skin & bones

1 oz Brennivin Aquavit
1 oz Dolin Dry Vermouth
3/4 oz Bonal Gentiane-Quinquina
1/4 oz Benedictine
2 dash Angostura Bitters
1 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a rocks glass (in Sahil's original Instagram photo, it was a cocktail glass), and garnish with a lemon twist.
Two Mondays ago, I decided to visit bartender Sahil Mehta at Estragon for dinner. For a first cocktail, I looked through Sahil's drink notebook and spotted his drink of the day from a month ago that seemed like an interesting use of Brennivin aquavit by pairing it with Bonal. For a name, it got dubbed the Skin & Bones after the Foo Fighters song that mentioned "Brennivin and cigarettes." Once in the glass, the Skin & Bones gave forth a lemon aroma with herbal hints to the nose. Next, a semi-dry red grape sip gave way to caraway and other herbal flavors on the swallow with a bitter spice finish. Moreover, I found the flavor balance came together more as the drink got a touch warmer.