BFC’s Substitute Teacher Cocktail of the Week–Let’s Go Irish

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Sharky is off tonight. He was eaten by wolves is on vacation.  I’m Tits Magee.

You’re getting a few substitute teacher editions of cocktail of the week this month (and year?) since The Family Sharkbait (or en español Los Sharkbait) are doing some traveling (I’ll leave it to him to disclose locations, I can’t divulge whilst they’re traveling due to opsec).

But as anyone who knows me on the interwebz or in meat space can tell you, I’m all for massive travel. But I have to say it feels like a little more pressure filling in when I know that it’s not just a one off. I have to deliver on multiple ideas multiple times in the same month? I don’t know if I can take the pressure.

But here we are, if it kills me, we know who to blame so….someone avenge me or something.

So what to make so as not to duplicate or disappoint? It is hot as balls (non-SteelandFury edition) here in DC so my first requirement was for something that would be refreshing. I thought about maybe a Hemingway Daiquiri since I have some fresh grapefruits in the house, but Sharky has already done that in a twofer post. I thought about a Brown Derby, but I didn’t actually want one. But speaking of derbies, once I got going down the grapefruit juice rabbit hole I found something completely new to me–the Belfast Derby.

Yeah, let’s assemble our ingredients and make that. And we can leave the Irish jokes for the comments.

A couple of notes on technique —

• I know I used a fancy Irish whiskey. That’s only because I couldn’t find my more pedestrian Irish whiskey. Because I’m an idiot and I didn’t look closely enough on the bar cart. Saw the massive bottle I picked up from Costco a while back virtually as soon as I finished drinking. This would absolutely work with any Irish whiskey, but yeah, fancy aged stuff was lovely.
• With agave, really important to shake it HARD. Just like peeing when you’re wearing a suit. Or something.
• Fresh juices make a huge difference. When I don’t have fresh fruit in the house to squeeze, I use higher end bottled stuff like Santa Cruz, but I’m acutely aware that I’m a cocktail snob and a total douchebag. Sidenote: most bars have gone to super juice to be more efficient (read: cost effective) and have the juice last longer but a) I’m not fucking around with citric acid or chemistry generally and b) that shit does slightly change ratios.
• Given the amount of pulp in the grapefruit, I always planned on double straining it, which became even more necessary once the cork from the whiskey broke off into the bottle. When I do that, I pop off the top of the shaker and use a Hawthorne strainer and a fine mesh strainer underneath it. Learned from a real bartender to use the tin to tap the strainer to get more liquid through to the glass.
• Ice at home is always colder than at a bar, so I often let the ice sit for a bit in the tin before I start adding ingredients. Helps get the right amount of dilution.
• The link above says no garnish but that’s horseshit so I added half a lime wheel

Ok enough of that, let’s take a fucking sip.

Well, it hits the nail on the head for refreshing. Definitely not as tart as I was expecting. Not just because of the agave, I think the Irish whiskey is doing a lot of work here to smooth everything out. This is dangerous in how easily sippable it is. If I make this again (which I almost certainly will) I think I’d potentially ratchet up the grapefruit a little but then again, maybe not. Second sip, I get more depth, maybe that’s the ango bringing up the brightness.  Not too sweet, not too strong, just like me.  Wait, scratch that.

Anyway, this is a great drink that absolutely works in summer but could work anywhere from brunch to aperitif.  It has potential to make it into the rotation. But we shall never speak of it again and see what happens in the next edition of COTW 2: Substitute Boogaloo.