red sea

1 1/2 oz Beefeater Gin
3/4 oz Campari
1/2 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
1 barspoon Royal Combier Orange Liqueur (1/8 oz)
2 dash Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Twist a grapefruit peel over the top and discard.

On Friday, Andrea and I went to Lineage for dinner. For my first drink, I asked bartender Ryan Lotz for the Red Sea, a new addition to their cocktail menu. Ryan mentioned that it was bartender Brendan Pratt's first contribution to the Lineage menu. When I asked if the drink's name had something to do other than the Campari and sloe gin's color, Ryan laughed. It turns out that Brendan's nickname at the bar is Moses, and with the drink's hue, it got dubbed the Red Sea.
The Red Sea began with a fresh grapefruit aroma from the twist. The sip was an orange-berry that was followed by the gin, Campari's bitter notes, and sloe gin flavors. The sloe gin functioned to smooth out the Campari's sharpness, although when the drink warmed up a bit, this smoothing effect decreased. Still, the drink was rather balanced in terms of sweet, fruit, and bitter notes.