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No drink in history benefited from its name as much as the Harvey Wallbanger cocktail. This is not to dismiss the drink itself, a simple but well-conceived mix of vodka, orange juice, and the sublimely herbal Italian liqueur, Galliano — but if you’d named that drink, say, the Screwier Driver (Galliano is the only ingredient that separated it from the Screwdriver) Harvey Wallbanger would not have conquered 1970s U.S.A. We’ll get into that name and its history in a moment — this alone has inspired legions of sleuths, and we are going to side with the drunken surfer myth — but let’s give the concoction itself its due respect. It’s been called “a disco drink,” but disco never came back. Harvey Wallbanger is back, baby.
Bar Tools
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Stirring spoon
To Serve: Collins glass
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 ounces vodka
- 1/2 ounce Galliano L’Autentico Liqueur
- 4 ounces orange juice (ideally freshly squeezed)
To Garnish: an orange slice and a cherry
How to Make
Combine vodka and orange juice in an ice-filled glass. Stir. Pour the Galliano over the back of your barspoon (the spoon round) so that the liqueur floats at the top of the drink.
Nutritional Facts and ABV
- ABV (alcohol by volume): 10.4 %
- Calories: 203
- Total carbohydrates: 17 grams
- Total added sugar: 16 grams
History
The story goes that there was a surfer from Manhattan Beach, California named Tom Harvey who lost a surf competition sometime in the 1950s and was super bummed about it. He ended up that night in a bar up on Sunset Strip, in Hollywood, where a bartender named Donato “Duke” Antone ran an establishment called the Blackwater. Duke had been making a cocktail with OJ, vodka, and Galliano that he called Duke’s Screwdriver, and Tom Harvey liked this drink a whole lot — on this night, a whole, whole lot, so much so that he got drunk and walked loudly into a wall. Thus was born Harvey Wallbanger.
Flash forward to 1970. A marketer for Galliano either heard this story, or made it up himself (with a little help from Duke), and created a cartoon character named Harvey Wallbanger who was a zonked-out surfer dude whose motto was, “And I can be made!” The marketing campaign worked beyond anyone’s expectations. Galliano became the top-selling imported liqueur in the nation, and the Harvey Wallbanger became not only one of the most popular cocktails in the land, but a craze of a sort — bottled Harvey Wallbangers, Harvey Wallbanger cakes, countless dogs named Harvey Wallbanger, and even a write-in campaign for president of the United States…yes, for Harvey Wallbanger (it might have been better if he’d won).
Well, eventually, like all fads, the Harvey craze faded away, a drunken dream from a dazed decade. But two curious things happened. Decades later, drink historians and even a New York Times journalist went searching for the real Harvey Wallbanger, and because they found no proof of poor Tom Harvey and some conflicting information on Duke (rumor has it he was on the opposite coast the entire time), the verdict was — Harvey Wallbanger was no surfer, but a corporate creation. Maybe. Or maybe not. Either way, the Harvey Wallbanger is a reminder of the sweet persistence of mystery.
FAQ
What is Galliano L’Autentico, exactly?
Galliano was invented by distiller Arturo Vaccari in 1896, who named it after Italian war hero Giuseppe Galliano and as a liquid remembrace of Italy for the thousands who left for the California Gold rush. The reason this liqueur has lasted so long and actually grown more popular over time, however, is its herbal voluptousness. Galliano is known for bringing hints of star anise to cocktails, but what sets it apart from other liqueurs that do this (such as ouzo) is complex array of flavors it carries. These include juniper berries, caraway seeds, cloves, cardamon, sandalwood, star anise, cinnamon, sage, thyme, mint, lavender and Madagascar vanilla.
An interesting subplot, when it comes to Harvey Wallbanger, is that by the 1970s Galliano had simplified and sweetened its recipe — sugary flavors took hold of the American palate at that time, and the U.S. is Galliano’s biggest market. It has since returned to its herbal roots, to the Harvey Wallbanger you might drink today will actually be more nuanced in flavor than what poor Tom Harvey drank before he headed into that wall (there, we said it. We are believers!).
