burdick's cocktail

1 oz Mezcal (Fidencio)
1 oz Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
1 oz Quinquina (Byrrh)
1/4 oz Crème de Cacao (Tempus Fugit)
1 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with a lemon twist.

One night at the Fenix Speakeasy at work, one of my regulars asked for a lighter style of drink, and I made a riff on the Marliave's Cocktail from 1906 Louis' Mixed Drinks utilizing L.N. Mattei's Cap Corse Quinquina Rouge and sweet vermouth (sweet vermouth appears in a similar drink in that book called the Aime). A few days later, I was still thinking about that combination, and I decided to play with it using some flavors in the quinquina-based Ask the Dust that I crafted at Russell House Tavern in 2014. To the Marliave's Cocktail's gin, Maraschino, and orange bitters, I swapped in mezcal, crème de cacao, and Peychaud's Bitters, and for a quinquina, I opted for the Byrrh that worked well in my 2014 creation. I could see Bonal and the new Dubonnet formulation working great here too. The crux of the idea is how well chocolate, quinine, and agave work together.
For a name, I wanted to pay tribute to another Boston locale (the Marliave was a legitimate speakeasy during Prohibition, and the restaurant is still around today), so I was inspired by the chocolate element to call this the Burdick's Cocktail after the Harvard Square chocolatier institution. In the glass, the Burdick's Cocktail proffered lemon and smoke to the nose. Next, a semi-dry grape sip sallied into a smoky agave and chocolate-quinine herbal swallow.