Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Capturing The Spirit of the Thing

Happy Friday! This week I’m happy to finally make a drink I’ve had on my list to make for a long time: a Paper Plane! I was in New Hampshire earlier this week and I stopped into the liquor store to re-fill some bar essentials since New Hampshire is the land of cheap booze and came across a bottle of amaro nonino. Even though it wasn’t on my list I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to get my hands on a bottle and the Paper Plane was the first thing I thought of to utilize this new ingredient.

.75 oz. bourbon

.75 oz. Aperol

.75 oz. Amaro Nonino Quintessentia

.75 oz  lemon juice, freshly squeezed

Add the bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino and lemon juice into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a coupe glass.

Man, I feel like I’m a proper (albeit amateur) mixologist now that I have a bottle of amaro nonino.

There is a very low key aroma, if any such smell exists at all here.

My initial impression is that this is excellent. It’s very well balanced,which makes sense that it’s an equal parts cocktail.

Going back in for more tastings is where I can really start to pick out the individual layers at work here.

It starts out a touch on the sweet side. By touch I mean barely. I would assume that’s the amaro at work (this being my first attempt at using it and all)

Then the sour and bitter flavors come in. That’s the fresh lemon juice and the aperol for you.

Those sour/slightly bitter flavors don’t really dominate, but they do elbow their way to the front of the palate.

The restraining factor for those ingredients is the whiskey. In this case I used rye because as mentioned before, that’s usually what I have on hand.

You can definitely get the extra zip the rye brings right at the end. It’s like the drink holds it in check as long as it can, but it’s not quite enough. Which isn’t a bad thing mind you. Bourbon may be a touch more balanced in this application, but I like that rye spice and I think it works well here.

Again, I’m finally glad I was able to try this. I should try it with bourbon and I probably will the next time I get a bottle on hand, but for now, I’ll definitely be making this with the eye and I’ll be exploring more awesome drinks that call for amaro nonino

Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)