saxoni

1 oz Jagermeister
1 oz Campari
1 oz Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
2 dash Mole Bitters (Bittermens)

Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with a large cube (originally was served up in a coupe), and garnish with both an orange twist and a lemon one.

Two Sundays ago, I was perusing the ShakeStir drink database when I spotted the Saxoni that I had invented. I would not say made, for I had submitted it in 2015 without having put the ingredients together in a glass due to a time crunch -- yet it won second place in that Jägermeister competition. My description was "A Negroni inspired by a Black Manhattan," and it was not surprising that it was not the only Negroni riff (yet it got noticed). As I described in my Art of Naming a Drink essay two years later, "In competitions, the name can be rather important to win the judges' nod. Linking the name to a bit of history or geography about the ingredient can be helpful. For example, in one Jägermeister competition on ShakeStir, I stood out above the other competitors who created Negroni riffs by avoiding the common Jägeroni or Negronimeister ones that were submitted by paying tribute to the geography of the spirit and dubbing it the Saxoni."Now almost 6 years later, I felt it was time to make this drink. The Saxoni unfurled a lemon and orange oil aroma over ginger and caramel notes. Next, caramel, citrus, and peach flavors on the sip led into ginger, bitter orange, and star anise on the swallow with a chocolate finish. After Andrea tasted it, she commented that she understood why this combination was in the winners' circle regardless of the name.