Monday, November 28, 2022

piano hands

1 oz Banhez Mezcal
1 oz Hamilton's Navy Strength Rum
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/4 oz Benedictine
6 dash Absinthe

Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a big ice cube, and garnish with lemon oil from a twist.
Some time after my educational events at the Jupiter Next at Portland Cocktail Week two Mondays ago, I ventured over to Rum Club where I found a seat in front of bartender Mike Treffehn who I knew from class earlier in the day as a presenter as well as the creator of the Long Snake Moan at the Franklin Mortgage & Investment Co. in Philadelphia circa 2011. For a cocktail, I asked Mike for the Piano Hands that he described as his Vieux Carré riff that he crafted with a mezcal-rum pairing. In the glass, the Piano Hands met the nose with a lemon, caramel, and hint of smoke aroma. Next, caramel and grape notes on the sip progressed into rum, vegetal, smoke, and herbal flavors on the swallow.

3 comments:

Greg Logan said...

Never mind me - as your blog is an eternal project...

But the language "the swallow"....hmmmm...

Perhaps "mid-palate", late-palate, finish" as options come to mind...they do all seem to matter - certainly sipping our nice scotch, whiskey or old shoe leather....

frederic said...

Considering that I'm drinking more than properly tasting, I'm using different vocabulary. Otherwise, I'd probably be decanting part of it into a Glencairn glass and doing all those tricks I do with spirits when tasting. Also, these are the words we've been using for over a decade before all the fancy proper tasting terms came into vogue.

Greg Logan said...

Frederic,

Fair enough! Was just curious - since so much of your blog is quite the impeccable and precise effort - quite a joyful work of art that, God willing, I look forward to further exploration!

Greg