king's yellow

1 1/2 oz Bombay Sapphire Gin
3/4 oz Dry Vermouth
3/4 oz Benedictine
1 dash Orange Bitters (housemade)
Apricot-flavored Brandy rinse
Lemon twist

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass pre-rinsed with apricot brandy. Garnish with a lemon twist.

On Monday, I met some friends for dinner before they went to the Red Sox game later that night. After I walked them to the entrance of Fenway, I rounded the corner and continued on to Eastern Standard where I was warmly welcomed by Kevin who made me my first drink.

They had just added the King's Yellow to the Standards part of their menu and redid their Lineage-Legacy menu to have Pimm's cocktails -- all new as of that day; Kit later wondered if I came in just to taste the new cocktails (as if I knew in advance of the menu update). I went with the King's Yellow to start. It was very similar to a cocktail I have made at home, the Caprice, save for a little more vermouth and Benedictine and the addition of the apricot brandy and lemon twist. While the lemon oils and upped proportions of the vermouth and Benedictine were a great addition to this cocktail, the apricot flavor was a little trampled upon by the Benedictine. Especially since the apricot bell ringer that No. 9 does with their Martini-variant is rather faint without the Benedictine in the cocktail. Kevin likened the cocktail in essence to the Alaska.

It was funny how just last week I had mentioned to Andrea how I used to make a lot of cocktails with Benedictine and lately very few. I wondered if it was me favoring other bitters, and she pointed out that she found it to be more of a fall/winter liqueur. So perhaps this makes King's Yellow (drank on Labor Day) this year's harbinger of autumn...