bitter end

1 1/2 oz Gordon's Dry Gin
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz Cynar
3/4 oz Grapefruit Juice
2 dash Fee's Grapefruit Bitters

Shake with ice and pour into a rocks glass.

Two Mondays ago, Andrea and I went over to Highland Kitchen for dinner. The first drink on the cocktail menu to call out to me was the Bitter End which was their own take on the name as opposed to the two other Bitter Ends I have written about before. The grapefruit and Cynar pairing reminded me pleasantly of the Peralta; therefore, I asked bartender Will Quackenbush to make me one.
The Bitter End offered up a gin and grapefruit aroma that transitioned into a citrus sip filled with orange and grapefruit flavors. On the swallow, the Cointreau merged with the Cynar, and it ended with a lingering juniper note. The interesting orange liqueur-Cynar interaction was something that I had noted before in Ryan Lotz's Jupiter's Dilemma and Matthew Schrage's Hugo Ball.