In Which The Smarter Among Us Figures Out What We Drank

(In other words, not me.) We tried this drink called the Perique Swizzle at this cocktail place nearby which was interesting and good (interesting *and* good is always good), then tried to replicate it at home: two ounces rum, 1.5 ounce mezcal, .5 ounce falernum, .5 ounce amaro (they used sfumato rabarbaro; we tried both cynar and amaro ciociaro, the latter being better), a pinch of salt and some crushed mint leaves. As the name evokes, the original was a variation on a swizzle, which is Caribbean using rum, falernum and juices. Go easy on the salt: the bartender at the Last Word called it a “salt brine” and indeed there’s a thin line between delicate oyster liquor and a snoutful of Labor Day surf.

When A Negroni Is More Like A Syrupy Manhattan

We tried the negroni proportions (1 part-1 part-1 part) with rye whiskey, Amaro CioCiaro and sweet vermouth. It was good but I’m just now realizing it’s sort of like a really whiskey-light Manhattan, isn’t it?

That’s Amaro

I’d been seeing recipes for cocktails using Amaro CioCiaro and finally got a bottle. The first recipe I rooted around and found was this Triborough cocktail in the PDT book.

For some reason there are all these borough-based cocktails. Manhattan — obviously. But there’s these Brooklyn and Bronx cocktails, too. In the David A. Embury book he quips that “Every borough of Greater New York has to have its special cocktail. . . .” That line is preceded by something called a “Westchester Special.” Maybe at one point people tasted the treacly Sweet Tart taste of maraschino and automatically thought “Brooklyn,” but it’s hard to discern what that might be. Whatever. And I actually like maraschino.

So anyway, the Triborough (not “Triboro”) is a recent creation from the PDT people*: Rye, kirschwasser, Punt e Mes**, Amaro CioChiara and Angostura bitters. Four parts, then one part for everything else: 3.5 ounces. Plus one dash. And . . . it’s good!

This, by the way, seems like a nice primer on the matter of Italian bitters.

*It’s Nate Dumas, who now is part of New York Distilling Company, an all-star dream spirits team who, as far as I know, have been doggedly trying to open the first distillery in the New York area for like a gazillion years.

**And, we don’t have Punt e Mes, but apparently you can recreate this by combining two parts sweet vermouth with one pat Campari).