the frobisher

2 oz Oxley Gin
1 oz House Rosé Vermouth
1/4 oz Maraschino Liqueur

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Twist an orange peel over the top and garnish with a cherry.

On Monday night after my DJing set, we went up the street to Eastern Standard for their late night dinner menu. For my pre-prandial cocktail, I spotted the Frobisher, a new addition to the cocktail menu which sounded like the perfect choice given the description of "a spicy and bitter orange aperitif." When I asked bartender Hugh Fiore about the drink, he said that it was created by Jackson Cannon and provided the history that Frobisher was an English pirate, privateer, and explorer who sought to discover the Northwest Passage to India and China. In between having that drink and writing about it now, Lauren Clark of DrinkBoston mentioned the drink and provided an alternative naming reference from a more direct source, as she, "was delighted when Jackson Cannon, who, like [her], is a devotée of the FX series Damages, told me he was naming a new cocktail on the menu after Arthur Frobisher, the Enron-inspired CEO played by Ted Danson." The television as a muse is believable especially after reading about Jackson being a big fan of Sex in the City. Regardless of which Frobisher who squandered other people's money that the drink was named after, it certainly made for a fine aperitif.
The Frobisher featured Oxley gin, an English spirit that is cold distilled. Unlike other spirits that use heat, the alcohol and other flavors are concentrated using cold temperatures and low pressures to pull vapors out of the mix. To our palates, the gin had a decent juniper aroma, and this botanical carried over into the taste along with citrus and a lavender-like floral component. The Frobisher started with an orange aroma supplemented with some of the gin botanicals wafting through. The recipe looked very much like a Martinez, and indeed, it tasted like a rather spicy one. When I gave Andrea a taste, she thought that it had rye in it since it was that spicy.