delmarva #2

2 oz Old Overholt Rye
1/2 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
1/2 oz Marie Brizard Creme de Cacao (dark)
1/2 oz Lemon Juice

Shake with ice. Rub a mint leaf inside the bowl of a chilled cocktail glass and strain the drink in. Garnish with the mint leaf.

Two Sundays ago, I ventured down to Green Street for some cocktails. The drink I picked first was one from their cocktail book, the Delmarva #2, and bartender Derric Crothers was more than willing to flip through and find the recipe. The drink appears like a rye-based Twentieth Century with the lemon twist and Lillet swapped for a mint leaf and dry vermouth. As Derric was making the drink, I searched on my phone for some more information about the recipe. Luckily, Paul Clarke had written about it in the Cocktail Chronicles blog over 5 years ago. The drink is an acronym for Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, which perhaps honors where a lot of the country's rye whiskey was produced (tack in Pennsylvania in that list for much of the remainder). Paul tracked the drink down to Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology where it is attributed to Ted Haigh who grew up in that part of the country. So what was the Delmarva #1? Apparently, it is the creme de menthe instead of cacao version; creme de cacao and a mint leaf seems like it should be an improvement to that in my book. Eastern Standard made a similar assessment of these two liqueurs when they placed the Pall Mall on their menu.
The mint garnish paid dividends as it complemented the liqueur's chocolate aroma. The Delmarva #2's sip was somewhat crisp with lemon notes, and the swallow had a combination of rye whiskey and chocolate flavors. Moreover, the rubbing of the mint leaf inside the glass transferred some of the mint to the taste as well where it supplemented the dry vermouth's herbal notes on the swallow.