circles and seasons

1 1/2 oz Gin (Beefeater)
1 oz Grapefruit Juice
1/2 oz Maple Syrup
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a grapefruit twist.For a third and final drink during recipe R&D for an article on maple syrup, I wanted to do another Sour of sorts. I ended up naming it Circles and Seasons after the 1979 album by Pete Seeger that contains the song "Maple Syrup Time" which pretty accurately describes the process in folk song stylings down to warnings about not overcooking the syrup and burning it. I utilized the gin-maple aspect from from David Embury's Old Vermont (which was a gin and bitters version of the Applejack Rabbit) and the maple-grapefruit duo from the Don the Beachcomber Tiki classic, the Volcano Bowl. Combined, the complementary flavors sing splendidly together just like the medley in Seeger’s other recording of "Maple Syrup Time" on his album Seeds. I left out of the article the influence of Al Sotack's Genever-based Dial 'M' to simplify things, but I needed to give that recipe a nod here. I also kept the 3:2:1 formulation of how I mixed up the gin-grapefruit Seventh Heaven at Drink. Once prepared, it donated a grapefruit, pine, and maple aroma. Next, grapefruit with maple's richness on the sip flowed into gin, grapefruit, maple, allspice, and clove flavors on the swallow.