Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Journalistic Integrity

Hello and happy Friday once again. I’ve been keeping a running list of drinks recipes I come across places online, as supplements to my cocktail books and when I’m having a hard time coming up with something original to experiment with. This week was definitely one of those weeks. I went back to the stash of recipes and had three plausible candidates to choose from this week. I ended up going with Jim Meehan’s Journalist. The other two I’ll keep on standby for now.

I chose the Journalist because pretty much everything Meehan touches is fantastic. I have two of his cocktail books (the Please Don’t Tell Cocktail Book and The Bartender’s Manual) and I’ve been to his namesake bar Please Don’t Tell in New York and it was fantastic. Also, this was the recipe that required the least amount of substitutions. I genuinely try to make these as close as I can, but sometimes I need to make subs, and in this case, subbing one orange liqueur for another seemed like it would cause the least amount of issues. Rest assured, the other two will be making appearances soon enough. Regardless, on to the Journalist!

.75 oz. gin
.25 oz. dry vermouth
.25 oz. sweet vermouth
.25 oz. orange Curaçao
.25 oz.  lemon juice
Dash of Angostura bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled coupe glass

There is more of a nose here than I expected. It has subtle hints of angostura up front, but that smell is mellowed with the Cointreau, which I can detect a little bit of as well. Surprisingly don’t get a whole lot of lemon here, since that usually makes itself known up front.

The sip is well balanced. The lemon is the most distinctive flavor I can initially pick up. Despite the proportion of gin to the lemon juice. The juniper and other herbs of the gin are muted a lot in this application. Initially, I can’t really detect the gin at all here. However after a few sips I start to recognize where it comes in. That is about midway through, but it does not over power at all. Instead it hangs out underneath the lemon and the vermouths. It carries itself that way throughout the rest of the sip.

The twin vermouths do a superb job to really maintain the flavor of this drink. The sweet cancels out the lemon, and and the dry does wonders on the usually strong gin favors. The curacao, or Cointreau in my case adds a really nice depth that I can really pick up after a few more sips. It really helps smooth out the sip, and the hint of orange lasts all the way from beginning to end, and even leaves a subtle aftertaste on my palate when I am finished.

If (when) you do make this, increase the measurements. The two comments on this from the New York Times both mentioned adding more, and on a first pass, I found out that even pouring into a coupe, there is still a lot of headroom. So I doubled the ingredients and that got a better pour. Hence the photograph above.

This is a very refreshing drink. It’s a terrific cooler for a warm summer evening, and takes very minimal effort. I’m interested in trying this with curacao, but swapping one orange liqueur for another does not seem to have caused any ill effects to the flavor.

(Banner image found here)

 

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Sharkbait
Sharkbait has not actually been bitten by a shark, but has told people in bars that he was for free drinks. Married to a Giants fan, he enjoys whisk(e)y, cooking, the Rangers, and the Patriots.
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BrettFavresColonoscopy

We need to get you better vermouth

Doktor Zymm

For some reason my reaction to this is that it sounds like it would be good with a fresh mint garnish

Horatio Cornblower

I’m letting Yahoo do a complete draft for me, and my QBs are Jalen Hurts and Kirk Cousins.

So help me God, if Yahoo gives itself an A for this draft…

Horatio Cornblower

Giovani Bernard is alive and on my team.

Game Time Decision

With Frank Gore as the other RB?

Horatio Cornblower

The other RBs were Taylor from Indy, (picking 11th, so, yeah), and Sermon out of SF. Not a lot of hope there.

Horatio Cornblower

But, hey! Travis Kelce!

Yahoo gave itself a B, noting that the only weaknesses were at RB, QB, and WR.

And other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?

Anthony In TX

Everyone knows RB, QB, and WR are the least essential positions in FF.
Kickers and D are where it’s at, baby.

Dunstan

One of my favorite recurring jokes on The League was Taco’s love for kickers.

Game Time Decision

#TeamWoodenSpoon

Dunstan

I’m assuming you’d have some rule about passing attempts or playing time, to make sure people don’t just play injured or third-string players.

Would be interesting drafting QBs in that league — you have to pick someone shitty enough to score good numbers but not so shitty that he’ll lose his job. (Or, ideally, a shitty QB with a dumb coach/owner who will stick with him no matter what.)

Dunstan

For QBs it wouldn’t be too hard. Just give sufficient positive points for incompletions relative to the minuses for yardage/TDs, such that it doesn’t make sense to just take a zero.

Defense/Special Teams avoids this problem entirely.

Kickers also pretty easy; just reward DOINKs and punish successful PATs/FGs.

For other positions it’s trickier. You could give RBs positive points per carry and negative for yardage/TDs, but that probably makes “decent RB on a great team who gets a lot of garbage time clock burning carries” more valuable than “shitty RB whose team gives up on the run after the 1st quarter.”

For all receivers I guess you could reward “drops,” but that’s a small part of “shitty receiver”

Horatio Cornblower

Nelson Agohlor goes #1

Game Time Decision

Football Outsiders runs a “loser league” like this. But the trick is that they have to actually play, you get penalised if they do not
Edit: and would totally play in that league. For most of my teams, I could draft the same.

Last edited 3 years ago by Game Time Decision
Dunstan

Suggested team names:

Hurtin’ Cousins
Team Afraid Of Vaccine Hurts

Anthony In TX

We need a RTD Rod and Todd update on this joker tout de suite…

https://twitter.com/donwinslow/status/1431145201477640193

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

One of the worst things about not having a fridge (new one won’t be here until Monday) is that I can’t make ice, which means I can’t make cocktails. And it’s gonna be in the nineties all weekend!

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

STOP RAINING ON MY DRAMA PARADE!

ballsofsteelandfury

I saw a video on YouTube where Greg from How To Drink did margaritas using the different orange liqueurs (Triple Sec, dry Curaçao, Cointreau, and Grand Marnier) to see what the difference was.

According to him, there was a distinct difference but maybe the amplitude of that difference depends on the liquor you mix them with…