Tuesday, November 29, 2011

follow that black rabbit

3/4 oz Fernet Branca
3/4 oz Beefeater Gin
3/10 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Orange Juice
3/4 oz Maple Syrup

Shake with ice and strain into an ice-filled highball glass. Perhaps an orange slice garnish would not be out of place here. I added a straw.

After the Sloe Combustion, I decided to make one of the recipes I spotted in Gary Regan's Bartender's Gin Compendium called Follow that Black Rabbit. The drink was created by Kristian Kramp, a bartender from Denmark who now works at Gefährlich, who claimed that he was influenced by both Donnie Darko and Alice in Wonderland in naming this drink. With the orange juice, lemon juice, and maple syrup, my guess is that the Savoy and Embury classic, the Apple Jack Rabbit, was his starting point. Instead of apple brandy, Kristian opted for Fernet Branca lightened by gin.
The drink began with a Fernet Branca nose that was soothed by a maple aroma. While the orange juice on the sip was not surprising, the presence of the gin's juniper and other botanical notes was, for gin generally comes across on the swallow. Instead, the swallow mirrored the scent with maple syrup and mellowed out Fernet Branca flavors. As the ice melted, however, the drink became more Fernet forward in its balance.

2 comments:

Tammy Coxen said...

Looks like there's a typo on the lemon juice measure - is that supposed to be 3/4 as well?

frederic said...

No typo. It is 0.3 oz lemon juice. It could be 1/3 oz which would make more sense with metric jiggers (10 cL), but I wrote it out as it appears it Regan's book (as 4 x .75, 1 x .3).