infernal architect

1 1/4 oz Laird's Applejack
1/2 oz Nardini Amaro
1/2 oz Strega

Rinse a small coupe with Allspice Dram. Build the drink in the glass, stir, and serve room temperature.

Two Mondays ago, we were in the mood for a nightcap and I felt it was time to make Colin Shearn's Infernal Architect that appears in Beta Cocktails. The drink called out to me for a few reasons. First, it made good use of the bottle of Nardini Amaro that we recently purchased and had only used in the Six Inch Gold Blade created by Al Sotack, Colin's fellow bartender at Philidelphia's Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. Second, we have been excited by room temperature drinks from old school Scaffas to new ones like this, and I wanted to add a new one to the collection. Third, the ease of making a non-shaken or -stirred drink appealed to my energy state at the time, and recipes from Beta Cocktails rarely disappoint.
The Infernal Architect's nose presented a chocolate-herbal aroma with a fennel-bubblegum note at the end of the inhale. The sip was a smooth, chocolate apple flavor, and the swallow was an herbal explosion containing mint, menthol, thyme, and oregano-like aspects. With the drink being high in proof and undiluted, it did come across as slightly hot, but its sugar content did sooth out the drink a good deal. Regardless of how dastardly the drink's name sounded, it did make for an exquisite digestif.