Wednesday, June 9, 2010

tempestade

1 1/2 oz Cachaça (Seleta)
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Sloe Gin (Plymouth)
1/2 oz Falernum (Velvet)
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Last Thursday on Mixoloseum, the theme was "Falernum". For a base spirit, my mind immediately paired falernum with rum, but after thinking about how Todd Maul at Clio frequently substitutes cachaça in rum's place, I reconsidered. To balance the falernum and cachaça, I went with citrus and a fruit liqueur. I originally considered Cherry Heering, but sloe gin ended up calling out to me since I recently read a few rum-sloe gin recipes. And after driving home in Thursday's torrential downpour, the drink got dubbed the Tempestade after the Portuguese word for storm.
The Tempestade started with a lemon and cachaça nose. A fruity sweet sip was followed by the funk of the cachaça and the spice of the falernum and Angostura on the swallow. The sloe gin provided an elegant fruity note without hijacking the flavor profile like Cheery Heering is more apt to do.

5 comments:

andrea said...

This was a beautifully balanced drink, judging from the sip you gave me. I wouldn't mind a full-sized version sometime...

Anonymous said...

My search for Plymouth Sloe in Florida has been, not surprisingly, unsuccessful. Still, this combination looks appealing enough that I just shook up my best approximation, albeit having to substitute Sint Marteen mango rum liqueur for the sloeberry gin. It's pretty darn good, and I can only imagine how nice your cocktail is.

I finally did get to enjoy Plymouth sloeberry for the first time a couple weeks back on our pilgrimage to L.A. and Varnish. Tasty stuff.

frederic said...

It might not hurt to see if they could order you a bottle. Many of the smaller, independent ones (not low end corner stores) are more than willing to help out.

Otherwise, mango liqueur sounds like a good substitution!

Anonymous said...

I have a very good spirits shop that has been trying to get it but no luck so far. They just started carrying Smith and Cross, Scarlet Ibis, Hayman's Old Tom and a lot of the other great Haus Alpenz products though, so I haven't given up hope completely that they might come through here as well.

frederic said...

Yes, the Haus Alpenz line. If they do carry Plymouth gin, they should be dealing with the proper people. Otherwise, if your state allows home delivery, DrinkUpNY should have it. There are a few other good sloe gin brands out there, but I have only read about them in Europe.

Just don't settle for the Leroux and other bottom shelf stuff since they're all artificial and meant for Alabama Slammers and the like.