In Need of Some Clarity

The past several days have been full of gem-like blue skies and ideal temperatures for sitting outside with a book and some alcohol. If the world weren’t ending, it would be perfect. But we make do with what we can.

The clarity of the weather made me crave a bright, slightly sweet drink, but rather than breaking out the shaker and the citrus reamer, I cracked open a bottle of white verjus. This highly acidic juice pressed from the unripe grapes culled before the wine harvest is an excellent substitute for almost any kind of citrus (although subbing for lemon juice will result in a drink that bears the greatest resemblance to the original recipe). For this cocktail, I used the Cocktail Codex Aviation recipe as my starting point. Because verjus is not quite as sour and assertive as fresh lemon juice, I find that I usually have to “round up” (in this case, from 3/4 oz. of lemon juice to a full ounce of verjus). The resulting drink is silkier, subtler, and, of course, mostly clear, delivering all the bright, refreshing qualities of a shaken cocktail with the rich mouthfeel of a stirred drink.

Wild Purple Yonder

2 oz. London dry gin

1 oz. white verjus

0.5 oz. simple syrup (1:1)

0.25 oz. creme de violette

1 tsp maraschino liqueur

1 dash Dr. Adam Elmegirab’s Teapot Bitters

Stir all ingredients well over ice and strain into a chilled coupe or Nick & Nora glass. Express a lemon peel over the top and discard.

Not Your Grandma's Tipple

I am here for the recent reclaiming of Old Lady Ingredients in the cocktail world—sherry, port, madeira, and the like. As far as cocktail ingredients go, these tipples are amazing because of the amount of flavor and complexity they pack into such a low-ABV package.

Manzanilla sherry is a particular favorite of mine (which just figures, since it tends to be one of the more expensive varieties ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). It’s got a pronounced minerality and crispness that makes it ideal for combining with ingredients on the more savory end of the spectrum. Jim Meehan’s Stamford Fix makes excellent use of manzanilla by combining it with fresh basil, herbal Bénédictine, and pisco.

When I’m cooking, I love how it’s possible to swap tender herbs for each other pretty much indiscriminately, resulting in a miraculously easy—yet eminently distinct—twist on any recipe. I’m actually quite a fan of cilantro pesto (or cilantro anything, really), so I decided to throw that into Jim’s recipe in place of the basil. And for good measure, I dropped in a dried chile de árbol just to add a little heft and backbone to what was a fairly subtle drink. Don’t tell Jim—I think I like mine better.

The Devil and the Gypsy

2 oz. La Diablada pisco

1 oz. La Gitana manzanilla sherry

0.5 oz. Bénédictine

Handful of fresh cilantro

1 dried chile de árbol

Muddle cilantro and chile with Bénédictine. Add remaining ingredients and stir with ice. Double-strain into a cocktail glass, then squeeze a grapefruit twist over the top.

Ah, Youth

I’m always intrigued by cocktails that look on paper like I would hate them. Almost inevitably, these seem like they’d be far too sweet, usually due to the combination of multiple liqueurs, often with at least one being an aggressive flavor like green chartreuse or St. Germain. So I always appreciate when someone shares a drink like this and specifically calls out the fact that it sounds gross but isn’t. Such is the case with the Jeunesse, from a 1948 book by Maurice Bonnet (who is neither the identically named photographer nor the similarly named astrophysicist Roger-Maurice Bonnet), recently highlighted by David Wondrich in a round-up for The Daily Beast. When I first made this last week, my wife took a sip and declared that it was “the way you wish a mimosa tasted.” In any case, it is delightfully bitter, placing the Suze’s gentian root in the starring role. It’s not particularly high proof, either, and with its strong orange notes, it could easily sub in for a mimosa at brunch.

Jeunesse

2 oz Cointreau or Grand Marnier

1 oz Suze liqueur

1 oz lemon juice

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Express the oils from an orange peel and discard.