The Honey Deuce Effect: How Tennis Perfected the Signature Cocktail
The US Open’s famous cocktail brings in more than $12 million. But its success, and that of its counterparts, is measured in more than sales.
Susan Czeterko Jordan has a shrine to a cocktail. In her apartment, a delicate watercolor print of the Honey Deuce, the signature drink of the US Open, hangs above a cabinet stuffed with commemorative plastic cups. She amassed the collection throughout more than a decade of attending the New York City tennis tournament, each time making a beeline for the blush-pink beverage.
“It’s refreshing, and it’s a status symbol,” she says. “Sometimes they even run out of cups by the end of the night.” When she got married, the number-one item on her registry was a melon baller so she could replicate the cocktail’s signature garnish: a trio of honeydew melon “tennis ball” spheres.