Sharkbaits Cocktail of the Week: Imperial Units

Happy anniversary week DFO! Has it really been ten years since KSK went #Upforwhatever? I’m glad it did. I forget when I started lurking and eventually going full on commentist, I think it was almost immediately after the split from KSK.

I know it took me a while to get up the courage to write here occasionally. I took a trip with the family to a Giants – Bucs game in New Jersey a number of years ago. Having always liked anytime someone wrote a Boots on the Ground (BOTG) post, so I figured I would try out writing and see what it led to. It led to writing a review of. Whisky o brought back from France of all places. That post is really what led to this wonderful project. We needed content in the off season, and knowing we already had the excellent Sunday gravy, I thought a drinks piece would be appreciated. 340 posts later, I think it’s fit in quite well. Here’s to keeping this place going as long as we can.

Now for this week’s drink, I kept it simple and went back to The Savoy cocktail book and chose to make The Imperial cocktail. It’s been a while since I broke out the Luxardo Maraschino liqueur and this looked like an interesting combination worth trying.

The Imperial:

1 Dash Maraschino 

1 Dash Angostura Bitters

1/2 French  Vermouth (dry)

1/2 Gin

Stir well and serve with olive

You’ll notice immediately off the bat that there is no olive garnish. That’s because olives are gross. Though I can see where a briny alternative garnish would go well here. The color is lighter than I thought.  It has an ever so slightly pinkish hue to it. Looks like it could be a rosé

There is a strong maraschino smell on the top. Nothing else makes it through, though the only real contender is the gin since the dry vermouth is easily overpowered by gin any day of the week.

The taste, just like the aroma, leads heavily into the maraschino. Now I had to eyeball a dash since it’s hard to dash a bottle that is straight up open. Even the thumb over the mouth of the bottle isn’t an exact science so I probably added more than the creators intended here, which explains the increased flavor it adds here

Although heavy on the maraschino, it doesn’t ruin the drink overall which is a pleasant surprise. Thankfully the vermouth and gin combination are able to make their way through the maraschino overload to bring some balance back. Once the cherry liqueur diminishes, the profile dries out, which is more in line with what I was expecting here.

The finish is more of the same. Dry, with hints of vermouth and the leftover juniper flavors from the gin that round out the sip. Surprisingly though, a slight hint of maraschino lingers on the palate for a little bit post sip as well. I didn’t expect this at all.

Overall, I think I’d make this again. I’d definitely dial back the maraschino to a more manageable level to see how this is intended to work. But it’s good to know that even over pouring that ingredient didn’t ruin this drink at all. In fact, if you like a more sweet drink, I’d free pour the maraschino like I did and you would probably very much enjoy this.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)