve spent any serious time in its bars (or in those of neighboring Kansas City, which has adopted the drink), you likely already know the Horsefeather, and clicked the link just to see if this so-called cocktail expert could get to the end of this article without messing it up. If you haven’t spent time in either city, you have almost certainly never heard of the Horsefeather and clicked the link to find out what the hell it is. So—for all you non-Kansans, what’s a Horsefeather?
The Horsefeather is a combination of whiskey, ginger soda, lemon, and bitters. The lack of specificity there is deliberate—sometimes the ginger is ginger ale, sometimes ginger beer, sometimes ginger syrup and soda water, while the lemon is sometimes peel or juice, and the whiskey sometimes blended or rye. As best anyone can tell, it’s printed for the first time in Gary Regan’s 1991 book The Bartender’s Bible as a mix of blended whiskey, bitters and ginger ale, and the late Mr. Regan, when asked about it in 2018, responded that he had “no clue” where it came from; Regan’s book had literally 1,000 recipes, which he hoovered up and codified from a weighty pile of pre-internet sources. He got it from somewhere, but where, we’ll never know.
Here’s what we do know: “Horsefeather” is 1920s slang for “nonsense,” a euphemism for horseshit (and the name of a 1932 Marx Brothers movie, wherein antics abound). We also know the Horsefeather is pre-dated by about 100 years by the Horse’s Neck, a simple mixture of whiskey, ginger soda, and lemon popular in the early 20th century. The Horse’s Neck is named specifically for the ornate and time-consuming garnish, a long, curved lemon peel that takes a good amount of skill and practice to get quite right and uses up essentially the entire lemon for each drink. We’re in speculative territory here, but it seems fairly likely to me that some dandy strolls into a bar in or around Lawrence and asks for a Horse’s Neck, and the bartender, amusing themselves, makes that exact drink but without the fancy garnish. “We don’t do a Horse’s Neck,” I imagine him to have said, “but here’s a Horsefeather.”
As for why it never caught on with the greater public, it’s impossible to say. It’s probably that it’s so similar to a Whiskey Mule that people felt it didn’t deserve a name? In any case, it is one of those charming little hamlets of regionalism that are all but extinct in the ubiquity of the drinking culture of this country, an oral tradition passed from bartender to bartender in this one area without anyone taking a whole lot of effort to write it down or codify it. The Horsefeather is a simple drink, an easy drink, a drink that pretty much any bar can put together. You want something fancy? Horseshit. Here’s a Horsefeather.
Horsefeather
- 2 oz. rye whiskey
- 0.5 oz. lemon juice
- 0.25 oz. ginger syrup or simple syrup
- 3 oz. ginger beer
- 2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Combine all ingredients in a glass with ice. Stir briefly, garnish with a lemon slice if you’ve got one lying around. Also, maybe with nothing.
NOTES ON INGREDIENTS
J. Rieger & Co.
Ingredients: This deviates from a classic Horsefeather in the quantity of lemon juice (usually it’s just a splash) and the presence of ginger syrup (or simple syrup), and I do this for two reasons: First, it’s more satisfying to have the push-and-pull of a little more sweetness and acidity, and second, it insulates you from needing any specific brand of ginger beer. Ginger beers vary considerably in sweetness, acidity, and spice, and with the wrong ginger beer or ginger ale this cocktail gets boring in a hurry. Adding lemon juice and ginger syrup (if you can) or simple syrup (if you must) makes this pretty good with nearly any ginger beer.
I realize this is not classic—I can’t help it, I’m a cocktail guy. If you want to make a classic one, ditch the syrup, reduce the lemon to a squeezed wedge, and add another ounce or so of ginger beer. Done.
Rye Whiskey: I do prefer rye to blended whiskey, as the herbaceousness and full character of the rye stands up nicely to the spice. As for brands, all styles of rye will work here. Midwestern brands Templeton Rye and J. Rieger have embraced the Horsefeather, and both of them work excellently, as will others. Use whatever you like.
Ginger Beer: I have a strong preference for spice in my ginger beers, and the best brands I’ve tried are Cock & Bull, Thomas Henry, and Blenheim. I’m sure there are other good ones I haven’t tried so feel free to use your favorite.
Ginger Syrup: I’m not sure I’d make one just for this (a spicy ginger beer does a good amount of the spicy work for you), but if you like it extra spicy, there’s no better way. To make it, either mix equal parts sugar and fresh ginger juice (the best way), blend a handful of chopped ginger root with equal parts sugar and hot water (the next best way), or simmer the ginger in simple syrup for about 10 minutes (still good, but it won’t be as spicy).
