Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Yacht or Not?

Hello, and happy short week Friday! I originally had something sort of seasonal planned for this spot. However a busier than normal week meant that breaking out specialized tools for beverage making wasn’t going to be a thing unfortunately. Maybe I can get to it next week while the seasonal tie in is still a thing.

Needing to pivot (and wanting to keep the base rum ingredient courtesy of our own Mr. Don T), I found an intriguing recipe in the Waldorf Astoria Cocktail Book called The Yacht Club. The only unfortunate thing is, I’m fresh out of apricot liqueur. I decided to go for it anyway and just tweak it a little bit. Instead of the apricot liqueur, I went for Cointreau, since orange is already a thing with the bitters. Not wanting too much orange flavor, I 86’d the orange bitters and used angostura instead. I’ll still post the original recipe here so you fine folks (or me) can make it later on:

2 oz. Appleton Estate white rum or Don Q anejo rum (I used Don Q Cristal – Thanks again Don T!)

1 oz. Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth

.25 oz. Rothman & Winter apricot brandy (I used an equal measure of Cointreau)

1 dash Regan’s Orange Bitters no. 6 (1 dash Angostura Bitters)

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass. Add ice and stir for 30 seconds. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lemon peel

The nose is orange forward. Not surprising at all given the quarter ounce of Cointreau in here. I can also get a little sweet vermouth notes in there the more I go back and smell it.

Oh, the flavor of this is interesting, and I think this amended version plays. I  especially like how the flavor evolves here. Usually one ingredient starts out string before the others come into play. In this one however, no flavor really jumps out at first. All the ingredients start out mixed together in a nice harmony, and then as the sip progresses, the rum is the one ingredient that starts to become more prevalent. However, when it does come in, it doesn’t over power the initial flavor mixture. Instead, it almost acts as a base. You can certainly taste it, but the alcohol isn’t the focal point. Instead, the natural rum flavor comes out.

With the aforementioned initial mixture of ingredients, I can still pick up each individual flavor, and they are all perfectly balanced. As one would expect from a cocktail made by the Waldorf. I think that’s what I like about this the most. It’s complex, but balanced, and all the ingredients bring their best to the drink, and play to the strengths of their fellow drinks. The vermouth and orange flavors are a good combination to start, and they have an added bonus of really enhancing the rum and making this a very tasty and refreshing cocktail. If this is how the altered version tastes, I’m very much looking forward to trying the regular Waldorf version.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)