Waterproof Watch

 

Story:

The Waterproof Watch is another Sother Teague recipe from New York bar Amor y Amargo.  (Here is a video of him teaching someone to make one.)  It’s a variation of our old friend the Negroni, which is equal parts gin/Campari/sweet vermouth.  Here the Aperol takes the place of bitter Campari while Amaro Montenegro provides some dark sweetness instead of the vermouth.  I’m still a novice at figuring out how bitters will affect a particular combination of flavors.  In this drink they seem to bring out the grapefruit flavor of the Aperol and the orange component of the Montenegro.  At this point I usually explain the origin of the cocktail’s name, but I have no idea.  I’ll just say that it’s cool. 
NOTE: In Teague's outstanding book, he defines a dash as two shakes of the inverted bottle.  On the printed recipe I put "4 dashes" because I didn't have room to explain this quirk.

Recipe:

1.5 oz London Dry gin

0.75 oz Aperol

0.75 oz Amaro Montenegro

2 dashes DeGroff's Pimento Bitters (4 shakes of the bottle)

          garnish: orange twist

-add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice; stir until chilled
-strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice

-express orange twist over the drink, then garnish the drink with it.

Cocktail Rating Scale

 

I was falling into the unhelpful trap of rating every cocktail fairly high on a ten-point scale.  There was probably some sort of bias going on there -- I took the time and effort to make the damn thing, so maybe I'm predisposed to give it a higher rating.  I also don't tend to make something if the recipe doesn't look good.  As a result, most drinks were between a 7 and a 10.  But I decided I wanted something a little more objective, so I found this online.  It's helpful to assign a descriptor to a rating, and it's easier to call out the drinks I really don't like (looking at you, Dark 'n Stormy).

1    Awful
2    Bad
3    Flawed
4    Meh
5    OK/Average
6    Pretty Good
7    Good
8    Great
9    Terrific
10  Near Perfect

Vieux Carré

 

Story:

The Vieux Carré was created in the 1930’s by bartender Walter Bergeron at the Carousel Bar in New Orleans.  The name means “old square” in French and is a tribute to the city’s French Quarter.  It has become a New Orleans classic cocktail like the Sazerac and the Ramos Gin Fizz.  In fact, the cocktail's subtitle is "The Flavors That Made New Orleans".  This is a strong but balanced Sweet Manhattan with a split spirit, Benedictine for honey-like richness, and extra bitters.  I enjoyed my first Vieux Carré, but it grew on me with repeat tastings and has climbed into my top tier.  

Recipe:

1 oz cognac

1 oz rye

1 oz sweet vermouth

0.25 oz Benedictine

2 dashes Angostura bitters

         2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
          garnish: lemon twist

-add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice; stir until chilled
-strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice

-express lemon twist over the drink, then garnish the drink with it.

Exit Strategy

 

Story:

The Exit Strategy was concocted by Natasha David, head bartender at the New York bar Nitecap, as something to serve her fellow bartenders post-shift.  She wanted to create a “rich and luscious, almost caramel-like old-fashioned using some of the bartenders’ favorite ingredients.”  I think that’s a great description.  It’s not too boozy, so it makes a fine weeknight sipper.  Nitecap closed in late 2020, a victim of the COVID shutdown, which is too bad because it looked amazing.  Fortunately, Natasha landed on her feet with a cocktail recipe book and a cocktail consultancy company.  Not bad at all.

Recipe:

1.5 oz Amaro Nonino Quintessentia
0.75 oz brandy
0.25 oz Amaro Meletti
pinch of kosher salt (or sea salt)

orange twist

-add ingredients mixing glass with ice; stir until chilled
-strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube
-garnish with orange twist

Snow Leopard's Tail

 

Story:

I'm posting this one a little early by request.  This drink was created by Anna Wallace and Joe Sundberg while they worked at The Walrus and The Carpenter in Seattle.  They originally named it the "Mustache Ride", but I'm not calling it that because: a) I'm not currently a resident of a bad college frat house; and b) there are at least three other drinks already called that.  The drink is a twist on the classic Lion's Tail, but I find this one reminds me a little more of winter.  Thus, it's the Snow Leopard's Tail.  The drink is sweetened with a spiced maple simple syrup. The allspice dram already adds complexity so you could probably get away with just a basic maple simple syrup, but I went for it.  This one is incredibly easy to drink, sweet with just a bit of a bitter Cynar tail.  A snow leopard's tail.

Recipe:

1.5 oz bourbon
0.5 oz Cynar
0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
0.5 oz Joey Sunshine's Maple Simple Syrup (below)

0.5 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

-add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker filled with ice; shake until chilled
-strain into chilled double old fashioned glass over fresh ice

-garnish with lemon twist and a cocktail cherry

Joey Sunshine's Maple Simple Syrup:

2 cups grade A dark maple syrup (used to be called grade B maple syrup)

1 cup water
0.5 Tbsp black peppercorns
0.5 Tbsp fennel seeds

0.5 Tbsp cloves

0.5 Tbsp allspice berries
0.5 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 star anise pod

1 bay leaf

-combine all ingredients in a medium pan over medium heat.
-bring to simmer, stirring occasionally.  When liquid boils, remove from heat.

-Cool completely.  Strain out solids.  Store in a glass jar in the fridge for up to a month.

 

Eeyore's Requiem

Story:

Eeyore’s Requiem was created by bartender Toby Maloney at The Violet Hour cocktail bar in Chicago.  Maloney says he was inspired by Eeyore, “the most bitter character in literature”.  I disagree – Eeyore is just cautious and afraid of being disappointed if he gets his hopes up.  One other fun connection: Eeyore's favorite food is thistle.  Cynar is made with artichokes (among many other things) which are a type of thistle.  So I think Eeyore would dig it.  This drink is sweet on the front end and bitter at the back, but in a very pleasant way.  Don’t skip the triple orange twists – they’re all part of the drink.  

Recipe:

1.5 oz Campari

1 oz sweet vermouth

0.5 oz Tanqueray gin

0.25 oz Cynar

0.25 oz Fernet-Branca

         2 dashes orange bitters

-add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice; stir until chilled
-strain into a chilled coupe glass (up)

-express 3 orange twists over the drink; discard two and garnish with the third

 

Full Monte

Story:

The Full Monte is so named because it features Amaro Montenegro, a member of the amaro family.  An amaro is a bittersweet herbal liqueur, traditionally made by macerating or distilling all sorts of different botanicals in a neutral spirit or wine and then sweetening it with a sugar syrup.   There’s very little standardization beyond that – there are hundreds of amari with all kinds of different flavors and alcohol content.  This drink is based on the Reverse Manhattan, which swaps the 2:1 rye:vermouth ratio.  The Full Monte also substitutes an amaro for the vermouth.  It’s balanced, easy to make, and easy to drink.  There is a variant (Full Monte No. 2) that uses bourbon instead of rye, but I think the rye brings more character to the drink and makes it less sweet.  

Recipe:

2 oz Amaro Montenegro

1 oz rye whiskey (Rittenhouse)

1 dash Angostura bitters

         Garnish: orange twist (and Luxardo maraschino cherry if you have it)

-add all ingredients to a mixing glass with ice; stir until well-chilled
-strain into a chilled rocks glass over fresh ice

-express orange twist over the drink. Drop in or discard.

Campfire Old-Fashioned

 

Story:

This is an Old-Fashioned, one of the six fundamental cocktails, in that it's a spirit, sugar, bitters, and water.  In place of simple syrup we have cane syrup, which is darker and caramelized.  It gets a little unusual with the split spirit (bourbon + rye).  Then the flavoring with peated scotch and habanero shrub really give it the smoky campfire taste and hint of late-blooming heat.

It's interesting by itself, but I think pairing it with food really makes it sing.  Here's a video clip of Sother Teague making one.

Recipe:

0.75 oz bourbon

0.75 oz rye

0.25 oz peated scotch

1.5 tsp cane syrup

1 dash Bittermens Hellfire Habanero Shrub

         1 dash Angostura bitters

-add all ingredients to an Old Fashioned glass
-add a large lump of ice or several ice cubes

-stir gently for a moment to combine
-express orange twist over the drink. Drop in or discard.

Sharpie Mustache

 

Story:

This drink caught my attention for two reasons: the odd name and the little flasks in which they serve the drink at New York's Amor y Amargo, where the drink was invented by Chris Elford in 2012.  According to Sother Teague, the bar's beverage director, they go through several buckets of the things every night.

This interesting drink is built on a blend of gin and rye, complemented by Meletti (a kola nut amaro) and Bonal (a floral apertif).  Elford chose the name because he thought the first person he served it to might pass out and awake to discover their friends had drawn on their face with marker.  It goes down smooth but packs a punch.

Recipe:

1 oz dry gin

1 oz rye (Rittenhouse)

1 oz Amaro Meletti

1 oz Bonal Gentiane-Quina

1 dash Bittermens 'Elemakule Tiki bitters

-add all ingredients to mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled
-strain into a chilled rocks glass
-express orange twist over the drink. Drop in or discard.

Vanilla Bean Manhattan

Story:

Several of us tried this at Flying Fish restaurant during HIMSS 2024. It was a huge hit, so I decided to try and replicate it at home. There was no recipe that I could find online, but I did find this review that listed the ingredients as they appeared on the menu. Rye plus Averna Amaro means that we're talking about a Black Manhattan, so I decided to go with this recipe, which seemed pretty standard. I assumed the vanilla flavor came via an infusion process, so I got a bottle of rye and a couple of vanilla beans and went for it. After about 10 days it seemed to smell and taste about right, so naturally Ieft it to infuse for one additional day before straining it. (Side note: it was really tough trying to taste the rye straight, as it completely overwhelmed the vanilla flavor. Adding a splash of water helped.) The resulting Manhattan was worth the wait.

EDIT: I just learned that the Black Manhattan originated at Bourbon & Branch in San Francisco in 2007 and now I really want to go there.  They have a bar-within-a-bar for 1 to 4 patrons called Wilson & Wilson.  Seriously?  Take my money.

Recipe:

Vanilla Bean Manhattan

2 oz vanilla-infused rye

1 oz Averna amaro

1 dash Angostura bitters

1 dash orange bitters

Garnish: orange twist

-add all ingredients to mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled
-strain into a chilled coupe glass
-express orange twist over the drink. Drop in or discard.

Vanilla Rye Infusion
Open 2 vanilla beans lengthwise with a paring knife. Fold open.
Drop into 750mL bottle of rye (I used Bulleit 95).
Let it sit on the countertop for 10-12 days. Agitate several times each day (I just turned it over a couple of times whenever I walked by).
Strain through coffee filter to remove vanilla bean debris, then rinse bottle.
Return rye to bottle and cap.

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