magic wand malfunction

1 oz Citadel Reserve Gin
1 oz Becherovka
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Maple Sugar Simple Syrup (1:1)
1-2 dash Jerry Thomas Decanter Bitters

Shake with ice and double strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Two Thursdays ago, Andrea and I ventured over to Craigie on Main after getting dinner at Veggie Galaxy in Central Square. For my first drink, bartender John Mayer suggested a curiously named cocktail called the "Magic Wand Malfunction." Of all things, yes, the name is a reference to a broken vibrator. I instantly recalled John's bio for the OnTheBar phone application that read, "If the drink is named after Texas, firearms, or sex toys, there's a good chance I created it." It turns out that John's wife is a sex ed teacher, so these topics come up as part of her work. Andrea asked John if there were other drinks named after sex toys, and John admitted that this was the only one. I told John that the name rivaled Bergamot's Beacon Fix which was not named for the drink style (it lacks the crushed ice and fruit garnish of a traditional Fix) but for a methadone clinic one of the bartenders walks by to get to work. The other curious part of the John's drink was one of the ingredients -- maple sugar syrup. Maple sugar is what is left after the tree sap is boiled down into solid form; while it retains maple syrup's warmth, it lacks its viscosity.
The Magic Wand Malfunction initially greeted me with orange and gin aromas that later gained spice notes from the Becherovka and perhaps the bitters. The lemony sip gave way to maple flavors on the beginning of the swallow. The later elements of the swallow contained the spice and herbal notes from the gin and Becherovka including a clove flavor that increased with successive swallows and soon began to linger. Overall, the Magic Wand Malfunction was rather smoothed out by the maple sugar at first; as it warmed up though, it turned into more of a gin drink.