start of a new road

1/2 oz Lagavulin Scotch
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz Neisson Rhum Agricole Blanc
3/4 oz Lime Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a coupe glass.

While I was finishing my Roots of Rum at Backbar, Steven Shellenberger sat down and asked bartender Sam Treadway for "something ruthless." To that request, Sam offered up a riff on Chris McMillian's End of the Road that appears in Beta Cocktails. Chris' drink is equal parts Laphroaig 10 Year Scotch, Campari, and Green Chartreuse. Sam substituted another smoky Scotch, namely Lagavulin but otherwise kept the drink the same in the first half of the volume. To the other half of the volume, he balanced the drink with rhum agricole and lime juice. Since the pairing of rhum agricole and Scotch worked so well in Ben Sandrof's Two Worlds Sour, I asked Sam for this Start of a New Road as my next drink.
The Start of a New Road's aroma was mostly smoky with some rhum and Green Chartreuse herbal notes poking through. A dry malt and lime sip preceded a smoky Scotch and grassy rhum swallow. At the end was a bitter note that was unlike either Green Chartreuse or Campari. When I mentioned this to Sam, he commented that the Campari only comes through in the color for him.