Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Orient Express

Happy first Friday in December. I was having a conversation with Mrs. Sharkbait the other day, and we were trying to figure out a good analogy for this time of year. I mean, we’re already in the 4th quarter, but have we hit garbage time status yet? We came to the conclusion that we’re inside 5 minutes of a blowout, just running up the middle to kill clock until the 2 minute warning (Christmas Eve) when we can start taking knees.

What was I talking about? Oh right. Drinks. This week I had a coupe ideas lined up, which blew up in my face when I realized we finished off all the apple cider from Thanksgiving last week. So, I needed to scramble and come up with a last minute fill in. That’s when I found The Oriental. To be honest, I’m kind of surprised I haven’t made this before, or even thought of adding all these together just by pure accident, but here we are. Let’s mix!

1.5 oz rye whiskey
.75 oz sweet vermouth
.75 oz triple sec (Cointreau)
.5 oz fresh lime juice

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass, and serve.

Nose is surprisingly on the mellow end of the spectrum. The lime emerges as the dominant aroma, edging out any kind of additions the rye makes to the collective smell party.

What this drink is in mellow nose, it makes up for in flavor. The sip starts out as an excellent blend of all the flavors, resulting in a very bright start to the flavor profile. Subsequent sips is when you can start to discern the different layers at work here. The rye provides a nice base for everything else to build on, and it’s flavor remains fairly constant, despite the majority of it’s boozy bite being held back by the other ingredients.

The twin citrus ingredients (the fresh lime and the orange liqueur) I think contribute the most to the bright mouth feel this drink has going for it. I think they are also the most critical to muting the rye and keeping this as solid and easy drinker.

The vermouth is the weakest of the ingredients flavor wise. It is definitely there to just add a little bit of background sweetness. Of which, isn’t a bad thing. Just because I can’t pick up much of it, doesn’t mean it isn’t needed. If it wasn’t there, this drink would certainly be lacking.

I very much enjoyed this, Especially since my other options for drinks were not available for ingredient reasons. I’m pleased to add this to my repertoire.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)