We always have a few bottles of sparkling wine refrigerated and ready for special occasions—or if we are honest, any occasion. Having some bubbly ready to open is something we highly recommend. But we are not always ready to drink a whole bottle when inspired to make a Champagne cocktail. That’s where those little single serving bottles of prosecco are perfect! We buy them by the case and make sure to tuck a few into the back corner of the refrigerator. It’s not the most common ingredient, but when you need it for a spritz and you are not prepared to carbonate a big batch, just crack open one little bottle. It’s super convenient and if you aren’t making a pair of drinks, just throw back the rest while nobody is looking!

Case in point, here is the Como Spritz, a delicious Italian cafe-inspired cocktail that makes a wonderful aperitivo or a low-ABV choice for the amaro-curious or anyone looking for something light but flavorful. Cynar is the featured ingredient and is one of our favorite bottles in our amaro collection. With such a simple execution, this one is so easy to build we should have been drinking these ages ago.

Como Spritz
1 oz Cynar
.75 oz passion fruit syrup
.25 oz lemon juice
3 oz prosecco

Add the Cynar and passion fruit syrup to a lowball/tumbler or rocks glass along with one ounce of prosecco. Fill the glass with ice and pour in the remaining two ounces. Garnish with a slice of orange.

Created by Sam Ross and Michael McIlroy for their New York City bar Good Guy’s, this drink represents the versatility of Italian bitters. These herbal liqueurs work equally well accompanying base spirits in Manhattan riffs like the Brooklyn variants as they do in lighter, elongated effervescent refreshers with sparkling wine. Here, we even have passion fruit syrup—an ingredient more often found in flavorful tropical Tiki recipes. But the combination of flavorful bitter liqueur, puckery passion fruit and a big dose of prosecco works great!

Like most spritzes, this one is built right in the serving glass. It basically mixes together as you go, with the ice and bubbles doing most of the stirring. No shaking here or you’d lose the carbonation, and while many comparative drinks in this category employ sparkling water to help chill and dilute, the Como softens a bit with time, but gets colder as you sip. Cynar has a deep herbal flavor that pokes through—almost like bittersweet cocoa, but the passion fruit and lemon brighten the flavor with an overall tang carried by the bubbles. It’s wonderfully light and satisfying, reminiscent of the Take 3 cocktail with a suggestion of grapefruit. Give this a try!

We have been following Derek’s YouTube channel @MakeAndDrink and have been enjoying all things Tiki that he has been sharing. Yesterday, we mixed up his Voyager cocktail, a somewhat rare gin-based tiki-style drink that we gotta say is pretty amazing. Note that this is not the Voyager created by Robert Hess, but rather a riff on the Saturn cocktail, a 1967 blended classic. As Tiki goes, this one is relatively easy to execute if you can collect all of the ingredients, but it also includes a bunch of little details that enhance the experience.

Before we get into it, let’s talk requirements. This drink has a gin base which is less common for Tiki than rum-based reciples. It also uses lemon juice, orange liqueur, passionfruit and cinnamon syrups, Angostura bitters and a few drops of absinthe. You will need to procure all of this at minimum to pull it off along with a shaker of crushed or pebble ice. If you can cover these bases without swapping anything, you can enjoy it like we have. Now let’s dive deeper, starting with the gin.

Voyager by Derek @makeanddrink
2 oz gin (Empress 1908 if you have it)
1 oz lemon juice
.5 oz triple sec
.5 oz passion fruit syrup
.25 oz cinnamon syrup
1 dash Angostura bitters
5 drops of absinthe or Pernod

Add ingredients to a shaker with a cup of crushed or pebble ice and shake for several seconds to chill. Dump unstrained into a tiki mug or snifter. Top up with more ice to fill the glass. Garnish with a lemon peel ringed cocktail cherry and additional outlandish decorations and edible flowers. Serve with a straw.

Derek uses Empress 1908 indigo gin which has a unique blue hue from an infusion of butterfly pea flowers. What’s really wild about this gin is that it changes color. With just a hint of acid, it transforms from blue to pink! It’s quite remarkable, actually. The butterfly pea flower essence is like a chemist’s pH indicator. Do you need to use Empress? Probably not. We actually made our own butterfly pea flower gin using a homemade extract. If you have Empress, use it, but you can get away with any regular gin since the color effect is minimized here anyway.

You are gonna need some syrups, and if you like Tiki, maybe you already have these. Cinnamon syrup is easy to make—mix up a cup or two of simple syrup over medium heat with a few crushed cinnamon sticks. Let that cool, strain, and you have cinnamon flavored syrup. Passion fruit can be a little harder. There are a few good brands out there that you can simply buy outright, but if you can get your hands on passion fruit purée, a homemade version is superior. Here’s how you can make it quickly: Mix equal volumes of simple syrup and passion fruit purée. That’s it! If you like it a little more tart you can adjust the ratio. We used frozen passion fruit from The Perfect Purée which has excellent flavor. They were kind enough to forward this list of places that have carried their products in the past, so if you live near any of these shops, do pay them a visit. Just don’t use juice or nectar advertised as passion fruit since these are already cut with other fruit juices and sugar.

With the syrups covered, you need some fresh lemon juice (or super juice) and a little orange liqueur. We used Cointreau, but any triple-sec will do. Finally, a dash of Angostura and 5 drops absinthe are required. Absinthe is pretty expensive and you don’t need a lot to make tiki drinks. You can also use Pernod in place of actual absinthe, but having some will unlock a bunch of drinks you have been missing.

Finally, while this doesn’t affect the flavor, an over-the-top garnish should be considered an obligation. This is, after all, a riff on the Saturn which is noted for using a cocktail cherry surrounded by “rings” that resemble planetary imagery from the Voyager spacecrafts. This should be your minimum goal, and you can do a much better job than we did by following these steps: Take two wide strips of lemon peel like you might use to make a twist. Poke the ends with a toothpick and continue running the pick through a cherry. To complete the look, wrap the opposite ends of the lemon peel around the cherry and slide them over the pick as it exits the other side. Now you have a garnish that resembles the ringed planet!

So, how does it taste? The Voyager has a nice refreshing balance of flavors. It is definitely not overly sweet, nor is it strong and spicy. Some of our favorite Tiki recipes mix multiple rums leading to intense, dark, complex results. That’s great, but tropical flavors work just as well in something lighter and refreshing without betraying the Tiki aesthetic. Even though we have cinnamon and Angostura, the spice here is under control. Cinnamon and passion fruit is a combo that is absolutely fantastic and totally underrated. The orange liqueur does not stand out, and the lemon helps keep the sugar in check. It’s a very good, well-balanced drink. We love shake-and-dump crushed ice cocktails for their simple method of construction and this one doesn’t disappoint!

We’ve made a few references to YouTuber Zach Zoschke who has been making videos off and on since the pandemic. His shorts are fast, entertaining takes on some really amazing recipes. It won’t take long before you are binging every single video he has posted, but you will find yourself pausing so you can grab a pencil, or constantly hitting like so you can come back and transcribe the details later on. That’s what we did anyway, and one of our favorites is his original, award-winning drink, the Cruel Summer. It contains grapefruit and Campari which always complement each other, especially when bolstered by a little extra acid from lemon and some simple syrup for balance. But what makes this really stand out is that it features an unusual spirit called Singani 63. Singani is a Bolivian grape distillate which technically makes it a brandy, or maybe you would call it pisco were it made in Peru. Singani is un-aged, so it is clear. It has incredible perfume-like floral notes, and while it is delicious on its own, this drink is a perfect way to drink it.

Cruel Summer by Zach Zoschke
2 oz Singani 63
1 oz grapefruit juice
.75 oz lemon juice
.75 simple syrup
.5 oz Campari

Combine in a shaker with ice, shake and strain into ice-filled Collins glass. Garnish with grapefruit peel twist.

Some interesting factoids about Singani 63 is that it is made from muscat grapes grown in the Andes at elevations above 5,200 feet, and although it is a historic spirit of the region, it was introduced to the US somewhat recently by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh. We’ve seen it occasionally on menus since about 2019. Once you try it you will be looking for other ways to drink it before your bottle is all gone. This may be called the Cruel Summer which made a lot of sense back in 2020 when most of us were drinking alone during lockdown, but we aren’t thinking about the pandemic anymore, so it’s a great summer drink to share as far as we’re concerned. The name is a good reminder of those long gone days, or just a reference to Bananarama if you are old enough to remember that band!

Could you make this drink with other spirits? Probably. A Peruvian or Chilean Pisco is the obvious choice and would probably work fine. We’ve even made it with homemade Rakia from Bulgaria. Zach’s formula works nicely with a little base spirit switch-a-roo but you owe it to yourself to make this as written with Singani. Give it a try, and if you, leave us a comment about what you think.

When you think of tiki cocktails, bourbon whiskey is not the first base spirit that comes to mind. Sure, there are a few recipes like the Eastern Sour or the Port Light which are both excellent. Even the delicious Suffering Bastard which was has a split base with gin was originally made with brandy, but most tiki is made with rum. You also don’t tend to think of Italian Amaro, though we love a good Jungle Bird. Yet, here we have a wonderful combination of refreshing tropical goodness with bourbon and Averna. It isn’t spiced nor rum-based, and we could drink these all summer long.

Kick back and enjoy this like you’re on vacation, never to return. This drink by Trey Jenkins of Austin was featured by Imbibe Magazine way back in 2015. We could have been making them for the past decade—better late than never. There’s no complicated rum categories to worry about and everything comes together in a convenient shake and dump fashion. You will need to collect a few things if you don’t have them already. Bourbon is easy, of course, but you’ll need some Averna. This is an Italian bitter liqueur, but it is the least bitter and most accessible of them all. Averna is very sweet and tastes a bit like cola on it’s own. It can make a wonderful riff on a Manhattan or you can whip up our own Scottie Ferguson.

Permanent Holiday by Trey Jenkins
1 oz bourbon
1 oz Averna
1 oz grapefruit juice
.5 oz lime juice
.5 oz passion fruit syrup
.5 oz Licor 43

Add everything to a shaker with lots of crushed ice and shake (or flash blend) to chill. Pour unstrained into a tall glass or your favorite tiki mug. Top with more crushed ice as needed and garnish with mint and an umbrella.

In addition, you will need to pickup a bottle of Licor 43 which is a Spanish vanilla liqueur that is essential for building a favorite in our house, the Night of the Hunter cocktail. Here, it provides a dreamsicle-like finish that is actually subtle at first but comes through more as this drink dilutes. Passion fruit syrup which you can make yourself is getting easier to find now as is the puree for a homemade version. Limes and grapefruit provide the sour, and we use super juice every chance we get.

So, how does it taste? Well, we mentioned the vanilla comes out later as you sip, but up-front, this drink has a bit of peach going on. That’s an odd result from a diverse ingredient list, but it works. Make one or two (or twenty) of these yourself and let us know what you think!

Fresh is best when it comes to citrus in cocktails, unless, of course, you are using Super Juice. A few years ago we went all-in, peeling citrus to extract the flavorful essential oils to make super juice—a way to use the zest of the fruit and acid powders to greatly expand the typical yield. Quite remarkably, the juice you create using this technique tastes fantastic, usually selected as better than fresh-squeezed from the same fruit in blind taste tests. And don’t forget that it does still come from the fresh fruit. We won’t get into the details here about why using super juice is so much more convenient, tastes better, lasts longer, costs less, and is more environmentally advantageous than squeezing citrus one at a time for your cocktails—we already covered that in our previous post. But we will dive into a common follow up question: What about grapefruit and orange?

Given the fact that the recipes for both lemons and limes are identical, one might conclude that you can apply the same formula to any citrus. While grapefruit and orange are conceptually similar, there are important adjustments that need to be made. Think about it for a moment. Lemons and limes are used in cocktails for their acidity in sours—a style of drink that requires something to balance the tart flavors with something sweet. You’d never pour a glass of lime juice and drink it straight. Even lemonade has a lot of sugar to bring all of that acid into balance. Now, take a glass of orange juice, or grapefruit. You can drink these on their own just fine.

There are plenty of enthusiasts out there who want “acid-adjusted” versions of orange and grapefruit so they can use them interchangeably in recipes that call for lemon or lime. This could result in a lot of interesting and creative ingredient swapping. But that’s not our goal. We want to enjoy all the benefits of super juice without contradicting the natural flavor profile so we can use super grapefruit and super orange in every existing recipe as-is, or serve them alone on occasion.

Fortunately, we are not starting from scratch. Nickle Morris, the bartender who introduced the world to super juice had some ideas about where to start. Since then, we have been developing our own recipes and decided to share our versions of super grapefruit and orange so others might give them a try. Let’s start with grapefruit.

Grapefruit Super Juice
100g grapefruit peels
1 liter water
24g citric
4g malic
2g MSG
100g sugar

Peel several grapefruit until you have at least 100 grams of peels. Create an “oleo citrate” by covering the peels with carefully measured citric and malic acid powers, sugar and MSG. Optionally, wait an hour for the powders to extract the oils from the peels (you don’t actually have to wait) and add the water. Blend for a few seconds to break down the peels into small pieces. Make sure the acid and sugar is fully dissolved, then filter through cheesecloth and store in a clean bottle. For maximum yield, squeeze the juice from the peeled fruit and add this to the bottle too. Store in the refrigerator.

We almost always make a half-sized recipe which rarely requires more than a couple large grapefruit. Breaking this down we see that compared to lime and lemon super juice, this calls for less acid, adds some sugar, and oddly, a pinch of MSG. It sounds crazy before you realize that grapefruit does have a savory note which comes from glutamic acid. The monosodium glutamate which is common in asian cuisine adds that component beautifully. It is easy to over do it, so measure carefully with a scale and you will be surprised how drinkable and delicious this is.

Our evolved recipe is simpler than the original Morris version which will have you boiling the peels to extract some bitterness. If you want more of that element, blend the peels just a bit longer, or get more of the white pith. In any case, the color comes out more yellow than ruby which is fine. If you like it pink, add a spoonful of beet root powder.

Orange Super Juice
130 g orange peels
1 liter water
13 g citric acid powder
1 g malic acid powder
120 g sugar

Peel several oranges until you have 130 grams of peels. Create an “oleo citrate” by covering the peels with acid powders and sugar. Optionally, wait an hour for the powders to extract the oils from the peels (you don’t actually have to wait) and add the water. Blend for a few seconds to break down the peels into small pieces. Make sure the acid and sugar is fully dissolved, then filter through cheesecloth and store in a clean bottle. For maximum yield, squeeze the juice from the peeled fruit and add this to the bottle too. Store in the refrigerator.

This recipe is even easier than the grapefruit (no MSG), but the concept is similar. We have less acid than lime or lemon and a lot of sugar. We also need more peel, though feel free to experiment. This super orange is intense, where fresh squeezed orange juice can often seem watery. It is more akin to store-bought Minute Maid, or orange juice made from concentrate. It works great in cocktails or as a morning refresher, but don’t over blend the orange peels or you will extract bitterness.

That’s it. These are the recipes we have been using for the past couple of years to make all of our “fresh” juice for cocktails. We can attest that the grapefruit works wonderfully in highballs and both are amazing in tiki cocktails. The orange makes a fantastic mimosa. The lower acidity and added sugar may not bode well for long-term storage compared to super lemon and lime, but it shouldn’t be any worse than fresh-squeezed, and you have the benefits of higher yields and more intense flavor. Enjoy, and let us know what you think.

One of the most popular (and historic) drink categories is the sour—a basic formula that combines a base spirit with fresh citrus juice and sugar. Originally published as a Daisy style cocktail by Jerry Thomas in the 1870s, the combo is often enhanced with the use of a liqueur as the sweetener to offset lemon or lime. Classic examples include the Margarita which uses orange liqueur and lime paired with tequila. This is just a couple swaps away from its predecessor, the Sidecar which is essentially the same drink only with lemon and Cognac. Yet, the Alabazam is a brandy version that predates the Sidecar by almost 40 years.

In addition to being a pre-Prohibition classic, the Alabazam has something very unusual for a Daisy, or any cocktail for that matter: a large proportion of cocktail bitters. Bitters like Angostura are typically doled out in tiny amounts because they are intensely flavored, intentionally bitter, and considered “undrinkable” on their own. This is perfect for adding a boost of flavor to season a drink with spices since a few dashes are all that is required and that’s not enough to make a whole cocktail bitter. It’s different from Italian amaro which is meant for consumption in similar proportions to other ingredients. In the Alabazam we treat Angostura like a potable amaro!

Alabazam
1.5 oz brandy
.5 oz Cointreau
.25 oz Angostura Bitters
.25 oz lemon juice
.25 oz simple syrup

Shake with ice to chill, then strain into a chilled, petite cocktail glass.

This isn’t the first time we have used more than the typical amount of Angostura in a recipe. The Angostura Sour takes this idea to the extreme. Here, we get the intensity of the spices and some of that bitterness while still enjoying a delicious spirit. We might recommend a good Cognac for this, but we opted for something even better. At our local outdoor market last week we met Chris and Suzie, founders of Journey Distilled, a local spirit producer that is using grape distillate from the Pacific Northwest. Their flagship product is a fantastic vodka but they recently released an XO brandy. Naturally, we picked up a bottle—number 24 of their first batch!

Living in wine country, you would think a lot more distillers would be taking advantage of the great brandy-making opportunities of the Willamette Valley and Columbia River regions. But you don’t see that. We’re glad Journey Distilled is making the most of the local viticulture and willing to put their precious spirit into barrels for so long. The result is a brandy that is as smooth as their vodka with an amber hue and a spiciness more akin to a good rye whiskey, yet richer and luxurious. It’s nice on its own and has plenty of flavor to work well in a cocktail. Brandy is underrated these days and a boom of interest and popularity seems long overdue

As sours go, this is an enjoyable classic that is rich and layered. If you have ever sipped a Sidecar but wished you had opted for a whiskey drink or something with a bitter slant, this is a nice option. The heavy-handed cocktail bitters does add some bitterness in this rare case, but the spices and base spirit are what makes this drink special. We often like sours more acidic than sweet, but we are using Boudreau/Canon proportions here and it is well-balanced. It also seems to improve as it warms.

Here’s a simple, boozy drink created in 2007 by Ted Kilgore, bar manager of Monarch Restaurant in Maplewood, Missouri back then. We were introduced to this one by a commenter on the Monte Carlo cocktail post which is an old classic that is similar. This drink was written up by Gary Regan in the San Francisco Chronicle and has been featured all over. However, most folks share sized-down tamer version. It’s definitely a strong drink, and judging by the name, that’s the whole point. We are going to use the proportions Gaz published, thank you very much.

This is one of those drinks that comes with a warning: Drink too many of these and you are in it—Purgatory that is. Everything has a high ABV. Rittenhouse Rye for instance, is 100-proof, Benedictine is 80, and Green Chartreuse weighs in at a whopping 110-proof! This requires a heavy stir to bring some dilution into the picture, so don’t be shy about stirring this for a good 30 seconds. If you opt for the half-size version you can certainly strain into two chilled Nick & Nora glasses for a more petite portion. It’s not a bad idea if you want to enjoy something else after this, but that’s not what we did (for the sake of history).

Purgatory by Ted Kilgore
2.5 oz bonded rye whiskey
.75 oz Benedictine
.75 oz Green Chartreuse

Stir with plenty of cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge or twist.

It was a bold choice combining two prominently-flavored French liqueurs with a spicy overproof whiskey, but it works. Rye’s peppery bite stands up to the heavy herbal notes of the liqueurs which are not as sweet as you might expect. Maybe this is owed in part to good dilution, but we at least expected to have some kind of herbal competition. Instead, Benedictine brings some of its honey flavor which blends nicely into the layered herbal backdrop of Green Chartreuse. It’s bold, but certainly delicious if you like spirit-driven sippers.

We’ve seen adjustments where people add a few dashes of Angostura which probably works. If you like that idea check out the Widow’s Kiss cocktail which opts for Yellow Chartreuse and apple brandy. We’ve also seen people getting away with a mist of absinthe like a Sazerac meets the Vieux Carré. To each their own. Try this and let us know what you think.

Few drinks inspire and impress us more than the VOTR. The impact of this special cocktail comes as much from its crystalline beauty as it does from the clarity of its flavor. It’s glorious—cold, clear, and cleanly unadorned—everything you could ever want in a refreshing beverage. And while fools may call it unimaginative, plain, and practically flavorless, we can’t argue, but we can suggest that perhaps they don’t understand its appeal.

The glass used may vary, but we like something tall and slender to accentuate the drops of condensation. When you reach for the VOTR, it has to be cold, and it will be if you make it properly. The ice should be cubes, and there’s no need to bother with anything fancy, just use plenty of what you have. (Note: If you don’t have any ice, you cannot make this cocktail.)

Once you have the right glass packed to the rim with ice cubes, now comes the highlight—vodka. It is admittedly not the base spirit we write about most often, but it is perfect in this case. While gin might look the same, vodka avoids all of those citrus notes and flowery botanicals. You don’t want any of that in this drink.

VOTR
1.5 oz vodka (or just make a double)
Ice cubes

Fill a glass with ice and top with vodka. Serve with a shrug and an eye roll.

Consider what this drink would look like if you used whiskey or rum—or even brandy for that matter. Yep: brown. Nobody wants a brown cocktail with all of that dirty barrel flavor. Or worse, what if this had something sugary or sour to muck everything up. We want none of that. Not here. Not today. Just use your best vodka. Please and thank you. Or you can mix some Everclear with water. You’re welcome.

Here is another spirit-driven cocktail featuring Yellow Chartreuse. This time, we only need a spoonful, but it’s just enough to create some herbal overtones for what is otherwise a somewhat unusual combination of ingredients. It was created by Keegan McGregor of Field Guide in Halifax, Nova Scotia and it appeared in the September/October 2019 issue of Imbibe Magazine. We made note of it years ago and have been wanting to make it ever since.

This is also a mezcal drink, or at least that’s how we would list it on a menu. That’s because mezcal, with its smokey character, doesn’t actually require the full volume of base spirit to exert control over the flavor. As this desert climate spirit was getting more popular in the craft cocktail scene, bartenders quickly realized that a mere half ounce alongside full ounce of tequila was plenty to give a cocktail a strong whiff of smoke without overpowering the other ingredients. It’s a smart move flavor-wise and since good mezcal can be more expensive than the tequila used, it’s also economical.

Dead Poet
1 oz blanco tequila
1 oz dry vermouth
.5 oz mezcal
.5 oz Benedictine
1 tsp yellow Chartreuse
2 dashes orange bitters

Stir with ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail coupe. Garnish with a lime peel twist.

While the mezcal-tequila base combination is typical, adding a vermouth modifier is not. This is something you see all the time with whiskey but rarely with agave spirits. We haven’t tried it since the Jalisco Stroll, and we absolutely love that drink! Here, we are going in a sweeter, herbal direction with the pair of French liqueurs. You could sub Ver if you haven’t been able to snag a bottle of Yellow Chartreuse, but there isn’t a good substitute for DOM Benedictine. Fortunately, that one is easy to find and it has plenty of other uses making it a worthwhile addition to your cabinet.

Benedictine actually blends nicely with its yellow Carthusian counterpart. These herbal liqueurs are in fact so good together we might have to go back through a list of drinks with one or the other and try swapping or combining them for some fun variations. A little orange bitters helps to bring everything together since orange pairs well with tequila. We made a pigtail garnish over the glass to capture any lime oil spray and help scent the surface and the rim. No question—there’s a lot going on here, but it somehow magically comes together.

We are not sure why this is called the Dead Poet, but we imagine this is is what Walt Whitman might have said about it:

Let us raise our glasses to the song of ourselves,
To the echoes of laughter, the ripple of good company,
To the shared breath of life and the thrill of the moment,
For every atom of joy in this drink belongs to us all.
Here’s to the shine and shade, the vine and the spirit—
A celebration of life in every sip!

Here’s a delicious, spirit-driven cocktail that is super easy to make. It’s called the Ce Soir and comes from the now-closed Boston cocktail bar, The Hawthorne. This drink was created by Nicole Lebedevitch around 2017 and its French name translates as Tonight. The Hawthorne may be gone, but we think this cocktail deserves to live on. The ingredients are not difficult to source with one exception—you need to get your hands on some Yellow Chartreuse. If you have been paying attention to the under-scaled production challenges that have failed to meet the worldwide demand for Chartreuse, you might have been able to pickup a bottle of Yellow, since the Green is more popular in recipes like the Last Word. If not, you can directly sub Ver liqueur which might be easier to find and is a very close replica of Yellow Chartreuse.

We welcome just about anything with Cynar, an approachable yet still somewhat bitter Italian Amaro with a great depth of flavor. The result is a slightly bitter, herbal and sweet mixture that is potent but smooth, dark and luxurious. A good cognac can give this drink a velvety dark chocolate undertone. As is sometimes the case with booze-forward recipes—the better your base spirit, the better the drink can taste. We had great results with Maison Rouge which hit the market about the same time as this drink was created. It is a decent value, but after some reflection, the powerful flavors of Cynar and Chartreuse might even let an inexpensive brandy work fine here.

Ce Soir
2 oz cognac
.75 oz Cynar
.25 oz Yellow Chartreuse
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash Regans’ Orange Bitters No. 6

Stir with ice in a mixing glass to chill, then strain into a cold coupe. Garnish with a heavy twist of lemon peel to coat the surface with oils and discard.

Brandy cocktails aren’t as common these days as whiskey and rum, so we appreciate having another good one to share with friends. We would not consider the garnish optional in this recipe. Even though you are discarding the lemon twist, the essential oils from the peel give this a wonderful aroma and the hint of lemon on the tongue gives just enough illusion to offset a generally sweet flavor profile. Give this a try and let us know what you think in the comments below!