groovy child

1 1/2 oz Hendrick's Gin
3/4 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
3/4 oz Lime Juice
2 heaping barspoon Guava Jelly
1 barspoon Simple Syrup

Shake with ice and double strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with 3 juniper berries.

Last Saturday, Andrea and I drove out to Worcester to visit the Higgins Armory. Since Andrea was in the mood to go to a museum and I remembered that Hilary Scott's exhibition there was ending in a few months, it seemed like a good day for a road trip. After looking at a lot of old armor and Hilary's surreal art work, we drove into downtown Worcester for dinner at the Citizen (unrelated to the Citizen in Boston). When we sat down at the bar, bartender Dave Delaney greeted us and remembered meeting me at Tales of the Cocktail last summer. As we looked over the drink menu, we noted that there was a combination of classics like the Martinez and the Boulevardier and a handful of house originals; surprisingly, there were neither vodka drinks nor light beers on the menu (lucky for them, they did have vodka at the bar)! The drink that caught my eye first was the Groovy Child for it called for guava jelly. Beside my enjoyment of marmalade in a recent drink, I was curious for I had only seen guava jelly called for in 19th century punch recipes. Indeed, Dave explained that he got the idea from Jerry Thomas' Barbados Punch. While I spent the whole time drinking the Groovy Child pondering the name, I only later made the connection that it was taken from a line in the Bob Marley song "Guava Jelly."
The juniper berry garnish helped to supplement the aroma of the Groovy Child especially since Hendrick's is a less juniper-forward gin. The lime and guava jelly elegantly paired up to conjure a tropical sip; guava jelly has been described as a less sharp lemon rind flavor, so it worked well with the lime. The lime helped the sip transition into the swallow where these notes lingered to pair up with the gin and dry vermouth. With the drink on the slightly tart side, the Groovy Child was a decent drink to have before our first course arrived.