Kingston Negroni

You might define a really, really good cocktail as one that is perfect just how it is, requiring no alterations. So it's a bit funny that it's the really good cocktails that get riffed on and played around with the most. It's not a bad way to experiment, especially if you're new to designing your own drinks: take a formula you know you love and try swapping out one of the ingredients. Maybe it won't work right away; craft cocktail recipes are carefully-tuned, and switching something out may require a bit less or more of something. Figuring out exactly what works can be really interesting, and good practice for building your own recipes from scratch.

It's hard to find a cocktail more beloved (or one with more variations) than the Negroni. Its simplicity is what makes it great, and also what makes it easy to adjust. Like whiskey more than gin? Try a Boulevardier. Find Campari too bitter? Use Aperol instead. Want something a bit lighter? Substitute dry vermouth for the usual sweet. I've seen some Negroni variations get quite elaborate (and in my book it's debatable whether it's still a Negroni once you veer away from the formula of three-ingredients-including-gin) but like great cocktails, great variations are often simple as well.

In that spirit I give you the Kingston Negroni. It's simple as can be: use rum instead of gin. Specifically a Jamaican rum if you have one. Jamaican rums are quite unique. They are fermented longer than most rums, and this process often includes something called "dunder" or "muck," essentially the leftover stuff from previous distillations, which is left exposed to the ambient air and microbes before being added to a fresh batch of rum. If that sounds pretty gross, it kind of is - descriptions of the muck pits at Jamaican distilleries are not exactly appealing. But the product of this fermentation is then distilled in pot stills, leaving behind anything questionable and yielding a rum that has a truly singular quality called "hogo." The word refers to the funky, fruity flavor that separated Jamaican rum from others. As my virtual friend and rum afficionado Faith writes, the hogo of Jamaican rum is similar to the smokiness of Islay Scotch - a unique flavor quality that comes from the local practices and separates it from other spirits in the same category.

Like a smoky Scotch, a truly funky Jamaican rum can be a bit polarizing. I recently bought a bottle of Smith & Cross, the recommended rum for this cocktail, and wow is it funky. It's honestly a little much for me. I currently prefer Appleton Estate in this drink, which still has those critical qualities but tones down the funkiness in comparison. If you're a Jamaican rum novice, the Signature Blend is the bottle I'd recommend. I use it in tons of cocktails.

Jamaican rum makes the Kingston Negroni a bit sweeter and fruitier while still maintaining the balanced and bitter essence of the original drink. If you like Negronis, you've got to try this twist.

History: The Kingston Negroni was created by Joaquín Simó at Pouring Ribbons, one of my favorite bars in New York. He invented it immediately after tasting Smith & Cross for the first time.

Kingston Negroni

1 oz. Jamaican rum
1 oz. sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica recommended)
1 oz. Campari

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass over one large ice cube. Garnish with an orange twist.

Recipe and history from Punch.

Mr. Fancypants

Guys, I am so excited about this cocktail. This is officially my first cocktail recipe that is on an actual cocktail menu. You can go to Darwin's Ltd. in Cambridge and order a Mr. Fancypants. And they won't look at you like you're crazy! Despite the silly name I gave it.

Darwin's Ltd. is a chain of cafes in Cambridge that I've been a fan of for a long time. Their location near Harvard was my go-to for lattes and lunch during my postdoc. The Mt. Auburn Street location is a good place to pick up a bottle of wine or some craft beer. But their location on Massachusetts Avenue actually serves wine, beer, and cocktails. They have a cordials license, which is a weird Massachusetts thing - they can't serve hard liquor like straight whiskey, gin, rum, or vodka, but they can serve liqueurs. And there are a lot of great drinks you can make with just liqueurs!

The Mr. Fancypants is a riff on the Boulevardier, one of my favorite cocktails. That's the reason for the name - "boulevardier" basically refers to a fashionable, wealthy person, a man-about-town. The evening I was working on the cocktail, my husband was trying on some new clothes he had ordered, and the prints he had chosen were a bit flashier than what he usually wears. I said, "Look at you, Mr. Fancypants," and that was that.

The base of this cocktail is a spiced rum that is a-ok for a cordials license, and it also contains some of Darwin's spectacular cold brew coffee. If you want to make it at home and don't have spiced rum, try substituting an aged rum. Apple brandy is also excellent.

But if you live in the Boston area, please go check out Darwin's and order one!! I love spots where you can order a drink and work on your laptop or linger with a book, and Darwin's is absolutely perfect for that. They serve wine, beer, and cocktails all day in addition to tons of tasty food and some of the best coffee in town.

Mr. Fancypants

3/4 oz. spiced rum
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
3/4 oz. Campari
3/4 oz. cold brew coffee

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with an orange twist. Aren't you fancy!

Recipe Round-Up: The Negroni

Unless you're living under a rock (or, you know, not on social media), you probably know that it's Negroni Week! Sponsored by Imbibe and Campari, this is a week-long celebration of what is arguably the cocktail world's favorite drink. Bars around the country serve Negronis and Negroni variations, with proceeds from the drinks going to various charities. I'm only getting in on the tail end of the week, but if you're reading this before June 10th, see what venues are serving Negronis for a good cause near you here.

The Negroni and I have a tumultuous history. When I first tried one, I did not like it at all, and I said as much in my original Negroni post three years ago. In the cocktail world, thinking that Negronis are anything less than amazing is a fairly controversial opinion, but I was prepared to stand by it unless I magically developed a taste for them. And I did. Not magically, exactly; I think it was a combination of buying better sweet vermouth (and storing it properly in the refrigerator) and developing a taste for more bitter drinks in general. Other less polarizing cocktails eased me into the flavors of the Negroni, and before I knew it I was a convert. But I still understand how someone might not enjoy them, especially if they're new to Campari or cocktails in general. So whether you love a classic Negroni or are looking for your gateway drink, I've rounded up some Negroni variations in honor of this iconic equal-parts cocktail.

Assume that all of these should be stirred over ice and strained into a rocks glass over ice (though the last two can also be served in a coupe). Alternatively you can build them in the glass for an even easier cocktail.

Classic Negroni

1 oz. gin
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth
Orange twist

The original: easy to remember, easy to make, and always great. Opinions will differ on the best gin and sweet vermouth for the job, but my go-tos are The Botanist or Wire Works and either Cocchi Vermouth di Torino or Carpano Antica Formula.

White Negroni

2 oz. gin
1 oz. Lillet Blanc
3/4 oz. Suze
Lemon twist

This variant from London bartender Wayne Collins is actually a lot more yellow than white, but let's not nitpick. Suze and Lillet make this Negroni a bit lighter but more herbal. It does diverge from the typical equal parts ratio, since Suze can be a bit overpowering. See my full post on this drink here.

Negroni Bianco 

1 oz. gin
1 oz. Luxardo Bitter Bianco
1 oz. blanc vermouth
Orange or grapefruit twist

This truly white Negroni is known as the Negroni Bianco, and it is my favorite drink on this list. In fact, it's easily one of my favorite drinks of all time. (Someone told me recently that I say that a lot on here. Well, tough. It's true, especially in this case.) It's beautifully light and balanced, still bitter but not overpowering. It would be a perfect introductory Negroni. I wish I'd had one years ago - I might have started liking Negronis sooner.

Special Negroni

1 oz. gin
1 oz. Aperol
1 oz. Lillet Blanc
Orange twist

I have a feeling this recipe exists under other names, but ever since I was served one at Canary Square in Boston, I call it the Special Negroni. This is the ultimate introductory Negroni - milder, sweeter, and a bit more citrusy, but still preserving all the crucial parts of the original.

Toffee Negroni

1 oz. aged rum
1 oz. Aperol
1 oz. Amontillado sherry
Grapefruit twist

I had never heard of this Negroni until I saw it in Kara Newman's equal parts cocktail book Shake. Stir. Sip. Created by Lynette Marrero, it has a deep toffee sweetness with just the right amount of bitterness.

Deconstructed Negroni

1 oz. gin
3/4 oz. dry vermouth
Dehydrated Campari
Orange twist

This one is a bit more of a novelty than a go-to recipe, but it seemed like I ought to include it. A bartender at Roosevelt in Denver told me how they dehydrated Campari and used it to serve a colorless Negroni with a Campari rim. I tried it at home and was pretty pleased with the result. See how to make it here.

Boulevardier

1 1/2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth

This is another drink that definitely goes on my list of all-time favorites. I find the juniper notes of gin one of the more polarizing things about a Negroni, and subbing in bourbon makes a smoother drink that's more akin to a Manhattan. Say what you will, but I'll order a Boulevardier over a Negroni any day. See my original post on the Boulevardier (from before I developed my undying love for this cocktail) here.

Old Pal

1 oz. rye
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. dry vermouth
Orange twist

A close relative of the Boulevardier, the Old Pal is an even lighter cocktail that uses dry vermouth instead of sweet. You can take it one step further and try a Pen Pal, which additionally swaps the Campari for Aperol.

I've seen a ton of other interesting Negroni variations this week... what's your favorite?

Martinez

I've covered a lot of the really classic cocktails on here, but the Martinez has been a glaring omission. It admittedly hasn't maintained the popularity of some other recipes from the same era - and I'll talk about why that might be - but as the likely ancestor of the modern Martini, it remains an essential drink to know. And it's pretty tasty in its own right.

The reason I haven't made a Martinez until now was because I wanted to make it properly, or at least as close to that as I could come. And that meant I needed a bottle of Old Tom gin. Here's a quick refresher of your gin history: the ancestor of modern-day gin is genever, which originated in Holland. This method of making grain alcohol and flavoring it with herbs like juniper became wildly popular in England during the early 18th century, when there was a heavy tax on alcohol imports and people had to make their own spirits, usually from sub-par grains that weren't good enough for making beer. Flavoring the resulting liquor helped mask this. Hanging a sign with a black cat outside of a drinking establishment was a signal that gin was served there, and so it became known as Old Tom. While less sweet and bready than genever, Old Tom is sweeter and maltier than modern dry gins.

Old Tom made its way to the states and was the gin used in the Tom Collins and other early gin drinks. However, a preference for drier cocktails developed and distilling methods improved, paving the way for classic London Dry gin and causing Old Tom to fall out of favor. But in our modern cocktail renaissance, of course there are distillers producing this classic gin once again. The easiest to find is Hayman's. It's also very affordable - I got my bottle for only $20.

The Martinez is in the same family as a Manhattan or Negroni in taste, but it has a distinct flavor and sweetness provided by the Old Tom and the maraschino liqueur. You certainly could make one with a drier gin, but the inclusion of Old Tom definitely affects the flavor and makes it an exciting link to a past era.

History: As I mentioned in my post on the Martini, the history of the Martinez is quite murky. It is often attributed to Jerry Thomas, the "father of American mixology." He worked at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, and the story goes that he would mix this cocktail up for commuters catching the ferry to Martinez. But it was not included in the first edition of his Bartender's Guide, and there is no definitive proof that he created the recipe. The first mention of it in print is in O. H. Byron's 1884 Modern Bartender's Guide, three years before the recipe was published in the 1887 edition of Thomas' book. Byron's version is clearly a variation of the Manhattan, which gives us a pretty clear cocktail genealogy of Manhattan > Martinez > Martini.

I should note that there are a half-dozen other versions of the Martinez's origin, from a bartender in the town of Martinez whipping it up to it being a celebratory cocktail for a gold miner who struck it rich. But however the drink came about, it was soon quite popular.

So why didn't this popularity persist? One factor was certainly the decline of Old Tom gin and the preference for drier cocktails, as I mentioned above. It's thought that this turned the Martinez into the Martini. Additionally, a Martinez recipe usually calls for Boker's Bitters, which went out of production in 1906. The recipe was lost for over a century, until a man showed up at the London Bar Show with a small bottle. Dr. Adam Elmegirab studied the tiny sample for 18 months in order to replicate the original recipe. He began selling Boker's Bitters once again in 2009. If you don't have a bottle (like me), a combination of Angostura and orange bitters is a decent substitute.

And finally, there isn't really one definitive recipe for the Martinez. Even Byron's book wasn't clear on exactly how to make one. Byron provides two different recipes for the Manhattan - one with dry vermouth and one with sweet - and then instructs to swap the rye for Old Tom gin to make a Martinez. Both versions persisted, with the drier one experiencing more popularity for a time, but ultimately sweet vermouth won out, perhaps because it was what Jerry Thomas used. Even now, bartenders seem to consider the Martinez a drink that's open to interpretation, with different ratios of gin to vermouth and even additions such as curaçao or absinthe. I found multiple versions of the recipe and tried several to determine what I liked best. The winner is below.

Martinez

2 oz Old Tom gin
1 oz sweet vermouth
1/4 oz maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Boker's bitters
or
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes orange bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a cocktail or coupe glass and garnish with an orange twist and/or a brandied cherry.

Recipe adapted from The Kitchn.
Historical information mostly from Imbibe and Gin Foundry.

Fallback

We are currently in my absolute favorite time of year. The holidays are just so joyful. There are so many happy events and opportunities to get together with friends and family. It's not yet bitterly cold, but the temperature is low enough to turn on the heat and snuggle up under a blanket. Preferably with a whiskey cocktail.

The one thing I don't like about this time of year is how short the days are. It seemed bad enough as fall began, but then Daylight Savings Time ended. We "fall back" and suddenly it's getting dark at 4 pm! This makes it supremely inconvenient to get good cocktail photos. I like to shoot with natural light, but I'm not usually going to have a drink in the mid-afternoon. I end up having to just set things aside for later. My husband has gotten used to coming home and taking a peek in the fridge to check whether anything I made earlier that day is waiting to be consumed.

It was with this annual disgruntlement in mind that I picked the Fallback out of Regarding Cocktails. In addition to the appropriate name, it's made with Applejack and Amaro Nonino, a couple of my favorite fall ingredients. They lend flavors of apple, spice, vanilla, and brown sugar to rye and sweet vermouth. The Nonino and a couple of dashes of Peychaud's give the drink just the right amount of bitterness. It's utterly perfect for the fall.

And it still tastes just fine if you have to throw it in the fridge until cocktail hour.

History: The Fallback was created by Sasha Petraske for John Dory Oyster Bar in New York City.

Fallback

1 oz. rye whiskey
1 oz. Applejack or apple brandy
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica recommended)
1/2 oz. Amaro Nonino
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Build the drink in a rocks glass beginning with the bitters. Add one large cube of ice and stir until the drink is chilled. Garnish with an orange twist.

Recipe adapted from Regarding Cocktails.

Bijou

I've got a real classic for you today - the Bijou. It may not show up on a lot of menus these days, but this elegant gin cocktail is over 100 years old. The name, which means "jewel" in French, is a reference to the gemlike hues of the three main ingredients: gin (diamond), sweet vermouth (ruby), and Green Chartreuse (emerald). The traditional recipe for the Bijou is equal parts of these three ingredients, plus a dash of orange bitters.

I eagerly mixed up this equal-parts cocktail, but when I took a sip, I grimaced. The Chartreuse completely dominated the gin and vermouth, making it way too sweet and not at all balanced, at least to my taste. I immediately understood why a lot of modern recipes for the Bijou, like these from Punch and Tuxedo No. 2, tweak the recipe a bit. I tried some variations and decided that this one from Imbibe is my favorite, with more gin, less Chartreuse, and two dashes of bitters. With these proportions, I think the cocktail really takes on the elegant, herbal flavor it's meant to have.

History: The first recipe for the Bijou that appeared in print, in C. F. Lawlor's 1895 book The Mixicologist, was a bit different from the version that ended up standing the test of time. Lawlor's recipe is equal parts gin, sweet vermouth, and Grand Marnier, an orange liqueur that probably wouldn't have helped much with the issue of balance and sweetness. Five years later, the equal-parts-plus-orange-bitters version of the recipe appeared in Harry Johnson's Bartenders' Manual. As far as I know, these are our only two clues about the origins of the Bijou.

Bijou

1 1/2 oz. gin
1 oz. sweet vermouth
3/4 oz. Green Chartreuse
2 dashes orange bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a brandied cherry and a lemon twist.

Recipe adapted from The New Cocktail Hour via Imbibe.

Little Italy

Howdy from Texas! If you didn't already know, my day job is working as a postdoc in ornithology and evolutionary biology at Harvard. My lab is doing a little collecting trip near Lubbock this week to get some bird specimens and tissues for the museum. We're staying at a lovely ranch outside of town. No cocktails here, so all I can do is wistfully look at these photos. But we've seen some great birds. :-)

If I had to choose a cocktail to drink right now, it would probably be this one. Whiskey + sweet vermouth + amaro is one of my favorite cocktail combinations. The Boulevardier is the best known example of this I can think of, and every now and then I'll come across another "established" recipe that uses a similar formula, like the Black Manhattan. But for the most part it seems like a very DIY sort of thing. I love trying different amari with my favorite bourbon or rye and sweet vermouth. There's no perfect recipe, because the flavor is going to be different every time - I usually have to tweak the proportions a bit to get it right. So I do appreciate when someone else does the work for me, as Audrey Saunders did with the Little Italy.

Like my other whiskey/vermouth/amaro cocktails, the Little Italy is basically a riff on the Manhattan, this time with Cynar instead of the usual Angostura bitters (Cynar is an Italian liqueur, thus the name). Not too sweet or too bitter, Cynar adds a wonderful complexity to a classic cocktail. The flavor is reminiscent of a Manhattan but slightly smoother and more herbaceous. I'd personally prefer one of these any day!

History: The Little Italy was invented in 2005 by Audrey Saunders of Pegu Club in New York. Two other favorites of mine that she created are the Old Cuban and the French Pearl - she really has a way of developing simple, elegant recipes that are instant classics.

Styling Notes: the cocktail pick is from Muddle & Stir and the Nick & Nora glass is from The Boston Shaker.

Little Italy

1 1/2 oz. rye whiskey
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
1/2 oz. Cynar

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a Nick & Nora glass and garnish with two* brandied cherries on a pick.

*I recently learned that it's an Italian superstition that an even number of garnishes is bad luck. But the Little Italy recipe specifies two cherries. Maybe it's tempting fate; add a third if you want to be sure.

Recipe from Imbibe.

Bottle Buy: Yellow Chartreuse

Until I posted about Crème de Cacao a couple of weeks ago, I hadn't done a Bottle Buy post in quite a while. That was, quite simply, because I hadn't bought any new bottles. There's so much you can do with just a few spirits and liqueurs that I could probably never run out of drinks to make with what I've introduced so far. But there were still a few things on my wish list, and I finally went ahead and bought them. The first one I'll talk about is Yellow Chartreuse.

Yellow Chartreuse is the younger sibling of Green Chartreuse, which is probably the more popular of the two. Like Green Chartreuse, Yellow Chartreuse it is made by Catholic Carthusian monks in the Order of St. Bruno, also known as the Chartreuse Order. The Order has operated in the Chartreuse Mountains of France since 1084. In 1737 they made the excellent decision to start making booze. Their Green Chartreuse was initially sold to local villages as a health tonic, but people enjoyed drinking it for fun, so they reduced its alcohol content a bit and began selling it as a liquor. One hundred and one years later, they introduced Yellow Chartreuse.

Despite the fact that it hasn't been around as long, Yellow Chartreuse seems to appear in more classic cocktails than Green. Its yellow color comes from the addition of saffron. It's lighter and sweeter than Green Chartreuse, and also has a lower alcohol content (40% as opposed to 55%). Unfortunately it's only slightly cheaper - these are pricey liqueurs.

So, being a generally frugal cocktail blogger, I wondered: could you buy just one or the other, and use them interchangeably? And, if so, which one should you buy? In my mind, Yellow Chartreuse seems more versatile. It mixes well with anything - gin, whiskey, tequila, vodka, whatever. Whereas I feel a bit more squeamish about mixing Green Chartreuse with whiskey. I'm not sure why... maybe it's just the color? It doesn't seem right. But I wanted to know if there was any basis to my qualms. So I made two cocktails - the Last Word, which is usually made with Green Chartreuse, and the Greenpoint (recipe below), which is usually made with Yellow - following the original recipes, and then swapping the Chartreuses.

The short result is that neither cocktail seemed right with the other Chartreuse. The Last Word with Yellow Chartreuse tastes like a faint echo of the original cocktail. The flavors are there, but muted. It's too sweet and not complex enough. If you only had Yellow Chartreuse, you could make yourself a Last Word and get an idea of what the cocktail tastes like, but it wouldn't be the real thing. The Greenpoint with Green Chartreuse is a much better drink than I expected, but I don't feel like the flavors mesh as well. The Green Chartreuse is too overpowering. So I'm afraid you can't really get away with interchanging these two liqueurs. If you can only buy one, personally I'd still spring for Green first, because the Last Word is one of my all-time favorite cocktails, and I love the more intense flavor.

Yellow Chartreuse

Price: $50-60
Alcohol Content: 40%
Popular Cocktails: Greenpoint, Diamondback, Alaska, Widow's Kiss

The first cocktail I made with my Yellow Chartreuse was a Greenpoint. This is a variation on the Brooklyn cocktail, which is sort of a variation on the Manhattan (see more on this below). While Yellow Chartreuse doesn't exactly have a starring role in the Greenpoint, it's probably one of the best-known cocktails that makes use of it, and comparing the flavor to a traditional Manhattan will definitely help you see how the Chartreuse is working in the recipe. It makes the drink more sweet and herbal than a Manhattan, and the lemon twist and orange bitters provide a lovely hint of citrus.

History: The Greenpoint was created in 2005 by Michael McIlroy at Milk & Honey in New York. But its history really goes back quite a bit farther.

In the early twentieth century, there were five popular cocktails named after New York City's five boroughs: the Manhattan (rye, sweet vermouth, bitters), the Bronx (rye, sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, orange juice), the Brooklyn (rye, dry vermouth, maraschino liqueur, Amer Picon or bitters), the Queens (gin, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, pineapple juice), and the Staten Island Ferry (rum, pineapple juice). For whatever reason, the Manhattan persisted in popularity and was elevated to classic cocktail status, while the other four fell somewhat into obscurity. As interest in pre-Prohibition cocktails was revived, so were these old recipes. The Brooklyn in particular has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity, and bartenders began playing with the recipe and naming their new creations after Brooklyn neighborhoods: Slope, Prospect Park, Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Bensonhurst, Red Hook. And, of course, Greenpoint.

For more on these Brooklyn-themed cocktails, check out this article from Punch.

Greenpoint

2 oz. rye whiskey
1/2 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass or coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Recipe from Liquor.com.

Bottle Buy: Amaro Averna

When we were in New York in January, we had a fantastic dinner at Gramercy Tavern with a couple of friends. It was a serious splurge for us; we ordered two bottles of wine and did the six-course tasting menu. It was some of the most incredible food I've ever had. As we dug into the ridiculous assortment of desserts they brought us, the waitress asked if we'd like a digestif. We waffled a bit, not sure what to order, and she offered to bring out a couple of amari.

Amaro has been on my radar as a potential cocktail ingredient, but the reason I hadn't bought any was because there were just so many. I would see them in recipes: Amaro Montenegro, Amaro Averna, Fernet Branca, Amaro Nonino, Cynar, Ramazotti. There was no way I could buy them all, and I had no idea which one would be the best to choose.

That night at Gramercy Tavern, our waitress brought out two: Amaro Averna and Amaro Nonino. We drank them straight up. It was absolutely perfect after our big meal. They were both sweet enough that they worked after dessert but bitter enough to be great digestifs. We agreed that we liked the Averna a little better, which worked out well, because it's the cheaper of the two ($30 vs. $50). As soon as we got back to Boston, we bought a bottle, ready to whip it out after dinner parties to impress our friends.

Averna is made by soaking herbs, roots, dried fruit, and citrus rind in a base of grain alcohol. Caramel is later added for flavor and sweetness. Its flavor is described as "exotic spice, wood, maple syrup, cinnamon, and dried orange peel." Supposedly the recipe comes from the Benedictine monks of St. Spirito's Abbey in Caltanissetta, Sicily. (You may recall that the Benedictine monks have a history of making tasty liqueurs.) They had been making the herbal elixir for years when a rich textile merchant, Salvatore Averna, gave a generous donation to their Abbey in 1859. To thank him, they gave Salvatore the recipe. Realizing he had a seriously delicious secret on his hands, he created the company Fratelli Averna in 1868 and began selling Amaro Averna to the public. His son later took over the business and expanded it, selling Averna all over Europe. Currently, the fourth generation of Avernas is running the business, which was acquired by Gruppo Campari in 2014.

Amaro Averna

Price: $30
Alcohol Content: 29%
Popular Cocktails: The Black Manhattan is one of the few that's currently widespread. It's traditionally consumed on its own.

Much as I enjoy drinking Averna straight, I've also started experimenting with it in cocktails, and I'm really liking the result. My go-to right now is the Black Manhattan. There are a lot of versions of this cocktail out there. My favorite so far is the one below, which I found in a Reddit thread about what cocktails to make with Averna. It replaces half the sweet vermouth in my favorite Manhattan recipe with Averna, and half the Angostura bitters with orange bitters.

I think I like the Black Manhattan better than a traditional Manhattan. It's less sweet, but the Averna leaves lingering flavors of raisins and dark fruit. When you taste them side by side, the Averna makes for a deeper, smoother cocktail, blending the rye and vermouth together better into a harmonious whole.

Black Manhattan

2 oz. rye
1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (I like Punt e Mes)
1/2 oz. Averna amaro
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash orange bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass and stir until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass or coupe. Garnish with a cherry or orange peel if desired.

Recipe adapted from Reddit user murrayhenson.

Bottle Buy: Cherry Heering

Cherry Heering is a surprisingly difficult spirit to find information on. Given how long it's been around, I thought there would be a lot more out there. Even the Heering website doesn't really have much by way of history or details about how Cherry Heering is made. They do have a pretty cute advertising campaign right now (click on "Our Brand"), but they're light on the details. Luckily you don't have to know everything about a liqueur to enjoy it.

What I do know is that Cherry Heering is a Danish liqueur made from spirits, cherries, and spices that is aged in wooden casks. What spirits, you ask? Well, some sites say brandy and others say grain spirits. (I emailed Heering to ask, but they haven't gotten back to me yet. I'll update this if I find out.) The liqueur was invented by Peter F. Heering, who founded the company that produces it in 1818. It spread throughout the British Empire and is most notably included in the Singapore Sling, a cocktail I will definitely be covering soon. Today it is still produced by the same company, which doesn't appear to have been acquired by any of the big conglomerates.

Cherry Heering smells deliciously like brandied cherries. Its taste is much more subdued and complex than I expected. It's sweet, of course, but not absurdly so, and there's a lovely hint of spice at the end. I think I'd enjoy it straight after dinner. It's a fairly versatile ingredient that is also finding its way into a number of modern cocktails. There's a nice list of cocktail recipes on Heering's website. It can be used whenever cherry brandy is called for, but it is often specified by name.

I enjoyed this article by Tony Sachs in which he gets to taste two aged bottles of Cherry Heering, one from 1888.

Cherry Heering

Price: $30
Alcohol content: 24%
Popular cocktails: Singapore Sling, Blood & Sand, Remember the Maine

I probably should have made the well-known Blood & Sand to showcase Cherry Heering, but I don't have a bottle of blended Scotch. Instead, I suggest the Remember the Maine, which is a really good cocktail. It's sort of a Manhattan crossed with a Sazerac. It actually reminds me quite a bit of the De La Louisiane, the main difference being the replacement of the very herbal Benedictine with Cherry Heering. I kind of wish I could have a couple of those other cocktails side-by-side with this one to do a comparison and really pick out the flavor of the Cherry Heering in this one. It's subtle, but it's a natural pairing with rye and sweet vermouth.

History: The "Maine" we're meant to be remembering with this cocktail is the USS Maine, a naval ship that sank off the coast of Havana, Cuba on February 15, 1898 during the Cuban War of Independence. Though it remains unclear whether the ship was deliberately fired upon by the Spanish or whether a coal fire ignited its own ammunition, American journalists rushed to blame Spain in an effort to spur the US to declare war. Their rallying cry became, "Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain!" Later that year, the Spanish-American War began.

The Remember the Maine was invented or discovered by Charles H. Baker and first published in his 1939 book The Gentleman's Companion: Around the World with Jigger, Beaker, and Flask. By way of explanation, he writes:

"Remember the Maine, a hazy memory of a night in Havana during the unpleasantness of 1933, when each swallow was punctuated with bombs going off on the Prado, or the sound of 3" shells being fired at the hotel Nacional, then haven for certain anti-revolutionary officers."

The unpleasantness Baker is referring to was a coup called the Revolt of the Sergeants led by Fulgencio Batista against the Cuban government. The coup ended with Ramon Grau San Martin becoming president. Interestingly, it was only 100 days before Batista deposed him as well, putting Carlos Mendieta into power. This became something of a trend, with four more presidents coming and going before Batista himself was elected president in 1940.

Anyway, Baker, who traveled the world collecting cocktail recipes, was in Havana during Batista's coup. But where did the recipe come from? An earlier publication, The Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, includes a recipe identical to the Remember the Maine called McKinley's Delight - interesting since William McKinley was the U.S. president during the Spanish-American War. It's likely that these recipes share a single origin, with the McKinley's Delight the older of the two. In the 1896 U.S. presidential election, McKinley faced off against William Jennings Bryan, and for some reason they both ended up with signature cocktails: the McKinley's Delight for McKinley and the Free Silver Fizz (gin, lime, sugar, egg white, club soda) for Bryan. Quite a bit of history for one cocktail!

Remember the Maine

2 oz. rye
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
2 tsp. Cherry Heering
1 dash absinthe (I used Herbsaint)

Add absinthe to a coupe glass and swirl to coat. Combine remaining ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into the prepared glass. Garnish with a brandied cherry.

Recipe from Punch.

De La Louisiane

Guess what, blog readers? I have officially defended my dissertation. Call me Dr. GarnishGirl. Or don't, actually. That just sounds silly.

Anyway, though I've still got to finish up that pesky thesis, I'm excited to have a bit more time to blog and make cocktails and enjoy what's left of the summer. I've got a few more summery drinks coming your way, but today I thought I'd take a little break and talk about something a little different: the De La Louisiane.

With its rye, sweet vermouth, Benedictine, and Peychaud's bitters, the De La Louisiane is quite similar to the Vieux Carre, another classic New Orleans cocktail. It lacks the Vieux Carre's Cognac, and also amps up the herbal notes that are only hinted at in the Vieux Carre to extremes with much more Benedictine and a few dashes of absinthe (as usual, I used Herbsaint). As such, it's a much more polarizing taste; if you don't like absinthe or Benedictine, I'd steer clear of this one. But if you do, they work beautifully together for a very layered, complex cocktail, something you're going to want to sip slowly and savor.

History: This was the signature cocktail of the restaurant La Louisiane in New Orleans. The hotel and restaurant was opened in 1881 by Louis Bezaudun in a residence on Iberville Street that had been built in 1837. It became famous for its Creole cuisine and served many famous guests, from Teddy Roosevelt to Harry Houdini. It closed in 1932, and the property changed hands several times. In 1954, it became an Italian restaurant also called La Louisiane. It was sold again in 1998 and has been renovated and re-opened as a restaurant and event space in the spirit of the original Creole restaurant.

The recipe for the De La Louisiane (sometimes just called the La Louisiane) was first published in Stanley Clisby Arthur's 1937 book Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em. His recipe called for equal parts rye, Benedictine, and sweet vermouth. This version from The PDT Cocktail Book tones down the sweetness and increases the rye for a well-balanced cocktail.

De La Louisiane

2 oz. rye
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
3/4 oz. Benedictine
3 dashes* absinthe or Herbsaint
3 dashes Peychaud's bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass and stir well with ice. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with three brandied cherries.

*A "dash" is easy with a bottle of bitters, but tougher with something like absinthe. One dash should equal about 1/8 tsp.

Recipe adapted from The PDT Cocktail Book.

Americano

When you're talking about great summer drinks, it doesn't get much classier than the Americano. If sipping a Mojito or a Pina Colada can make you feel like you're on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean, then the Americano will transport you to the streets of Florence.

As you might guess from its ingredients, the Americano is exactly between a Campari & Soda and a Negroni in taste. It's much lighter than the Negroni, and I find it so much more drinkable. Maybe this is the gateway cocktail to Negronis? But it's also sweeter and richer than a Campari & Soda. It's refreshing without sacrificing complexity.

History: The Americano is a "long drink" version of a cocktail called the Milano-Torino, a mix of Campari and sweet vermouth. It was invented by the creator of Campari himself, Gaspare Campari, at his Caffe Campari in Milan. It was named for the two cities where its ingredients originated: Campari from Milan, and sweet vermouth from Torino (Turin). It's unclear when the club soda became involved, or whether it was always an option when ordering a Milano-Torino. But it seems American tourists loved this thoroughly Italian cocktail, causing it to become known instead as an Americano.

The Americano became the Negroni when Italian count-turned-cowboy Camillo Negroni ordered one at a bar in Florence and had the bartender replace the club soda with gin. It's also the first drink James Bond ever orders in Ian Fleming's book Casino Royale. Clearly a tough guy sort of summer sipper.

Americano

1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1 oz. club soda

Combine Campari and vermouth in a glass. Add ice and stir. Top with club soda and garnish with a slice of orange.

Vieux Carre

When I started this blog, I knew what the basics were for any good cocktail bar: rye, gin, vermouth, etc. But I really couldn't tell you which rye, gin, vermouth, etc. you ought to buy. My own choices usually came from staring at the liquor store shelf, contemplating price vs. whether I'd ever heard of it before vs. how pretty the label was. Once I found something that worked, I stuck with it.

My main intention with this blog was to learn more about cocktails and novel ingredients rather than getting into the nitty gritty of particular spirits. But you can't spend this much time looking up recipes, researching cocktails, and reading other blogs without getting a few good recommendations. I've slowly gotten a feel for what brands other folks think are good, and I've started spending a little more to get them.

The first time I felt like this really paid off was when I made a Vieux Carre. I had just purchased Pierre Ferrand Cognac and Carpano Antica Formula sweet vermouth, and I used them both in the recipe. I took a sip and actually said, "Wow." It just worked. It tasted perfect. Sophisticated and perfectly balanced. I felt like I had reached some kind of cocktail milestone. And while both ingredients were more expensive than other brands I'd bought in the past, they weren't by that much. Definitely worth it.

The only thing in my Vieux Carre that wasn't fancy-schmancy was the rye. I stuck with my trusty Old Overholt. I still haven't found anything that can beat it at the price point. But I'm open to recommendations.

Whatever you choose to make it with, the Vieux Carre is a beautiful cocktail. Its ingredients harmonize so well. It's exactly sweet enough, with hints of herbs and citrus and bitters that come together exactly as they should. It's a Manhattan with extra layers of flavor.

The Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone (photo from 50 States or Less)

History: The Vieux Carre comes from one of my favorite historic New Orleans bars, the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone. As the name suggests, the bar is a carousel that actually spins, complete with bright lights, fanciful carvings, and colorful murals. The patrons slowly move in a circle around the bar. It's a beautiful, quirky piece of the French Quarter that I can never resist visiting. They still make excellent cocktails.

At the time of the Vieux Carre's invention in 1938, however, the bar at the Hotel Monteleone only spun if you had too much to drink. It was called the Swan Bar, and the famous carousel would not be installed until 1949. The head bartender, Walter Bergeron, created Vieux Carre as a variation of an older cocktail called the Saratoga, which lacks the Benedictine and Peychaud's. Vieux Carre is the French name for what we call the French Quarter. It translates to "old square."

Vieux Carre

3/4 oz. rye
3/4 oz. cognac
3/4 oz. sweet vermouth
1 tsp. Benedictine
1 dash Peychaud's Bitters
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until well chilled. Strain into a rocks glass, with one large ice cube if desired. Garnish with a lemon twist, a brandied cherry, or both.

Recipe from Chow.com.

Mixology Monday: Cuauhtémoc

This month's Mixology Monday theme is "I'll Take Manhattan!" The challenge is to come up with your own spin on, you guessed it, the Manhattan. That's a fair bit of pressure. I mean, it's one thing to improve upon a cocktail you're ashamed you ever drank, but it's dangerous to mess with perfection.


When I saw the announcement, my Monday post on mezcal was still fresh in my mind. I'd just gotten done writing about how bartenders are swapping out the main ingredients in classic cocktails with mezcal left and right. So why not a mezcal Manhattan? It was worth a try.



After much trial and error (the fun kind, where you get to drink the errors), I decided that simply swapping out rye for mezcal didn't work; the mezcal was too overpowering. I tried adding in some reposado tequila to tone it down, but that just didn't harmonize with the vermouth the way that rye does. Then I remembered my recent taste test of blanco, reposado, and anejo tequilas. Reposado and anejo are both aged in bourbon barrels, giving them smoky vanilla notes similar to that of bourbon. The taste wasn't strong enough in my reposado, but I thought an anejo might work better. I would have loved to splurge on Cabo Wabo, the anejo I tried before I wrote the post, but the $60 price tag was a bit much. I settled on Espolon, which seems to be consistently rated highly for its price ($30). And it really worked. To keep with the theme, I also switched out the Angostura bitters with Bittermen's Xocoltl Mole Bitters.

I decided to give my creation a somewhat unwieldy name: the Cuauhtémoc. Cuauhtémoc is the main borough of Mexico City, essentially what Manhattan is for New York. Hard to spell, easy to drink. I bet mine won't be the only tequila or mezcal Manhattan in the Mixology Monday bunch, and I can't wait to see what other folks come up with. Cheers!

UPDATE: The MXMO roundup is here!

Cuauhtémoc

2 oz. anejo tequila (I used Espolon)
1 oz. sweet vermouth (I used Carpano Antica Formula)
1/2 oz. mezcal
2 dashes mole bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass or coupe. Garnish with a slice of lime and a brandied cherry.

Boulevardier

I recently wrote about how I am not a fan of the Negroni, a classic Italian cocktail made of Campari, gin, and sweet vermouth. But given its popularity, I felt like there had to be some tweaks to the recipe that might help me come around. So I turned to one of its close relatives: the Boulevardier. To make one, swap the gin in the Negroni out for bourbon and add a little extra for good measure. I like it much more than its cousin. I feel like the gin in a Negroni just steps back and lets the Campari and sweet vermouth duke it out with their strong flavors, whereas the bourbon in the Boulevardier helps to meld the two into something more drinkable. The Boulevardier is also the bridge between the Negroni and a Manhattan, which contains bourbon, sweet vermouth, and bitters - easily my favorite of the trio. But all are worth trying.

History: The Boulevardier hails from the famous Harry's New York Bar in Paris. There is so much to say about this venerable institution that it deserves its own post, so I'll stick to this cocktail for now. The recipe appeared in Harry MacElhone's 1927 book Barflies and Cocktails and is credited to Erskine Gwynn, a rich young American who had come to Paris to start a magazine called The Boulevardier. The word refers to a social, fashionable young man, just the sort of person Gwynn styled himself to be.

Boulevardier

1 1/2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass over ice. Stir until chilled. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with an orange slice.

Recipe from Imbibe.

Negroni

Every now and then in the course of my cocktail explorations, I come across something that I just really don't like, much as I want to. The Negroni is one of those things.

Sure, it's a classic cocktail. It evokes summer evenings in Italy, sipping this blend of gin, Campari, and vermouth on the terrace of your villa. And maybe if I made one under those circumstances, I'd come around. But something about this particular combination of the bitter Campari with the sweet vermouth just does not work for me. Apparently I'm not entirely alone; bartender and blogger Naren Young said of the drink, "There are very few cocktails where the words 'acquired taste' are more appropriate than with the Negroni." I guess I'll just have to keep going to Italy and ordering them until I like them.

But don't let my distaste steer you away from trying this recipe. Many cocktail connoisseurs insist that it is their favorite drink. Maybe it will be yours too.

History: The Negroni was named after its creator, an Italian Count named Camillo Negroni. He was the sort of guy you'd really enjoy swapping tales with over a drink - he'd probably tell you about the time he spent in America gambling and working as a rodeo cowboy. After he returned to Florence, his birthplace, he became friends with the bartender of Caffe Casoni, Fosco Scarselli. One day in 1919 he went to the bar for a drink and asked for the popular Americano cocktail (Campari, sweet vermouth, and soda water) - but, as a cowboy does, he ordered it with gin instead of soda. The rest, as they say, is history; soon all of Florence was ordering their Americanos "the Negroni way."

This story was considered little more than a fable until an Italian bartender named Lucca Picchi researched the tale in depth. His book, Sulle Tracce del Conte: La Vera Storia del Cocktail Negroni ("On the Trail of the Count: The True Story of the Negroni Cocktail") is currently only available in Italian, but it supports the popular story and fleshes out its history. (It's also a great example of just how much history a single cocktail can have; I feel like I could write a pretty entertaining book on any of these.)

In an article for SFGate, Gaz Regan traces the history of the Negroni several cocktails back to its spritous ancestors. The Negroni, as I just explained, was a modification of the Americano. The Americano, in turn, was a "long drink" or "tall drink" version of the Milano-Torino, which was equal parts Campari and sweet vermouth. And this drink was based on the Torino-Milano, which was a mix of Campari and another type of Italian bitters called Amano Cora. When you considering that there are multiple cocktails based on the Negroni (the Old Pal and Boulevardier, for example), you start to see a lineage much like a family tree.

Incidentally, Caffe Casoni is now owned by Roberto Cavalli, and has been renamed Caffe Giacosa. But you can still get a Negroni there.

Negroni

1 oz. gin
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir. Strain into a cocktail glass or into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with an orange slice.

Manhattan

People can be particular about their cocktails. But when it comes to certain drinks, some people become militantly so. Take David Wondrich's Esquire article on the Manhattan, for example. He says to stir your Manhattan, but if you prefer to shake it, "There's nothing wrong with that, really.... If you like your Manhattan cloudy and topped with an algae-like foam, shake away." Message received. He is similarly firm on the topic of bourbon vs. rye in a Manhattan: "For a real Manhattan, you need rye whiskey. No amount of fiddling with the vermouth and bitters can save this drink if you've got bourbon in the foundations; it's just too sticky-sweet."

So imagine my distress when I go to make my Manhattan for this post and remember that I've run out of rye. I consider moving on to the next drink on my list, but the thought was a bit disappointing; I was looking forward to the Manhattan. I eye the bottle of Four Roses Bourbon on the bar. I glance around. No one is watching. Certainly not David Wondrich. Quietly, I reach for it.

In all seriousness, I don't think most people would fault you for making a bourbon Manhattan. While trying to decide whether to pair my shameful bourbon with Punt e Mes or another sweet vermouth, I came across this post at Cocktail Buzz that compares rye vs. bourbon and Punt e Mes vs. Carpano Antica Formula (aka everybody's-favorite-sweet-vermouth-that-I-have-yet-to-try) in a Manhattan. I was pleased to hear that they liked all of the combinations. They did advise that Punt e Mes would give a spicier, less sweet cocktail than the Carpano Antico, so I used that in my bourbon Manhattan to avoid the "sticky-sweet" flavor that Wondrich warned against. Was it a really, truly good Manhattan? I thought so, and that's all that matters.

Still, I look forward to the day when I'm enough of a cocktail snob to be that opinionated. It's what I aspire to.

History: The traditional story of the Manhattan's creation is that it was developed at the Manhattan Club in New York in 1874 for a party thrown by Jennie Jerome Churchill, the wife of Randolph Churchill and mother of Winston Churchill, to celebrate the election of New York governor Samuel J. Tilden. (Tilden would later go on to win the popular vote in the 1876 presidential election, but lose to Rutherford B. Hayes in the electoral college, a situation much like what happened in the 2000 elections.) However, this story cannot be accurate, as Lady Churchill was in England at this time, giving birth to Winston. There were still two banquets held at the Manhattan Club for Tilden, and I'm not sure why no one seems to think the cocktail might still have originated at one of them even if Jennie wasn't present.

The other main contender is a man we only know as Black. Bartender William F. Mulhall, who worked at New York's Hoffman House, claimed that Black had invented the drink in the 1860's. He said only that Black "kept a place ten doors below Houston Street on Broadway." The story was printed in a 1923 issue of Valentine's Manual of New York.

Either way, the Manhattan was popular enough by 1882 that the first known mention of it was made in print. In a short feature about mixed drinks, The Democrat of Olean, New York printed:

"It is but a short time ago that a mixture of whiskey, vermouth and bitters came into vogue. It went under various names - the Manhattan cocktail, Turf Club cocktail, and Jockey Club cocktail. Bartenders at first were sorely puzzled what was wanted when it was demanded. But now they are fully cognizant of its various aliases and no difficulty is encountered."

Mahattan

2 oz. rye whiskey (or bourbon, if you dare)
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1-2 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass. Add ice and stir until chilled. Don't shake unless you like algae-like foam. Strain into a cocktail glass or coupe, or serve on the rocks. Garnish with a maraschino or brandied cherry (or three).

Recipe from Esquire.