1 1/2 oz Planteray OFTD Rum 3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth (Cocchi) 1/4 oz Benedictine 1/4 oz Fernet Branca 1/4 oz Crème de Banane (Tempus Fugit) 6 drop Absinthe (St. George) Stir with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with a large cube. Two Mondays ago, I uncovered a note that I had made on my phone with a riff on the Away Colors that I had thought up. To the rum, Fernet, and banana combination, I added in Benedictine and Punt e Mes and took the rum into overdrive with Planteray's OFTD. The combination did not work as well as planned, but switching the aromatized wine to regular sweet vermo ..read more

2 oz Rye Whiskey (Old Overholt 86°) 1/2 oz Bonal Gentiane-Quina 1/2 oz Cocchi Sweet Vermouth 2 dash Angostura Bitters 1 Orange Peel Express the orange peel into a mixing glass and drop in, add the rest of the ingredients and ice, stir, and strain into a coupe.Two Sundays ago, I returned to a set of online recipe flashcards for Raines Law Room in New York City and landed on the Greenwood. As a Manhattan variation with a split of vermouth and quinquina, it reminded me of the Aime from Louis' Mixed Drinks from 1906 and perhaps California Gold's Bicycle Thief with Cynar in the mix at the Blue Roo ..read more

1 oz Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac (Monnet VSOP) 1 oz Brugal Añejo Rum (Don Q Gran Añejo) 1 oz Cocchi Americano 1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino 2 peel Lemon Express the lemon peels into the mixing glass and drop in, add the rest of the ingredients and ice, stir, strain into a coupe, and garnish with a cherry.Two Saturdays ago, I returned to the online recipe flashcard set from the Patterson House in Nashville and was tempted by the Pedantic Revisited. Overall, it read like a rum-Cognac Martinez of sorts with Cocchi Americano as the aromatized wine, and the feel reminded me of the Genever-Old Tom gin P ..read more

2 oz Mount Gay Black Barrel Rum (R.L. Seale 10 Year) 1/2 oz Amaro Ramazzotti 1/2 oz Oloroso Sherry (Lustau) Stir with ice, strain into a coupe glass, garnish with a cherry at the bottom of the glass, and gently sink 1/4 oz Benedictine.After finding the That'll Take the Edge Off on KindredCocktails that was sourced from the Be Your Own Bartender book by Carey Jones and John McCarthy, I ordered a copy. When I finally opened up the book, I landed on the authors' Smooth Operator in the rum section that seemed like a great start. With rum, sherry, and Ramazzotti, it reminded me of the East India Tr ..read more

1/2 oz Hine Cognac (Monnet VSOP) 1/2 oz Roger Groult Calvados (Morin Selection) 1/2 oz Blume Marillen Apricot Eau de Vie (Shalakh Armenian Apricot Eau de Vie) 1/2 oz Cynar 1 oz Cocchi Sweet Vermouth Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with an orange twist.Two Thursdays ago, I found another online recipe flashcard set from Death & Co., and I selected the Bayonet from their Fall 2021 menu; Yelp helped me to identify the location as Death & Co.'s Denver branch. I was curious as whether the Bayonet was more a three-brandy Little Italy ..read more

1 1/2 oz Dubliner Irish Whiskey (Jameson) 3/4 oz Amaro Ramazzotti 3/4 oz Dolin Blanc Vermouth 1/4 oz St. George Pear Brandy (Rothman & Winter Orchard Pear) (*) 1 dash Orange Bitters (Angostura Orange) 1 dash Peychaud's Bitters Stir with ice, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with an orange twist. (*) This is most likely St. George's pear eau de vie and not their spiced pear liqueur. Rothman & Winter Pear Liqueur contains a pear eau de vie at its base and was my closest match.Two Thursdays ago, I ventured back to the set of online recipe flashcards for The Violet Hour in Chicago ..read more

1 oz Plantation 5 Year Barbados Rum (R.L. Seale 10 Year) 1 oz Amaro Ramazzotti 1 oz Bonal Gentiane-Quina 3/8 oz Vanilla Syrup 3/8 oz Demerara Syrup 4 drop Absinthe (St. George) 1 dash Fee's Old Fashioned Bitters (Fee's Whiskey Barrel-Aged) 1 Whole Egg Shake one round without ice and one round with ice, strain into a rocks glass, and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.Two Tuesdays ago, I returned to the set of online recipe flashcards for the Patterson House in Nashville, and there I selected the Imagine Sisyphus Happy from their Winter 2022 menu. This Flip with rum, Bonal, amaro, and egg remi ..read more

1 oz Negroni (equal parts Hayman's London Dry Gin, Cocchi Sweet Vermouth, and Campari) 1 oz Cocchi Sweet Vermouth 1 oz Campari Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with an orange twist. Making this with 1 1/3 oz Campari, 1 1/3 oz sweet vermouth, and 1/3 oz gin would work... but then it wouldn't be equal parts, I guess?Two Mondays ago, Andrea and I headed down to Puritan Oyster Bar where director of operations Jared Sadoian and beverage director Doug Brickel were offering up a "Dumb Delicious" menu subtitled "Buy one drink! Get that drink!" At fi ..read more

2 oz Single Grain Scotch or Bourbon (Famous Grouse Black) 1/2 oz Punt e Mes 1/2 oz Pasubio Vino Amaro Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with a lemon twist.In searching for another use of my bottle of Pasubio, I went to the website of Haus Alpenz that imports the product. There in the eight recipes for this amaro was the Return of the King by John Filby at Augustine in Manhattan sometime between the product's launch in 2017 and the bar closing in 2020. Its format reminded me of the Red Hook and Green Point, and I opted for the Scotch option over Bourbon for I felt that i ..read more

1 1/2 oz Denizen Vatted Dark Rum (1 1/4 oz Hamilton's Demerara 86° + 1/4 oz Rhum JM 100°) 1/2 oz Amaro Montenegro 1/2 oz Grenadine 1/2 oz Lemon Juice Shake with ice, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with a lemon wheel.Two Saturdays ago, I returned to the online set of recipe flashcards for Raines Law Room in Manhattan, and I came across the Rum Sour curiously named the Devil's Bargain from early 2021. The bar's Instagram mentioned that they would do this as a Hot Toddy as well as a cold drink. Since I had never tried the combination of Montenegro and grenadine before, I gave this one a ..read more