The desert healer is a mixed drink made with fresh orange juice, gin, cherry brandy and ginger beer. The recipe appears in The Savoy Cocktail Book.[1] The Art of Mixing (1932) recipe replaces the ginger beer with ginger ale.[2] The cocktail's history goes back to the 1930s Vendome Club in Hollywood, when Los Angeles was still mostly undeveloped desert.[3]
First the gin, brandy and orange juice are shaken with ice and strained into a highball over ice. Then the ginger ale is added, slowly, and stirred in.[4][5] It's garnished with an orange wedge or orange peel, and cherry, and served in a highball glass.[6]