Mint Dynasty

• 1.5 oz. silver tequila
• 0.5 oz. Mandarine Napoleon
• 0.5 oz. lemon juice
• 0.25 oz. Kina L’Aero d’Or
• 0.25 oz. Branca Menta
• 0.25 oz. simple syrup

Shake with ice and strain into coupe.

Here’s a little hodgepodge of a cocktail that came from me wanting to use up my Mandarine Napoleon which I’ve had on the shelf for years, a Cognac-based orange liqueur. I mixed this with lemon and mint, then some Kina for bitterness and sweetness. The latter needed a little amping up, and so the simple syrup was added.

Wasn’t sure of a name, but working from the Mandarine I went with something Chinese over Mexican or French, but really this was an international endeavor. For me, the prevailing flavor was the mint, so I focused on that with the name. Not sure the pun works, but does that really matter when you enjoy what you’re sipping?

Guerre de Course

• 1.0 oz. aged rhum agricole (Clement 6 yr.)
• 0.5 oz. Cognac (Pierre Ferrand 1840)
• 0.5 oz. sweet vermouth (Noilly Prat)
• 0.5 oz. Maurin Quina
• 0.25 oz. Amer Picon
• 0.25 oz. Benedictine

Stir with ice and strain into coupe.

This one started out in a completely different place as sort of a rum Manhattan, and over iterations evolved until I noticed mostly French ingredients. So I decided to swap in rhum agricole from Martinique split with Cognac instead of the original rum, and then added a dash of Benedictine for good measure, and got this complex sipper.

The French angle had me thinking of French corsairs in place of English privateers, and doing a bit of reading found the term “guerre de course,” meaning “commerce raiding” which is such a fancy term for pirating. Fancy name for a fancy drink.