sharpie mustache

3/4 oz Dry Gin (Tanqueray)
3/4 oz Rye (Michter's)
3/4 oz Amaro Meletti
3/4 oz Bonal Gentiane-Quina
1 dash Tiki Bitters (Bittercube Jamaican No. 2)

Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass, and garnish with an orange twist.

Two nights after getting distracted by the Drunken Helmsman, I decided to make the Sharpie Mustache which was the reason I bought my bottle of Amaro Meletti in the first place. The recipe was crafted by Chris Elford at Manhattan's Amor y Amargo circa 2011-12, and I sourced my recipe from Brad Parson's Amaro book (I have seen it in several of my books including Sother Teague's, but it was the first one that I grabbed). Elford described the name in Food & Wine: Cocktails 2015 as, "I first served it to an older woman. I imagined her going back to her senior-citizen sorority house and somebody drawing a Sharpie mustache on her" (due to it being so strong). Apparently at Amor y Amargo, the cocktail comes batched in a flask (replete with a mustache sticker) that is poured over an ice cube in a rocks glass before receiving the orange twist; house recipes seem to call for Rittenhouse 100 Rye, Beefeater Gin, and two dashes of Tiki bitters.
The Sharpie Mustache tickled the nose with orange, violet, and caramel aromas. Next, grape and caramel mingled on the sip, and the swallow showcase the rye, gin's juniper and other botanicals, and floral-herbal flavors from the Meletti and Bonal.