in absentia

1 oz Banhez Mezcal
1 oz Cocchi Americano
3/4 oz Luxardo Amaro Abano
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with flamed orange oil from a twist.After landing in Portland, Oregon, two Sundays ago, I attended the Portland Cocktail Week welcoming night event at Aviation Gin that was followed by an unofficial tour and visit to Aria Gin a few blocks away. On the walk back to the Ace Hotel where I was staying again, I returned to the Teardrop Lounge for the first time in a decade. There, I asked bartender Amy for the In Absentia subtitled "complex and subtly bitter with chocolate hints." I selected that one for the combination of mezcal and Amaro Abano worked great in Mike Ryan's Speaking in Tongues as well as Rafa Garcia Febles' The Clyde. Curiously, I was able to find a 2015 article listing the In Absentia recipe as an aged rhum agricole number (everything else held constant) utilizing JM Vieux, so perhaps this older recipe evolved through the years. Once served to me, the In Absentia welcomed the senses with an orange, smoky, vegetal, and caramel aroma. Next, caramel and fruity notes on the sip disappeared into vegetal, smoky, herbal, and black pepper flavors on the swallow.