Thursday, January 27, 2011

yellow mist

3/6 Gin (1 1/2 oz Bombay Dry)
1/6 Orgeat (1/2 oz Trader Tiki)
1/6 Apry (1/2 oz Marie Brizard)
1/6 Lemon (1/2 oz)

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

As dinner was cooking on Saturday, I began flipping through the Café Royal Cocktail Book and spotted a curious Gin Daisy, the Yellow Mist. This drink balanced the tartness of lemon juice with orgeat and apricot liqueur, and this curious combination seemed one worth trying. Since the recipe called for "apry," I went with the sweeter Marie Brizard instead of my standard go-to of Rothman & Winter.
The Yellow Mist offered up a sweet lemon sip that was chased by an apricot and almond swallow highlighted with the gin's botanicals. I was quite surprised that the orgeat was not overwhelmed here; not only did it hold its own, but it complemented the apricot flavor well. While the drink finished a bit drier than it started, it was still rather sweet. Perhaps using more lemon juice or less liqueur and syrup might help this drink out (i.e.: reducing each sweet component to a 1/4 oz). Definitely, using the sweeter of our two apricot liqueurs was not a benefit to the balance here. Another possibility would be to serve this in a highball glass topped with soda water or in a flute topped with Champagne to steer it toward my preferred balance.

2 comments:

HayBoy said...

where was the last place in Boston you saw saw with R&W apry on the shelf?

frederic said...

The last place I saw it was Ball Square Liquors in Somerville (next to SoundBites).

I have seen it elsewhere including Marty's of Newtonville, and I am quasi-positive about a few other places but I do not want to send you places that I am unsure of.