I only really feel productive when I’m making drinks, especially new ones. It gets the creative and citrus juices flowing, and also have some fun in the comfort of my home bar while getting to use ingredients you might not normally find, even at the city’s better cocktail bars. (“What do you mean you don’t have Dimmi and Gran Classico?!?”) Here’s a trio of drinks I’ve whipped up and enjoyed recently:
My Only Weakness
* 1½ oz Bulleit bourbon
* ¾ oz Carpano Antica
* ¾ oz RamazzottiStir and serve and serve over one big effing ice cube.
My friends and I would often comment that a bourbon like Bulleit is best compared to a Corvette: plenty of straight-line speed, not a lot of nimble-ness in the turns. In this cocktail, that raw American straight-line speed is balanced by Italian engineering. The Carpano provides a pleasing jammy quality while the Ramazzotti provides caramel. All together, it turns into a sophisticated rendition of a whiskey and coke.
It Takes A Thief
* ¾ oz genever-style gin
* ¾ oz Dimmi
* ¾ oz Gran Classico bitters
* ¾ oz lemon juiceShake and serve up. Garnish with a flamed orange peel
This cocktail was my contribution to an iPhone app with which my good friend Jacob Grier was involved. I used Bols Genever for the gin, which to me occupies an interesting flavor profile that’s halfway between gin and a white-dog style whiskey. It’s less aromatic but more malty, only without the overwhelming heat usually associated with white dogs.
White dogs pair brilliantly with apricot (it’s the winning combination that Evan Zimmerman used in the 2009 GADF, using the House Spirits white dog to make a rendition of a Dolly O'Dare). The Dimmi is an aperitif from Milan that has a big stone fruit flavor, and so rather than white dog and apricot brandy, It Takes A Thief uses genever and Dimmi.
The cocktail’s flavor profile is rounded out with Gran Classico, which I describe as a more interesting and complex rendition of Drambuie. It has the same honey character, but a lot more herbs as well. Andrew Friedman in Seattle refers to it as a Campari-killer and I’m inclined to agree. The lemon juice provides an acid backbone to the drink, while the flamed orange peel reinforces the citrus element.
The Diplomat’s Daughter
* 1 oz aged cachaça
* 1 oz Domaine de Canton ginger liqueurStir and serve in a coupe or flute, then top with a dry champagne.
This cocktail was my contribution to Thursday Drink Night (TDN) for the Champagne theme. The herbal and aromatic qualities of the cachaça and Canton punch through the Brut champagne, essentially infusing the bubbles with all the cool flavors that can be found in the individual spirits.
I had been working on the aged cachaça with Chartreuse, but it ended up just being too much. I really wanted the spirit to shine, in this case I used the Novo Fogo aged cachaça which is a brilliant product. Tons of great grassy notes that one would expect from a great sugar cane spirit with just a little bit of wood. The ginger and dry bubbly provides a great backbone to cut through the cachaça’s inherent sweetness.
