blue skies

1 oz Laird's Apple Brandy
1 oz Plymouth Gin
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Grenadine

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Two Sundays ago, Andrea and I went down to Green Street for drinks. Bartender Derric Crothers greeted us and gave us a sample of Kentucky Breakfast Stout, a once-a-year offering from Founders. The beer was flavored with coffee and aged in a Bourbon barrel for 12 months, and the bar had scored a small keg of it. It was dry like an Imperial Stout generally is and filled with a well-balanced collection of coffee, barrel-aged vanilla, and roasted malt notes. Indeed, Green Streets' beer program has impressed me greatly as of late.
The first cocktail I ordered was from Green Street's new bartender, John Baker, who they acquired from the Parish Cafe. Off the short cocktail menu, I chose the Blue Skies. This Blue Skies' recipe is unlike any of the others I have seen (for one, it is not even blue), and with the split spirit content balanced by lemon and grenadine, it reminded me of the Three Mile Limit. Here, instead of brandy and white rum, the spirits are apple brandy and gin, and CocktailDB places this recipe closest to variations of a Royal Smile and an Applejack Daisy. The Blue Skies' nose was mainly the pomegranate notes from the grenadine, and the gin coupled with the lemon worked well to dry out the grenadine's sugar content. While the Blue Skies was not all that complex, it was pleasing like most Daisies are.