Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Unique New York

Hello Friday, nice to see you again. I’ve been looking forward to today for a myriad of reasons: I’ve been poked and prodded over the last few weeks with various doctors and dentist appointments and today is the last appointment! Also the Euros start today! A month of pretending to work while watching footy begins with hosts Germany taking on Scotland. With footy comes the need for a tasty beverage because of course and I’ve got a good one for you this week. Admittedly I was looking for something more tropical vibe this week, but I’m fresh out of Orgeat, so I had to pivot and came across the Park Avenue from the Vintage Cocktails book I have. I’m hoping the pineapple inclusion will scratch the Tiki itch I’ve got going on right now….

Park Avenue

2 oz. gin

.75 oz. Pineapple juice

.75 oz. Sweet Vermouth

2 tsp. Orange curacao

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass

Yes, I know that’s Triple sec and not curacao. I thought I had a bottle in my bar, but apparently I have three bottles of triple sec. I have no idea how that happened. Luckily, they can be interchanged with each other without affecting the overall flavor too much.

Subtle aroma. Very light on the orange, with some juniper notes coming from the gin.

This is excellent. It gives off a slightly tropical vibe, thanks to the pineapple. It starts out with a fruity, pineapple flavor that is quite pleasant, and after a bit of delay, the dry juniper notes from the gin work their way through the sweet juice. It doesn’t completely take over however. I think the pineapple and the orange flavors from the triple sec hold the gin back enough from completely dominating the flavors going in here. I’m curious to see what, if any difference the curacao would make vs. the triple sec I had on hand.

If there is to be a difference, I imagine it would manifest in the finish. I got the most amount of orange flavor at the end of the drink vs. when I first started it. Almost as if it separated in my glass as I was sipping it, but I highly doubt it actually did. Maybe I just went a little flavor blind to the mix of gin and pineapple and that allowed the orange flavors to become a little more prominent. The vermouth gets relegated to background work only. It might counter the triple sec/curacao? But I didn’t really pick up much of its flavors in the drink.

This was excellent, and almost hit what I was looking for. Clearly I need to get more orgeat to fulfill my tiki needs, but this will do the job in the time being.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)