doubleplusgood

2 oz Matusalem Platino Rum
1 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 Egg White

Shake once without and once with ice. Strain into a rocks glass and drop Angostura bitters on top (double plus pattern as shown in the photo).

Last night Andrea and I went to Drink. When John Gertsen came by to take our order, I asked him what he had been making lately that excited him. He said that he was working on some drinks to take to the Edison in Los Angeles where he soon will be a guest bartender. The drink he sold me on was a white Mai Tai variant; his version had some egg white which transformed it in the direction of a Pisco Sour. Since Mai Tai in Tahitian means "the best" or "out of this world", Gertsen decided to take it one step further with a page from the 1984 Newspeak Dictionary and called his version the Doubleplusgood.
John's recipe, besides the egg white, also used the richness of Cointreau instead of curacao or triple sec and he skipped the falernum and grenadine found in many Mai Tai recipes. The white rum gave a lighter flavor profile than the darker rums that go into most Mai Tai recipes. The Angostura functioned more as an aroma garnish than as an ingredient proper, and surprisingly the two pluses stayed intact until the bitter end.

My only criticism is that if he is taking this drink to the Edison, the first building in Los Angeles to generate its own electricity almost a century ago, Oneplusonenegative might fit the building's history better. Science-geeking aside, the Doubleplusgood was quite a rich and flavorful drink.