Sunday, September 11, 2011

sir francis drake special

1/2 oz Gin (Darnley's View)
1/2 oz Bonded Rye Whiskey (Rittenhouse)
1/2 oz Triple Sec (Cointreau)
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse

Stir without ice and serve in a 2 oz glass.

While drinking the Prudence Prim, I began flipping through Bottom's Up and noticed the Sir Francis Drake Special. What caught my eye was that it was a room temperature cocktail, a style that generally disappeared with the Scaffa but the authors from Beta Cocktails are trying to revive. The drink was created at the Hotel Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco sometime between the hotel being built in 1928 and the book being first published in 1951. The bar is significant in San Francisco drink history for Tony Abou-Ganim, Marco Dionysos, and Jacques Bezuidenhout and others have worked there through the years. Moreover, Camper English wrote a pair of posts a week or so ago about the bar reopening after a major renovation and menu revision.
The Sir Francis Drake Special began with an orange liqueur aroma supplemented with a hint of Chartreuse; Andrea thought that this combination smelled a bit like old fashioned bubble gum. The Cointreau continued on in the sip, and the swallow was the Chartreuse followed by the gin and concluded with a lingering whiskey note. The pairing of the Cointreau and Chartreuse reminded me of the Prospector Cocktail. In addition, the heat of the spirits seemed to be mitigated by the two liqueurs sugar content; even without chilling or dilution it was rather drinkable, but as Andrea pointed out, it is not for the faint of heart.

2 comments:

Jordan said...

No kidding. At 95 proof, that is a pretty stiff drink.

frederic said...

Somehow all the sugar in the Cointreau and Chartreuse rather masks the proof. It feels more like 60-70 proof.