mission of burma

2 1/4 oz Grand Marnier
1/4 oz Junipero Gin
1/4 oz Lime Juice
1/4 oz Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Twist lime peel over the top and discard.

Last night, Andrea and I attended a Grand Marnier event held at Drink. We were greeted at the entrance by John Gertsen who was manning a punch bowl; the Grand Marnier punch John crafted used locally harvested Concord grapes and the punch had some superb fruit notes. Besides the punch, on the menu were 15 drinks made by bartenders across town and one drink recipe created by bloggers (namely, Andrea and me -- more on that drink later). John mentioned the drink he put on there, the Mission of Burma, which was a play on the Pegu Club as well as a tip of the hat to the infamous Boston rock band. After hearing how the drink toyed with the Pegu's proportions in ways that the Trinidad Sour did relative to a standard sour cocktail, I knew that this drink had to be my first of the night!

Hearing the measurements start with a jigger and a half of a rather sweet liqueur got me nervous, but the cocktail turned out to be a lot less sweet tasting than I first imagined as well as not the train wreck that I had first feared. Train wreck it was not, for the quarter ounce of bitters (*) along with the sourness of the lime and dryness of the gin helped to counter the Grand Marnier's sugar content. The lime oil from the twist provided a delightful citrus nose and reinforced the relatively diminished amount of lime juice in the drink. Despite my initial fears, Gertsen's inversion and perversion of the Pegu Club turned out to be surprisingly good.

(*) The standard conversion is apparently 70 dashes of bitters to the ounce, so this would weigh in at 17.5 dashes of Angostura bitters!