the five elements

3/4 oz Cognac (Du Peyrat Selection)
3/4 oz Batavia Arrack (von Oosten)
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Chinese Five Spice Syrup (*)
1/2 oz Lemon Juice

Shake with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with a cinnamon stick.
(*) Chinese five spice syrup: 1 tsp Chinese five spice powder, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup water. Heat the spices in a pan until they become fragrant. Add sugar and water, stir, and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat, let sit covered for 15 minutes, strain through a coffee filter, bottle, and refrigerate.After spotting Misty Kalkofen's Joe's Fashion that paired Punt e Mes with Chinese five spice syrup, I decided to tinker. I opted for the spirits mix from the Bombay Government Punch of Cognac and Batavia Arrack to make a drink split between ingredients from the East and the West. Since it felt very punch like, I dubbed this the Five Elements – partly because the recipe had that many ingredients but also because the word 'punch' may derive from the Hindi word 'panch' meaning five: spirit, citrus, sugar, spice, and water. Once prepared, the Five Elements greeted the nose with Cognac, apple, and cinnamon aromas. Next, lemon, honey, roast, and grape notes on the sip sailed into Cognac, dry funky Batavia Arrack, herbal, and spice including star anise flavors on the swallow.