Yozakura

• 1.5 oz. Cerasum aperitivo
• 0.75 oz. Sakura gin
• 0.75 oz. elderflower liqueur

Stir with ice and strain into glass.

Cerasum is a sweeter amaro that features cherries and cherry blossoms. It’s pleasant to sip without the harsh bitterness often found in other amaros. I wanted to use this for a lower ABV drink, so to a healthy base of Cerasum I added Sakura gin, a NY based gin that also uses cherry blossoms. To balance these two I grabbed elderflower, keeping to the floral theme.

The name comes from a Japanese tradition of nighttime viewing of illuminated cherry blossoms. The printing in the photograph is one I picked up in Tokyo years ago that just enraptured me. The drink is a nice complement to that feeling.

The Fig Apple

• 2.0 oz. Laird’s Bonded apple brandy
• 0.75 oz. blackberry liqueur
• 0 25 oz. fig arrak
• 2 dashes Crude orange & fig bitters

Stir with ice and strain into coupe. Express orange peel over drink, then discard. Garnish with an apple slice.

I’m going through my stores and trying to work through some bottles I’ve had for a while but not really used. Enter the fig arrak and blackberry liqueur. I started with rye but as the name came to me I switched the base to apple. Ideally it would be NY based, but I had NJ on hand. Fuggedaboutit.

Pukana Lā

• 2.0 oz. aged rhum agricole (Barbancourt 5)
• 0.5 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
• 0.5 oz. lime juice
• 0.25 oz. pimento dram (St. Elizabeth’s)
• 0 25 oz. Velvet Falernum
• 0 25 oz. passion fruit liqueur (Giffard’s)
• dash of falernum bitters

Shake with ice and strain into coupe.

I don’t have too much to comment on this one. It likely started with passion fruit and bloomed from there. I love the passion fruit in combination with Green Chartreuse, so likely was exploring its yellow counterpart.

The name translates to “sunset” in Hawaiian. Not really a Hawaiian cocktail, but definitely made me think of a tropical sunset, both in taste and in where I’d like to be sipping it.

Plum Stoker’s Chocula

• 1.5 oz. Transylvanian plum brandy (Palinca Zetea)
• 0.5 oz. Transylvanian plum liqueur (Zetea Silvoriu)
• 0.5 oz. lemon juice
• 0.25 oz. Copper and King’s Destillaire Chocolat
• 0.25 oz. cinnamon syrup
• 0.25 oz. honey liqueur (Barenjeger)

Shake with ice and strain over crushed ice. Top with healthy dashes of Peychaud’s.

First, I apologize for the name. It came to me right away and then I couldn’t get rid of it. And yes, it’s awful.

The drink, however, is not. I used a couple of plum liquors I got in Romania. I tempered the sweet with the bitter chocolate and lemon. But then needed to round out the plum with the cinnamon and honey.

But the name. Deserves a stake through the heart, it does.

50 Shades of Orange

• 2.0 oz. Saffron gin
• 0.25 oz. Crème de Noyaux (Tempus Fugit)
• 0.25 oz. Dry Curacao (Pierre Ferrand)
• 0.25 oz. salted honey syrup
• 0.25 oz. lemon juice
• dash of cardamom tincture

Shake with ice and strain into glass.

I’ve used the Boudin saffron gin in the past, but if I’m honest it’s not my favorite, so this last time I finished a bottle I decided I didn’t need to invest in another. However, I was still playing with this cocktail, so infused my own — Corsair with a few threads of saffron overnight — and quite liked the results.

The mix? Not sure. The almond (taste) of the noyaux with orange made sense, and I think I had the salted honey syrup made from another cocktail (honey, water, pinch of salt, reduced). Definitely needed the acid from the lemon. And saffron and cardamom? Sure.

Because of the saffron the drink has a beautiful orange hue. It’s one hue, but I liked the name anyway.

Chizzlemere Icebreaker

• 2.0 oz. London Dry gin
• 0.5 oz. Yellow Chartreuse
• 0.25 oz. lemon juice
• 3.0 oz. tonic water

Shake first three ingredients with ice, then strain over glass with ice (highball with cubes is fine). Top with 3 ounces of tonic, the a star anise for garnish.

This is the last of my Gentleman’s Guide cocktails, named for the resort town with the ice skating where the D’Ysquith junior fell through to his untimely death. Simple in ingredients, being a G&T enhanced with Chartreuse and lemon. Nice and cold. Just watch the ice.

Hold the Pickle

• 2.0 oz. akvavit with dill (Stockholms)
• 0.5 oz. cucumber liqueur (Wild Moon)
• 0.25 oz. turmeric liqueur (Tamworth)
• 0.25 oz. vanilla liqueur (Giffard)
• 0.25 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 0.25 oz. lemon juice
• dash of celery bitters

Shake with ice and strain into glass. Garnish with cornichons.

Yeah, this is a weird one, but deceptively subtle and tasty. As I was playing, I found I was using a number of ingredients you might leverage in making dill pickles, minus the vinegar that’s the most present flavoring. So the combination here was merely just messing around to balance a drink based on dill.

The name is because the result is decidedly NOT like a dill pickle. Does the name confuse or reinforce the lack of pickle? Not sure, but adding the cornichons is intentionally misleading. At the very least, though, if you were expecting pickle from the name you get it in the garnish. Now drink with relish. (Sorry not sorry)

Horizontal Thrust

• 2.0 oz. London Dry gin
• 0.25 oz. Oloroso sherry
• 0 25 oz. Benedictine
• 0.25 oz. Crème de Noyaux (Tempus Fugit)
• 0.25 oz. dry vermouth
• dash of Abbot’s bitters

Stir with ice and strain into glass.

This was a Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder cocktail, created for Reverend Lord Ezekial D’Ysquith, thus the Benedictine, Abbot’s and sherry (which I’m sure he indulges in). Gin seemed the right base and the noyaux was added for nuttiness. Finally, the vermouth mellowed and lengthened the drink.

The name comes from one of his quotes remarking on the chapel’s architecture, but of course with much of his observations there is a sexual undercurrent. Unintentional, of course. But here in my naming completely intentional. Who names a drink after architecure?

The Lady and the Rose

• 2.0 oz. New Western gin (Corsair)
• 0.5 oz. Dr. Brambles Pomegranate and Rose liqueur
• 0.25 oz. cinnamon syrup
• 0.25 oz. lemon juice
• dash of Peychaud’s bitters

Shake with ice and strain into coupe.

I picked up the Dr. Brambles and didn’t realize it was the same flavor pairings as Edinburgh. Is rose and pomegranate a thing? I guess. So I combined it with cinnamon and lemon, with just a dash of Peychaud’s. Done and done

Pomegranate always makes me think of Persephone. Plus the rose. And I like the name. That’s about it.

Siam Queen

• 2 oz. Vietnamese gin (Song Cai)
• 0.50 oz. cinnamon syrup (Monin)
• 0.25 oz. basil liqueur (St. George)
• 0.25 oz. lime juice
• dash of cardamom tincture

Rinse a glass with creme de menthe (Tempus Fugit) and pour out. Shake ingredients with ice then strain into glass. Smack a basil leaf, draw around the rim then discard.

Had the Vietnamese gin and wanted to mix with some complementary flavors to the region. Cinnamon and basil worked well. I tried mint in the mix and it was hard to find the balance. The rinse in the end was the perfect amount.

Siam Queen is the name of a basil strain, so seemed kind of fitting, though obviously a different area of the map. Siam Queen is a type of Thai basil, though, and is used in Vietnamese pho, so there’s still a connection. Long live the queen.