[winifred banks]

2 oz Banks Rum
1/2 oz Galliano
1/2 oz Benedictine
2 dash Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Decanter Bitters
2 dash Bittermens Boston Bittahs

Stir with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

On Monday night, we headed over to Drink for their Day of the Dead celebration. While waiting for seats at the bar, bartender Tyler Wang came over and took our drink orders. I had to pass on a drink order until he came back with Andrea's Rosita. At that point, I had the idea of a Mezcal Sazerac and Tyler seemed pretty stoked by the concept. I guess that I was pleased by the result too, for he later made three more after people heard what I was drinking.

Finally, some seats opened up at Josey Packard's station. When I asked if there was anything new that she had been working on, she replied that she had created a drink for the Banks Rum release party later in the week, but her entry was too late to be considered (I will speak more about the rum itself in later posts about the event). The drink lacked a name, but I was intrigued when I heard that the other two major ingredients were Galliano and Benedictine. When I inquired as to why she chose the yellow liqueur of 1970's wonder, Josey explained that Galliano was the other Maraschino to her. It has a lot of body and richness like Maraschino but not as pushy; moreover, she discovered that it pairs well with Benedictine.

Josey dared us to come up with a name for the drink. The best I could do today was Winifred Banks -- the children's mother who sings the empowering "Sister Suffragette" number in Disney's Mary Poppins (*). The drink's nose was full of herbal notes such as Galliano's vanilla and sarsaparilla and Benedictine's darker notes. The Galliano definitely complemented the rum's vanilla and fruity notes and the Benedictine the rum's earthy ones. The Galliano seemed to stay more in the sip and the Benedictine in the swallow; the transition between the two was smooth and the Benedictine functioned to dry out the swallow a bit.

(*) Andrea went the other direction and recommended Briana Banks, the adult film star. Her blond hair does match Galliano's hue.