Monday, February 14, 2011

charlie's vacation

1 1/2 oz Gin (Death's Door)
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Rich Simple Syrup (2:1)
1 Egg White
2 drop Orange Flower Water
2 dash Fee's Peach Bitters

Shake once without ice and once with ice. Strain into a champagne flute (champagne coupe glass).

After the Round the World, we ended the evening with Charlie's Vacation from Left Coast Libations. This drink was created by Zane Harris who co-owns Rob Roy in Seattle. While I do not know who Charlie is, the drink seems to be a variation Zane's Vacation that he created while at Vessel; Robert Hess listed the Vacation as a more summery drink containing cachaça and Aperol instead of this one's gin and Campari. Checking through our drink archives, the Charlie's Vacation might be the first Campari drink containing egg or egg white that I have had; however, others have described delicious sounding ones like the Campari Sour so I had little doubt the combination would work well.
In Charlie's Vacation, the Campari played a big role in the aroma along with the gin. On the tongue, the sip was a sweet lemon flavor with gin and Campari on the swallow. The peach bitters did a nice job of appearing on the finish and masking the lingering Campari aftertaste that I have heard many people complain about. Perhaps, the egg white aided in toning down the Campari as well. In addition, I was quite pleased with the Death's Door Gin for it gave a very robust gin signature -- much more than was expected over the egg white's smoothing character. Lastly, I wonder if the orange flower water should have been added as a garnish to the egg white froth to contribute more to the aroma instead of blending in with the various citrus notes in the drink.

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