hot charlotte

1 1/2 oz Hendrick's Gin (Treehouse Percy's)
1 oz St. Germain (St. Elder)
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1 Tbsp Diced Cucumber
2-3 dash Tabasco (Sriracha)

Muddle the cucumber pieces, add the rest, shake with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with ice, and garnish with a cucumber slice.Two Tuesdays ago, I decided to make a drink that the Vinepair podcast had just talked about called the Hot Charlotte. Murray Stenson had created it at the Zig Zag Café in Seattle circa the late 00s in honor of then Hendrick's Gin ambassador Charlotte Voisey. I was able to find a history of the drink on Seattle's The Stranger and a handwritten recipe card on the Seattle Times that Murray gave to a guest. My reason to make it that night was the harvesting of my first garden cucumber earlier in the day. The Stranger described how Murray "got famous on someone else's drink" by way of promoting the Last Word, but the Hot Charlotte was his own invention. Essentially, the drink read like the Easy Street with hot sauce and no soda water, so I knew that it had to be a solid combination. Once assembled the Hot Charlotte opened up with cucumber, floral, and pine aromas. Next, lemon, vegetal, and grapefruit notes on the sip launched into gin, vegetal, and pepper spice flavors on the swallow with a pepper heat and floral finish.