Thursday, February 24, 2011

farmer's armagnac

1 1/2 oz Armagnac (Larressingle VSOP)
3/4 oz Benedictine
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Cointreau

Shake with ice and strain into a sugared-rimmed cocktail glass.

On Friday, our first cocktail of the evening was found in the Cocktail Collective book, namely the Farmer's Armagnac. The drink was created by Frank Cisneros of Brooklyn's Prime Meats, and after having the Junior a few nights before, I was in the mood for yet another Benedictine drink. Moreover, finding cocktails that specifically call for Armagnac is rare; generally we only get to use it when the recipe calls for brandy as it can often make the flavor profile more interesting. With Armagnacs frequently having a rustic taste to them, the drink's name was an appropriate pun.
The Farmer's Armagnac greeted the nose with a lemon and orange aroma from the juice and liqueur. These two notes were also present in the sip as a semi-sweet fruity flavor as they combined with the brandy's grape. Next, the swallow had the dark complexity of the Benedictine coupled with the Armagnac's heat. The drink proved to be much drier than I expected especially on the swallow, so the sugared rim was actually a good addition to allow the drinker to modulate each sip's sweetness. With the lemon and the Benedictine, the drink reminded me of the whiskey-based Frisco Sour and the gin-based Cornell Special. Moreover, with the brandy, lemon juice, and orange liqueur, it also somewhat reminded me of a Sidecar, albeit a more sophisticated and earthy one.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello Frederic,

We've selected you as our Foodista Drink Blog of the Day for this March 12, 2011! Your blog (regarding Farmer's Armagnac) will be featured on the Foodista homepage for 24 hours. Besides posting your link on the homepage, we will also post a couple shout outs on our Twitter and Facebook pages.

Since you are now a part of the Foodista Featured Drink Blogger of The Day Community, we've created a special badge for you to display proudly on your blog sidebar. I couldn't find your email on your blog to send you the access code for the special badge, but I want to make sure you get it if you are interested. Please send me an email and I'll send it right away.

We are really enjoying your blog and look forward to seeing your recipes, tips and techniques on Foodista! If you would not like to be recognized on Foodista please let me know and I will remove your blog from our queue.

Cheers,

Christine@Foodista