When Almond Syrup Ruled The World

The Little Bit Country in the PDT book — the one with the bourbon, lemon juice, maraschino and jalapeno that helped us figure out what to do with all these jalapenos we have — is even better when you replace the maple syrup with almond syrup (orgeat). Well, maybe not necessarily better, but different and worth experimenting with.

Almond Syrup, Plus, Also, Too

I don’t want to repeat the name of the cocktail sharing the name of the post title here, mostly because I think it’s mostly offensive, even if the author seemingly innocently used it. The provenance is I’m assuming that ’80s song. I always thought the lyrics were talking about, er, onanism and, uh, what one’s eyes, uh, look like during which. The band claims otherwise but their claims are totally unbelievable [edit: went back and read the lyrics and am now doubly incredulous]. So anyway, that happened.

It’s three parts rye (or bourbon), one part orgeat, one part triple sec, one part lemon juice and several dashes of bitters. Pretty good and not medicinal tasting like the other variation on this.

Almond Syrup, Too

When we last left it, I said I wanted to try the Trinidad Sour, which is three parts rye, one part Fernet Branca, one part lemon juice and one part orgeat (or whatever you’re using). This is good — the Fernet Branca is medicinal but you get used to it, which I know doesn’t sound appetizing, but in the end/by the end, it’s a nice cocktail.

Almond Syrup

At the grocery store I happened upon a bottle of Orzata almond syrup (by Ferrara), and I did a double take because I’ve come across a lot of, or at least a few, cocktail recipes that featured orgeat (and not just a mai tai, which doesn’t sound particularly appealing), so I put it in the cart and googled it when I got home. It seems to be the same stuff.

Tonight we found a recipe using rye (by request): something called a Pioneer Spirit that a New York-based bar created: eight parts rye, four parts Applejack, two dashes Angostura bitters and a bar spoon of orgeat. I sort of know what a bar spoon is but not really, and the recipe parenthetically notes it’s “.8 ounce,” which I don’t think is right: I kept seeing it was a teaspoon. Anyway, so I used a teaspoon. The drink is good: if you want to taste rye, you will taste it. The almond flavor is just an accent, making me wonder if they actually did mean .8 ounce (still seems like a lot). Anyway, I think it’s all tweakable, and a good start for almond syrup.

These two drinks sound like they could be promising: the Trinidad Sour and these versions of the Japanese Cocktail (and there’s a point where both links basically overlap, with one using Fernet Branca and the other Triple Sec).