Gin

Suffering Bastard

Name: Suffering Bastard
Yield: 1 servings

Glass: Ceramic Head Mug

Cairo wartime hangover cure of gin, brandy, lime, and ginger beer, traditionally served in a ceramic two-faced head mug at Shepheard's Hotel.

gin brandy classic mid-century pre-tiki shaken lime

Ingredients

fresh lime juice (0.5 oz)
Rose's lime cordial (0.5 oz)
Angostura bitters (2 dashes)
London dry gin (1 oz)
brandy (1 oz)
ginger beer (3 oz)
mint sprig (1)
orange slice (1)

Joe Scialom built the drink as a hangover cure for British troops at the Battle of El Alamein, originally calling it the Suffering Bar Steward.¹^,² He famously used black-market gin from the South African PX, brandy from Cyprus, and bitters made by a chemist across the street.³ The iconic vessel is the custom ceramic two-faced head mug Shepheard's commissioned for the drink (now a collector's piece); a copper mug or collins glass works as a substitute. Scialom's wartime spec used Rose's lime cordial, and the version below splits the difference between Rose's and fresh lime.³

Brand recommendations. Best: Tanqueray or Beefeater for the London dry gin; Pierre Ferrand 1840 or Hennessy VS for the brandy; Rose's lime cordial (canonical for the period spec); Fever-Tree or Bundaberg ginger beer. Economical: Gordon's or Bombay Dry; Paul Masson VSOP or E&J VSOP; Rose's remains the canonical and economical pick; Reed's Extra Ginger Beer.

Instructions

In a shaker combine fresh lime juice, Rose's lime cordial, Angostura bitters, London dry gin, and brandy.
Shake briefly with ice, then strain into a ceramic head mug (or a copper mug or collins glass) filled with ice.
Top with ginger beer.
Garnish with a mint sprig and an orange slice.

Sources

"Suffering Bastard, History." Cocktail Society. https://cocktail-society.com/history/suffering-bastard-history/ (accessed 2026-05-03), published consensus reconstruction of the 1942 Scialom / Shepheard's Long Bar origin and the source for this file's measurement bill. ↩
"Suffering Bastard." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffering_Bastard (accessed 2026-05-03), corroborates the 1942 Cairo / El Alamein context and notes that Scialom's surviving handwritten recipe (provided by his daughter) called for fresh lime juice rather than Rose's, complicating the "Rose's was the wartime original" narrative. ↩
Berry, Potions of the Caribbean (2014), Suffering Bastard entry, discusses Scialom's wartime supply context (South African PX gin, Cyprus brandy, local Cairo bitters) and the lime-cordial-vs-fresh-lime question; also discusses the Trader Vic post-war "rum Suffering Bastard" variant that confused later sources. ↩