Tuesday, April 7, 2009

rabo-de-galo

2 oz Beija Cachaça
1 oz Punt e Mes
1 dash Housemade Orange Bitters
St. Elizabeth's Allspice Dram

Stir the cachaça, Punt e Mes, and bitters on ice. Strain into a cocktail glass pre-rinsed with Allspice Dram. Twist an orange peel over the top and discard the peel.

For my second drink at Eastern Standard last night, I asked Hugh Fiore to make me a drink with Punt e Mes in it and with an Allspice Dram rinse. The Maldenado's spiciness and tequila made me think of the Allspice Dram, and the bottle of Punt e Mes next to it on the shelf seemed like it would make a good pairing. I left the rest of the ingredients up to Hugh. Hugh's touches were the Beija Cachaça and orange bitters. The cachaça's unaged rum heat made for a good transition from the blanco tequila in the last drink. The Beija's taste and Punt e Mes' berry notes came out in the first part of the sip, and this was followed by the flavors in the Allspice Dram and by a wave of bitter notes from the Punt e Mes vermouth and the orange bitters in the swallow. The Allspice Dram and the roughness of the cachaça complemented each other rather nicely, and the end result reminded me of a raw Pirate's Cocktail. In searching for a name for this drink, I discovered that the Rabo-de-galo in Brazil is a similar 2:1 cachaça to sweet vermouth cocktail. Moreover, the sweet vermouth is sometimes substituted for Cynar in São Palo, a combination with which I am sure would Hugh would be game to experiment.

3 comments:

Tony Harion said...

Interesting to see the “Rabo de Galo” cocktail here.
I don’t think I´ve seen it much on blogs outside Brazil.
Usually I see it served in a 1:1 ration here, but I´ll give it a try on a 2:1.
Some bars even substitute (or mistake) the cachaça for conhaque (Brazilian brandy), but I don’t really see this happening much now a days.
Cheers,

Tony

frederic said...

Boston (and especially my town of Somerville two miles away) has a large Brazilian population so it is not too surprising that Cachaça has gained popularity around here. In fact, Beija's headquarters are here in town.

Alex said...

I'm drinking a different version of this right now, from Imbibe. Cachaca, Cynar, and Carpano, though I like the idea of the allspice rinse and will give this version a try tomorrow night, albeit with my homemade allspice dram.