fluffy ruffles

1/2 Cuban Rum (1 1/2 oz Diplomatic Reserva Exclusiva)
1/2 Italian Vermouth (1 1/2 oz Martini Gran Lusso)
1 rind Lime (1 whole Lime Peel)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Two weeks ago on Reddit's cocktails forum, someone had posted the Fluffy Ruffles that they made as a Rum Manhattan garnished with a lime twist. I commented, "The recipe gains a lift if you use the ones that include a lime peel or shell in the shake with ice. It adds lime notes and bitterness (akin to bitters in a Manhattan) to the drink." I tried to find evidence to my having made this drink on my old LiveJournal or here on the blog, and all I could find was a reference to it in this post (lamenting how that modern drink book did not have the lime peel/rind in the shake). That book review pointed me to a comment I made in the BoulderLibations blog back in 2011 where I point the author in the right direction by declaring, "No, I believe he does mean the peel (rind) which when shaken with ice will extract citrus oils and some bitterness to spice up the drink. Very popular around that time and is a standard in books like the La Florida Cocktail Book. There's not supposed to be citrus juice in the drink, but citrus essence akin to lime bitters." Actually, the technique dates back to at least 1862 with Jerry Thomas in his White Lion, but that post pointed me to Hugo Ensslin's 1916 recipe which I used to make the drink. I must have made this a decade before (perhaps at my journal/blog transition where a bunch of drinks did not get entered circa 2008), but it was time to do it again. The drink was so memorable that Andrea declared that if she ever got to join LUPEC Boston, her LUPEC name would be Fluffy Ruffles.
There's no way around the fact that the drink will look dingy when there is no garnish specified; I saved the similar Fig Leaf (rum, vermouth, lime, Angostura) with a lime twist to distract from that murky red-brown hue. The Fluffy Ruffles itself was named after a popular figure of 1907 -- this "it" girl was actually a newspaper comic strip star in line with the Gibson Girl aesthetic. Once prepared, the Fluffy Ruffles was so much more than a basic Rum Manhattan. It greeted the nose with lime and rum aromas that led into a grape and caramel sip. Next, the magic came in with rum, lime oil, and minty herbal notes. The lime itself acted like the bitters here and pushed things into a sharper, minty-herbal, and tropical direction reminiscent of Scott Holliday's Rude Boy.