Thursday, September 2, 2010

emma goldman

2 oz Bols Genever
3/4 oz St. Germain
3/4 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
Last Thursday, Andrea and I went down to the Franklin Southie for the Women's Equality Day celebration. Ninety years ago, the 19th Amendment was passed and women were officially allowed to vote, and last week LUPEC Boston decided to celebrate this occasion with cocktails and punches sponsored by Bols Genever and St. Germain. It was rather hard to pick a drink off of their menu since they all seem so delightful; therefore, I chose by name. I selected the Emma Goldman cocktail for it paid homage to one of my favorite anarchists. During her activism, Emma had been arrested for everything from distributing information about birth control to empowering the unemployed. She is often remembered for the quote, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution." While Emma may never have said or written that, it does sum up her goal to give all people the "right to beautiful, radiant things." Indeed, LUPEC Boston tried to symbolically honor that right by creating this cocktail with her namesake.
Bartender Peter Cipriani made me the Emma Goldman cocktail pictured above. A vibrant orange oil aroma coupled well with the malt and botanical notes of the Bols Genever. Moreover,the Genever paired rather well with the rich fruit and bitter notes of the Carpano Antica sweet vermouth on the sip, and the St. Germain appeared most prominently as a pleasant lingering aftertaste. The balance was not overly sweet although it did get sweeter once the drink warmed up a bit. Beside cocktails, the ladies of LUPEC had also assembled four punches. The one I tried, the Unsinkable Molly Brown, honored Molly's actions during the the Titanic tragedy where she tried to save additional passengers. This punch coupled St. Germain with Appleton Rum, lemon juice, demerara syrup, and Harpoon hard cider.

2 comments:

KeithP said...

Oh my this looks like it could be interesting; like a weird cousin of the Rob Roy (sorta). I can see the two sweetening agents making a little sweet but how does the elderflower pair with the floral qualities of the carpano?

frederic said...

Genever does dry out the balance so its not overly sweet.

The elderflower seems to blend in well and the more floral aspect instead of the grapefruity one seems to come out more here from what I recall.

Could be a weird cousin of the Negroni. Although it definitely felt more in the bittered Manhattan/Rob Roy family more.