happy days

4/10 Seager's Dry Gin (1 oz Tanqueray)
3/10 Lillet (1 oz Cocchi Americano)
2/10 Van der Hum (1/2 oz) (*)
1/10 Lemon Juice (1/2 oz)
1 dash Peach Bitters (Fee Brothers)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
(*) Sub Amaro Montenegro (with or without some part of the volume being triple sec/curaçao). See text for more explanation.

A few Thursdays ago, I opened up the 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book and spotted the Happy Days crafted by UK Bartender's Guild member E.L. Horton. When I saw the strange cascading recipe, I decided to approach the recipe using the Scofflaw as a scaffold instead of making each one-tenth part being a quarter ounce. Moreover, I was also drawn to the recipe for I own a bottle of Van der Hum, a South African tangerine and spice liqueur that falls somewhere between Amaro Montenegro and Cointreau (either or a blend would work as a substitute in a pinch).
The Happy Days at first greeted the nose with a lemon aroma that later became more ginny as the drink warmed up. On the palate, lemon and orange notes filled the sip, and the swallow began with juniper, other gin notes, and tangerine and ended with a peach flavor from the bitters.