Science Of Drink

Angostura bitter is hard available in the Ukraine. But Angostura bitter is essential ingredient of the famous Manhattan. Manhattan is truly magnificient cocktail. As Garry Regan wrote in they The Joy of Mixology Manhattan is King of Cocktail. Actually we can make acquaintance with Manhattan with help of two very interesting special variations.

The Special Manhattan Cocktail was found at the CocktailDB. It contain Campari Bitter instead Angostura.

Special Manhattan Cocktail

50 ml whiskey
25 ml sweet vermouth
7 ml Campari
Stir well with a lot of ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with cocktail cherry.

Actually a proper whiskey in Manhattan are american whiskeys like rye whiskey or bourbon, but you may substitute with canadian whisky with apropriate results.

I tasted several combinations with all of my canadian whisky – Canadian Club, Black Velvet and my favorite Crown Roal De Luxe. Also I use two of my sweet vermouths – Martini & Rossi Rosso and Cinzano Rosso. IMHO Martini Rosso vermouth is not great choice for both cocktails. The Cinzano works well in both.

The Special Manhattan Cocktail is great man’s drink. It is connoisseur’s choice. This cocktail is too similar to original Manhattan. It is strong bitter sweet and complex cocktail with aromatic profile. The bitternes of this two cocktails are so different.

Our next cocktail is Esquire Manhattan. This cocktail was created by D. Wondrich for Manhattan Experience Contest. This Manhattan contain Fernet-Branca instead of Angostura.

Esquire Manhattan (Эсквайр Манхэттен)

50 ml bourbon
25 ml sweet vermouth
12 ml Fernet-Branca
Stir well with a lot of ice. Strain into chilled cocktail glass and add a orange twist.

Original recipe prescribe Woodford Reserve bourbon and Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth.

The Esquire Manhattan is great cocktail. It has strong bitter-sweet taste with great bourbon palate. The bitter finish are very interesting with a lot of herbal bitter notes of Fernet-Branca. It is great Manhattan expirience.

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The Boulevardier Cocktail was introduced for me by Eric Elestad. I read about this cocktail at his perfect blog – Underhill Lounge. His specify that The Boulevardier is more better cocktail than tasted Old Pal. And now I collected a few bottle of perfect bourbon whiskey and ready to taste some interesting.

The story of Boulevardier Cocktail conected (as Ted Haigh in his Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails specify) with name of Erskine Gwynne – expatriate writer, socialite (I like this word!) and nephew of railroad tycoon Alfred Vanderbilt, which edited a magazine The Paris Boulevardier circa 1930. The Boulevardier was his signature drink. This cocktails was rirst mentioned in Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone (1927).

First I atsted the adapted version from the Ted Haigh’s book:

The Boulevardier

45 ml bourbon whiskey
30 ml sweet vermouth
30 ml Campari
Stir all ingredients long and well with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

I use the Four Roses Bourbon and Cinzano Rosso for my first Boulevardier. It is so good and interesting cocktail. But it is not ideal. The Boulevardier cocktail has bitter-sweet taste with some hints of bourbon. I decide to taste the authentic proportions of the Boulevardier Cocktail from Barflies and Cocktails by Harry McElhone.

Boulevardier aka Bourbon Negroni

25 ml bourbon
25 ml sweet vermouth
25 ml Campari
Stir all ingredients long and well with a lot of ice. Strain into cocktail glass.

The Boulevardier Cocktail aka Bourbon Negroni is great and magnificient cocktail. It has rich and complex palate with notes of sweet herbs, citrus fruits and bourbon.

Also I try the Old Pal Cocktail with rye whiskey instead canadian:

Old Pal

25 ml rye whiskey
25 ml dry vermouth
25 ml Campari
Mix well with a lot of ice. Strain into fancy cocktail glass.

This cocktail is not bad bad no great. It has so bitter taste with herbal pakae of vermouth and Campari and spicy taste of rye whiskey. The Boulevardier is my choice from this two cocktails.

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The Agavoni Cocktail was founded in The Essential Bartender`s Guide by Robert Hess. Hess specify that this cocktail was created by Bastian Heuser for Mixology Magazine, Berlin, Germany. Actually the Agavoni is Negroni with a tequila blanco instead of gin and with two dashes of orange bitters and grapefruit zest instead traditional orange wheel.

Agavoni

25 ml silver tequila
25 ml Campari
25 ml sweet vermouth
2 dashes orange bitter
Pour all ingredients into ice-filled Delmonico glass and stir to chill and mix. Garnish with a twist of grapefruit.

For my Agavoni I use tequila Corralejo blanco 100% de agave and Cinzano rosso. Also I use Angostura orange bitter and garnish cocktail with lemon peel.

The Agavoni is simple but excelent cocktail. It has bright sweet and bitter taste with great palate of fruit tequila notes, smooth vermouth botanicals and crisp Campari bitternes. This cocktail also has interesting citrus – lemon and orange – notes. It is admirable cocktail!

This cocktail has so familiar name but great composition. The Old Pal Cocktail recipe was found on the CocktailDB. Some times ago I found this cocktail in one of my favorite cocktail book – Cocktail and Mixed Drinks by Anthony Hogg. But Hogg specified rye instead Canadian Club.

Old Pal

25 ml Canadian Club
25 ml dry vermouth
25 ml Campari
Stir. Cocktail glass.

The Old Pal Cocktail is great drink with piquant and complex bitter palate. It is great aperitive and very interesting cocktail.

The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail is one of key-cocktail for my blogging. Some years ago this cocktail was found at Slakethirst (now defunct) and I was fascinated by it.

The Lucien Gaudin is an interesting cocktail which consist of four components – gin (as main alcohol), vermouth (deluent), cointreau (sweetener) and Campari (for piquant taste).

Lucien Gaudin Cocktail

30 ml gin
15 ml vermouth dry
15 ml cointreau
15 ml Campari
Stir. Cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail is awesome drink with compose bitter-sweet palate. It is great aperetive.

P.S. The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail is so popular in mixosphere – about Lucien Gaudin Cocktail wrote drohnenton (russian), anonimous с (Slakethirst), Robert Hess (DrinkBoy) for The Spirit World, Rick Stutz (Kaiser Pinguin), Paul Clarke (Cocktail Cronicles) for Serious Eats, Chuck Taggart (Looka!), Jessica (сocktail virgin slut). Not bad! It is like great MxMo roundup :)