Thursday, February 16, 2012

coup d'état

1 1/2 oz Johnnie Walker Red Blended Scotch
3/4 oz Grenadine
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/4 oz Bauchant Orange Liqueur
1 barspoon (1/8 oz) Fernet Branca

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Tuesday last week, Andrea and I had dinner at Eastern Standard. For a first drink, I asked bartender Seth Freidus for the Coup d'État. Seth explained that the recipe was created by bartender Josh Taylor as a variation of the rum classic El Presidente. While Scott Holliday had made me a Scotch Presidente before via a swapping of spirits, Josh's concept was a complete reworking of the concept and the name symbolized that quite well.
The Coup d'État offered a Scotch aroma with a hint of Fernet Branca's herbalness. The sip was fruit-driven with grape and pomegranate flavors, and the swallow began with the smokey Scotch pairing with the Punt e Mes' bitterness. Finally, the swallow ended with the Fernet's menthol notes and the Bauchaunt's orange ones.

7 comments:

Alexander Kern said...

I've never heard of Bauchant orange liqueur before...my cursory look at the product shows it's made with cognac. If I didn't have any, would Grand Marnier be a reasonable substitute, or would a different orange liqueur entirely be better?

frederic said...

It's been a while since I've tasted it straight but it is a bit more subtle than Grand Marnier. At a 1/4 oz of the whole drink, probably any orange liqueur would work well here. They might use Bauchaunt because it's a quality spirit at 2/3rds the price of GM or Cointreau.

Alexander Kern said...

Excellent, I think I may give this a shot sometime in the near future. Thanks!

Alex said...

Love y'all's blog. I saw this one tonight and thought it sounded great. However, I had no Punt e Mes nor Bauchant, and my only blended Scotch was JW Black. Also, I use a homemade grenadine recipe that I’ve found can be more overpowering than standard grenadine, so I always dial it back a bit. So, I made it the following way:

1.5 oz Johnny Waler Black
½ oz Grenadine
¼ oz. campari
¼ oz. sweet vermout
¼ oz. Grand Marnier
1 barspoon Fernet Branca

According to wikipedia, Punt e Mes “has a strong, distinctive flavour, half-way between regular rosso vermouth and Campari”, so I just made a half-and-half sub of those two alcohols. I also used Grand Marnier instead of Bauchant since they seemed fairly similar.

The result is a damn tasty cocktail. The nose is dominated by soft and slightly smoky scotch notes with the campari and fernet mixing in the background into a nice, sweet, aromatic fragrance.

The flavor is similar, with light scotch flavors giving a gentle smoky quality to mix that nicely balances the fernet, grand marnier, and grenadine with the finish being dominated by the characteristic bitterness of campari and the softer elements of the Scotch.

frederic said...

The sweet vermouth + Campari isn't perfect, but it is close. I had a bartender use it in a drink (he was waiting for the Punt e Mes shipment to arrive) but used 3/4 oz sweet vermouth to a dash of Campari.

Eastern Standard's grenadine recipe has been published here on DrinkBoston, and I believe it appears in Food & Wine: Cocktails as well. You can compare it to yours. Dropping the grenadine a bit will make for a drier drink though which many will find preferable (Eastern Standard's drinks can err on the sweet side).

Cheers!

Alexander Kern said...

I went to Canon the other night and Murray Stenson was there. I asked him to make me the Coup d'Etat, and he said it was good. His remarks were something to the effect of, "It's a really good Scotch drink for people who think they hate Scotch."

He used Grand Marnier, since there was no Bauchant in the house. Either way, it was another great Scotch cocktail to keep in the back of my mind when I want to go that route.

Alex said...

@Frederic - Yeah, the half-and-half with the Campari results in the Campari really dominating, which isn't something I mind too much. I liked it so I'll try again, probably tonight, with the 3/4 oz. of sweet vermouth and dash of campari. I use Jeffrey Morganthaler's grenadine recipe.