Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Learning From The Masters

Happy hate week Friday! I don’t have much hate in this space this week. That’s because the local bar/restaurant near me decided to hold a cocktail making class on Monday of this week. Naturally, I signed Mrs. Sharkbait and I up for this awesome activity.

The class itself was just 15 people total, with the owner and their partner behind the bar leading the class.

They started the course by passing around a couple different cocktail books they use for inspiration: The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg and the original Death and Co cocktail book by Alex Day, David Kaplan, and Nick Fauchald. Of which, after perusing, I very much need.

Then it got hands on. They asked who wanted to juice some blood oranges for a cordial we were making. Immediately I raised my hand, and was somewhat surprised to see I was the only one volunteering to get down and dirty making drinks

After the cordials, fresh syrups were made: dill, jalapeno, and blueberry syrups which were optional ingredients in the three groups we were splitting into for our drinks:

Light and fruity – This category was as described, with the suggested cocktail being a mai tai

Creamy and dreamy – with the featured drink being an espresso martini

and last but not least

Herbal and mysterious – I forget what the suggested cocktail was here, because I was already eyeing the provided options: mezcal, gin, chile ancho liqueur, strega and aperol

After trying various combinations of base spirits and the aforementioned syrups and cordial, I overheard one of the hosts mentioning that anything on the bar was also in play for cocktail creation.

Game. On.

Now, with the entire bar at my disposal, what did I choose to try?

I chose Amaros. Specifically Cynar and Montenegro.

Why? I’ve had my eye on Cynar for a while, and my experience with amaro has been Fernet Branca and Fernet Branca only. I figured this was a good way to sample a couple different widely available brands (and flavors) without committing to a bottle, in case I didn’t like what it had to offer.

Now, I needed to find the appropriate flavors to match the amaro, and I settled on gin, specifically Glendalough. Glendalough is a bit lighter than other dry gins I’ve had and I wanted the other flavors to shine through and not get lost in an overpowering gin. After that, I decided my drink needed some acid, and sweetness. I chose lemon juice for the acid, as I thought that played the best, and regular simple syrup for the sweetener, as I thought adding another flavor at this stage would be detrimental.

So, my drink this week is as follows:

1.5 oz gin
.25 oz. Cynar
.5 oz Lemon juice
.25 simple

A bit of gin on the nose. Not as much as normal since the gin I used has softer aromas and flavors than my usual go to. I also get notes of the amaro and lemon coming through as well. A nice combination going on here.

The sip starts off fairly mild, then a mix of the lemon juice and the gin kicks in. For the lemon I get a lot of flavor, but not too much sourness which is a good thing. As mentioned before, I changed up the gin, and didn’t use a London Dry. The Irish gin, like its aroma, has more subtle flavors, which work very well here. I can get enough of the gin to let me know this is a proper cocktail, but it isn’t heavy or juniper or other earthy notes that I think would unbalance the flavor profile going on here. This drink’s strength is in its harmony and subtleness.

The Cynar is detectable about three quarters of the way through the sip. It adds a slight bitterness to the lemon and gin body and works very well here, resulting in a slightly bitter lemon finish to the sip. The Cynar also leaves a trace amount of flavor after you’ve finished, but nothing overbearing, and it dissipates fairly quickly.

Not a bad creation for having an entire bar at my disposal. I had a lot of fun at the class as well, and hope they do another one in the future.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)