coffee and cigarettes

1/2 oz Mezcal (Convite)
1/2 oz Islay Scotch (Ardbeg 10 Year)
1/2 oz Demerara Rum (Hamilton 86°)
3/4 oz Cynar
3/4 oz Coffee Liqueur (Borghetti)

Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with a lemon twist. Two Wednesdays ago, I looked to Kindred Cocktails and spotted the Coffee and Cigarettes by user Applejack from Chicago in 2015, and it was different from the Coffee and Cigarettes I wrote about a few years ago from Chad Austin. This split-base drink features coffee liqueur and Cynar as the modifiers that I gained an appreciation for in a few drinks like the Lake Union and Palisades and utilized in my Why Don't You Do Right. Once prepared, the Coffee and Cigarettes initiated things with a lemon, peat smoke, coffee, and herbal bouquet. Next, caramel and roast notes on the sip percolated into smoky, coffee, caramel, herbal, and vegetal flavors on the swallow.

scarab

3/4 oz Smith & Cross Rum
3/4 oz Fernet Branca
3/4 oz Lime Juice
3/4 oz Ginger Syrup

Shake with ice, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with candied ginger on a pick. Two Tuesdays ago, I fired up the Bartender's Choice Volume 3 app, and the Scarab by Chris Hughes and Jon Nutter at Attaboy in Manhattan circa 2022 caught my attention. The Scarab is another part of the insect series of equal parts spirit, amaro, ginger syrup, and citrus that includes the mezcal-Campari Mosquito, applejack-Nardini Yellow Jacket, and mezcal-Braulio Dragon Fly. Moreover, I first experienced Smith & Cross paired with Fernet in my Bartender on Acid that was later served as a punch of the day at Drink in Boston back in 2010, so I was curious to see it in this format. Once shaken and strained, the Scarab opened up with a ginger, rum funk, and menthol aroma. Next, lime and caramel notes on the sip delved into ginger, rum funk, gentian, bitter herbal, and minty-menthol flavors on the swallow.

kingston neck tai

(a) 1/2 oz Smith & Cross Rum
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth (Alessio)
(b) 1 1/2 oz oz Aged Jamaican Rum (Coruba) (*)
1/2 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Orange Liqueur (Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao)

Stir ingredients in set A with ice. Shake ingredients in set B with ice and strain into a double old fashioned glass. Add crushed ice, and layer the stirred set A on top. Fill with crushed ice and garnish with a spent lime shell (or orange twist) and mint sprigs.
(*) A lighter Jamaican rum like Appleton Signature might make the layers more visually distinct than the dark rum I opted for. Two Mondays ago, I became inspired by Three Dots & A Dash's Negroni + Saturn that layered a rum-based Kingston Negroni over a gin-based Saturn; however, I wanted to keep the spirit class the same like I did in my Negroni on Saturn (but layered opposed to a mashup). Therefore, I conceived of a Kingston Negroni over a Mai Tai to keep Jamaican rum as the central thread tying the two parts together. For a name, I cleaned up the idea of Kingston Neg-Tai into the Kingston Neck Tai. My original plan earlier in the day was to do an orange twist to tie in the garnish from the Kingston Negroni aspect along with a mint bouquet, but I forgot that once the drink making process got started and I ended up garnishing with the classic spent half lime shell. Once prepared, the Kingston Neck Tai surrounded the nose with a mint, lime, and rum funk aroma. Next, using a straw, a creamy lime and orange sip progressed into funky rum and orange flavors on the swallow. As the rum Negroni entered the scene, the gained caramel notes on top of the creamy lime ones with additional funky rum and bitter orange flavors on the swallow.

pisco! pisco!

1 1/2 oz Pisco (Macchu Pisco)
1/3 oz Suze Gentian Liqueur
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
2 wheel Cucumber

Muddle cucumber in the syrup, add the rest of the ingredients, shake with ice, strain into a coupe, and garnish with a cucumber wheel. Two Sundays ago, I went to the index of The Madrusan Cocktail Companion book to search for cucumber drinks, and I found the Pisco! Pisco! by Bianca Wendt at Bar Que Sera in Sawtell, Australia. I was drawn in for pisco and Suze have worked well in Backbar's Frightened Tiger, and gentian liqueur and cucumber have paired well in the Little Oaxacan. In chatting with Bianca on Instagram, I discovered that she was the manager at Michael Madrusan's The Everleigh from 2018-2020, and now is at a small beachtown around three hundred of miles north of Sydney. Once shaken and strained, the Pisco! Pisco! came across with a vegetal aroma with bright cucumber balanced by bassy gentian. Next, lime with a cucumber freshness on the sip swapped into pisco, floral, and gentian-herbal flavors on the swallow. I commented to Bianca that, "I really liked the interplay of cucumber and Suze, and my pisco choice supported the earthy and floral aspects."

atomizer

40 mL Tanqueray Gin (1 1/3 oz)
15 mL Wray & Nephew Overproof White Rum (1/2 oz)
5 mL Green Chartreuse (1 tsp)
20 mL Lemon Juice (3/4 oz)
20 mL Simple Syrup (3/4 oz)
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Two Saturdays ago, I decided to make the Atomizer that London's Satan's Whiskers posted on their Instagram a week prior. On paper, it reads like a gin-Jamaican rum Champs-Élysées with perhaps a slight nod to the Nuclear Daiquiri given the name and two ingredients of overlap. Once prepared, the Atomizer set off with a juniper, herbaceous, rum funk, and clove aroma. Next, a lemon-driven sip exploded into funky rum, pine, herbaceous, and clove flavors on the swallow with a lemon finish. In the end, instead of a Champs-Élysées or Nuclear Daiquiri, the Atomizer's overall feel reminded me more of Dale DeGroff's embittered Gin Sour, the Fitzgerald, with a dose of rum funk and a little herbaceousness mixed in.

gravedigger

3/4 oz Aged Rhum Agricole (Rhum Clement VSOP)
3/4 oz Amaro Nardini
3/4 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth (Alessio)

Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with an orange twist. Two Fridays ago, I opened up the Bartender's Choice Volume 3 app and spied the Gravedigger by Chris Hughes at Manhattan's Attaboy circa 2025. The equal part stirred drink with vermouth and amaro elements reminded me of the Last Mechanical Art, and the bitter liqueur-vermouth-Cointreau combination made me think of the Lucien Gaudin. Moreover, the only Nardini-rhum agricole drink on the blog is the Adventures Close to Home, so I was curious to try one that was not my creation. Once mixed, the Gravedigger prepared an orange, grassy, and caramel aroma. Next, orange and caramel notes on the sip led into grassy rum, caramel orange, apricot, and herbal flavors on the swallow.

kingston negroni (toby maloney)

1 3/4 oz Planteray Stiggins' Fancy Pineapple Rum
1/4 oz Smith & Cross Rum
1 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth (Alessio)
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Cynar

Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with an orange twist and a lemon twist. Two Thursdays ago, I decided to make a recipe that I had spotted in Toby Maloney and Emma Janzen's The Classic Cocktail Sessions book that was Toby's take on the Kingston Negroni which appeared in the book's Negroni variation section. To Joaquin Simó's tropical Negroni riff, Toby described, "I up the amount of booze (of course) and then lean into the dark brooding funky flavors of the Jamaican rum by plumping up the Campari with some of the artichoke-based Cynar." Toby's recipe joins the other Kingston Negroni riffs that I have made such as Paul McGee and Shelby Allison's Pineapple Kingston Negroni that included pineapple rum in with the Jamaican rum and Death & Co.'s Improved Kingston Negroni that swapped the vermouth and amaro to Punt e Mes and Zucca. This one is in the middle utilizing the pineapple rum split from the former and a change in bitter liqueurs from the latter. Once prepared, Toby's Kingston Negroni gave forth an orange, lemon, pineapple, and rum funk bouquet to the nose. Next, caramel and grape notes on the sip delved into funky rum, pineapple, bitter orange, and funky herbal flavors on the swallow.

old news

1 oz Gin (Tree House Percy)
1 oz Amaro Montenegro
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz Simple Syrup
2-3 slice Cucumber
1 pinch Sea Salt (3 drop 20% Saline)

Muddle cucumber in syrup, add rest of ingredients, shake with ice, double strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with a cucumber slice. Two Wednesdays ago, I returned to the online recipe flashcards for Idlewild in Charlotte, North Carolina, to make a cocktail called the Old News that I had saved until I had cucumber in house. Given the name and structure, it was perhaps a variation on the Too Soon? with Montenegro and cucumber in place of Sam Ross' Cynar and orange slices. The drink itself is mentioned in a 2025 Yelp review as being recommended for folks liking gin and bitter, although the flashcard set was one that I found before that in 2024. Moreover, the Montenegro-cucumber aspect reminds me of the Manhattan riff, the Cobble Hill, but this is in a very different direction given the citrus. Once prepared, the Old News reported a cucumber, pine, and clementine aroma to the nose. Next, lemon and vegetal notes on the sip revealed juniper, orange, and cucumber-herbal flavors on the swallow.

shakedown street

2 oz Tequila (Fosforo)
1/2 oz Aperol
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Agave Syrup
1 slice Cucumber

Muddle cucumber in syrup, add rest of ingredients, shake with ice, double strain into a cocktail glass (old fashioned glass with ice), and garnish with a cucumber slice. Two Tuesdays ago, I was looking through The Madrusan Cocktail Companion and spotted the Shakedown Street by Rhiannon Enlil. Since Rhiannon was our first Cure bartender back in 2009, I followed my hunch and opened up the Cure: New Orleans Drinks And How to Mix'em book. There, it described how Rhiannon riffed on one of Maks Pazuniak's drinks called the Deadhead that was got its name from being herbaceous enough that it "tasted like some hippie shit," and perhaps that is why she named this one after a Grateful Dead song. Rhiannon kept the ratio but changed things around. "Cucumber and Aperol want to be together; cucumber and tequila want to go together... it came together naturally." The drink stood out due to the cucumber and Aperol combination; I first learned about how the two can conjure up watermelon flavors in the 3185, and I observed it in other drinks like the Sunday Service and Ghost Hardware. Once prepared, the Shakedown Street proffered a cucumber and watermelon bouquet to the nose. Next, lemon and watermelon notes on the sip transitioned into tequila and orange flavors on the swallow. After I made the drink, I realized that I kept the serving style from The Madrusan Cocktail Companion without noticing that the Cure book calls for it to be strained into a coupe.