25% Batavia Arrack (3/4 oz von Oosten) 25% Dry Gin (3/4 oz Tanqueray Malacca) 25% Sweet Vermouth (3/4 oz Giacomo Sperone) 25% Campari (3/4 oz) 2 dash Angostura Bitters Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a cherry.Two Saturdays ago, I returned to 1000 Mistures from 1936 and spotted the Odessa Cocktail which read like a Negroni meets a funky Right Hand. It also bore some resemblance to my Dutch Hand with Genever and mole bitters instead of the gin and Angostura here. In the glass, the Odessa Cocktail presented a grape, herbal, and pine bouquet to the nose. Next, a grap ..read more

3/4 oz Jeppson's Malört 3/4 oz Fernet Branca 3/4 oz Lime Juice 3/4 oz Simple Syrup Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass.Two Fridays ago, I spotted a reference to a two year old post on Reddit's cocktails forum from user Fnordianslips for a drink called The Chicago Underground. They describe it as their Chicago-style take on the Industry Sour. The post described, "This Industry Sour riff is an attempt at a cocktail tasty enough to get me through a bottle of Malört. And by God, it works! Fernet adds the complexity Malört's wormwood needs, and it all plays very nicely with lime and ..read more

1 1/2 oz Pineau des Charentes 1/2 oz Clairin Vaval 3/4 oz Lime Juice 1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao 1 tsp Cinnamon Syrup 4 drop Saline Solution Shake with ice and strain into a Nick & Nora glass.Two Thursdays ago, I ventured down to Assembly Row in Somerville to visit my old co-worker Lucy Comer at Parla XXI. For my first drink, I requested the Wicked Games by Steve Matin and subtitled "Get lost in the thrill of temptation." When Steve sat at my bar a few weeks ago, he showed off a few of his recipes for the new menu on his phone, and I made the comment that the Wicked Games reminded m ..read more

20% Cognac (1/2 oz Courvoisier VS) 20% Demerara Rum (1/2 oz Hamilton 86°) 20% Batavia Arrack (1/2 oz von Oosten) 30% Sweet Vermouth (3/4 oz Giacomo Sperone) 10% Zara Maraschino (1/4 oz Luxardo) 2 dash Angostura Bitters Stir with ice, strain into a glass rimmed with grenadine and sugar, and garnish with a cherry.Two Wednesdays ago, I received my copy of 1000 Mistures from 1936 by Elvezio Grassi and recently translated by J.E. Clapham. For a starter, I honed in on the Darling Cocktail since I had not used my bottle of Batavia Arrack that much in the last year (save for the Lethal Weapon and Hit ..read more

1 oz Teeling Irish Whiskey (Teeling Small Batch) 1/2 oz Bowmore 12 Year Islay Scotch (Laphroaig 10 Year) 3/4 oz Dolin Rouge Vermouth (Giacomo Sperone Sweet) 1/2 oz Benedictine 1/4 oz Cynar Stir with ice, strain into a Nick & Nora glass (coupe), and garnish with a cherry.Two Tuesdays ago, I was looking through online recipe flashcards for Irish whiskey drinks when I came across the Patty O'Cann at the Butcher Chef in Toronto for their August 2021 menu. I soon confirmed the drink, ingredients, and approximate date from a GoogleMaps menu photo. The Cynar, Benedictine, and sweet vermouth trio ..read more

2 oz Mezcal (Peloton de la Muerte) 3/4 oz Rabarbaro (Bully Boy) (*) 1/4 oz Orange Liqueur (Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao) 2 dash Chocolate Bitters (Bittermens Mole) Stir with ice, strain into a coupe, and garnish with an orange twist. (*) Zucca and Sfumato are other rabarbaros. For an article on local amari that I am currently writing, I visited a few distilleries to get their stories, and I was tasked with creating a recipe for three of them. For Bully Boy in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, I selected their rabarbaro over their standard amaro (Montenegro-Nonino-like) and their rosso amaro ..read more

40 mL Bacardi Cuatro Rum (1 1/2 oz Hamilton's White Stache) 10 mL Aperol (1/2 oz) 15 mL Honey Syrup (1/2 oz) 15 mL Lime Juice (1/2 oz) Shake with ice, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with a lime wedge (lime wheel).After uncovering the recipe posts on London's Satan's Whiskers' Instagram with the King's County, I returned and selected the Pulitzer from last year. There is another Pulitzer on this blog, namely Eastern Standard's, but the only similarity is the Aperol and the stemmed glassware. This one is more like a Brooklynite where the dash of Angostura Bitters was substituted fo ..read more

2 oz Knob Creek Bourbon (Old Grand-Dad Bonded) 3/4 oz Punt e Mes 1/4 oz Fernet Branca 1/4 oz Cynar 1 dash Fee's Walnut Bitters (2 dash Strongwater Mountain Elixirs) Stir with ice, strain into a coupe, and garnish with lemon oil from a twist.Two Saturdays ago, I decided to make a recipe called the Stink Eye that a friend posted on Instagram earlier in the week. The drink was created by St. Paul, Minnesota, enthusiast Craig Eliason and posted on KindredCocktails. Overall, it read like Eastern Standard's Fernet Cocktail with a little more Punt e Mes, less Fernet and spice from the whiskey (rye v ..read more

40 mL Aberfeldy 12 Year Scotch (1 1/2 oz Royal Brackla 12 Year) 15 mL Compass Box Peat Monster (1/2 oz Ardbeg 10 Year) 10 mL Punt e Mes (2 tsp, 1/3 oz) 10 mL Luxardo Maraschino (2 tsp, 1/3 oz) Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with a cherry.Two Fridays, I spotted an adapted version of the King's County on Difford's Guide and tracked it back to the source – namely, the bar's Instagram. In a 2024 post, Satan's Whiskers in London had posted the recipe of this double Scotch Red Hook of sorts. The combination of Scotch, Punt e Mes, and Maraschino appeared in the Cowboy Kille ..read more

2 oz Chairman's Legacy Aged Rum (Doorly's 12 Year) 1/2 oz Amaro Braulio 1/2 oz Benedictine 1/4 oz Cinnamon Demerara Syrup Stir with ice and strain into a coupe that had been partially rimmed with cinnamon and had the inside smoked with a torched piece of cinnamon stick.Two Thursdays ago, I uncovered online recipe flashcards for Otto's High Dive in Orlando, and I was drawn in by the Rockefeller for their Christmas 2024 menu. I was able to find both a menu photo and a drink photo via Instagram geotags to confirm the ingredients and the presentation. I was curious to try this one for its Braulio ..read more