Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Workshopping

Happy December, and welcome to the “garbage time” portion of 2023. To me Thanksgiving is like the two minute warning in a blowout game. It’s a formality marking the end of the game, but we’re all forced to finish out the string.

Anyway, On return from my vacation to Honolulu (of which, 10/10 would recommend visiting), I stopped in Los Angeles to visit some family, and I was also able to meet up with Rikki-Tikki-Deadly. While we were hanging out we discussed various recipes for drinks and he brought up a drink he and the Dr. Mrs. enjoy: A “bourbon negroni”. Which is equal parts bourbon, Grand Mariner, and sweet vermouth with a slice of orange peel. We discussed ideas to spruce it up and I said I would make it when I got home, and so I did – with a couple notable exceptions. I used rye instead of bourbon because A) that’s what I had on hand, and B) I was thinking rye might be better since it has a little extra zip to the flavor profile that would stand out here. I also used triple sec instead of Grand Marnier. Again, because that’s what I had on hand, and I wanted to see if it would play as a substitute. So going with those swaps, I did this:

Bourbon Rye Negroni

2 oz. Rittenhouse Rye

2 oz. Sweet vermouth.

2 oz. Triple sec

3-4 dashes Orange bitters

Orange slice

Add all ingredients to a rocks glass with ice. Stir and garnish with the orange slice

I decided to add some orange bitters to this as well. With negroni in the name, I figured it needed something bitter in there, since to me anyway, is the calling card of a negroni. Plus, a little extra orange in there isn’t gonna be a bad thing.

So it starts out with a warm citrus-y aroma, with subtle hints of orange that aren’t immediately detectable, but do come out the more you go looking for them. Though to be fair, I am just getting over a head cold so any smells might be muted for me, but that’s what I got.

As to the taste, it is sweet. Much sweeter than I would have expected. I was banking on the whiskey cutting through the vermouth a bit more than it does. Though I do wonder if the triple sec adds more sweetness than what the rye can cut through. That assessment makes more sense the more I have of this. It’s really hard for me to pick up the whiskey flavors. They are there in the sense that you can definitely tell there’s booze in this (aside from the vermouth) but it is definitely a background player at best. Because of that, I think rye is the move for the base spirt. Bourbon is the sweeter than rye, and this drink definitely doesn’t need anything else to add to the sweetness going on here. Towards the end, I do start to pick up some of the orange bitters. The 3-4 dashes I added seems to be the sweet spot. It turns out It definitely needed the hint of bitterness to balance the heavy sweet vermouth/triple sec flavor.

There is real potential here, but some tweaks are needed. I’m thinking my process will go something like this: Keep the ratios the same, but try the Grand Marnier to see if that cuts the sweetness a bit. If that doesn’t work, I’ll try reducing the vermouth and/or the Grand Marnier measurements as well. Just for kicks, I might try doing this with a dry vermouth. That could be a game changer as well. Certainly all these options are on the table and will be experimented with. I’ll report back my findings as well of course.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)