1 1/2 oz Arette Reposado Tequila (Cimarron)
1/2 oz La Luna Ensemble Mezcal (Peloton de la Muerte)
1/2 oz Amaro Ciociaro (*)
1/2 oz Giffard Pamplemousse (St. Elder)
Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned with a large ice cube, and garnish with an orange twist and cherry.
(*) Someone on
Instagram asked about substitutions, and I replied "Amer Picon, Torani Amer, Bigallet China-China, or Amaro Lucano."
Two Thursdays ago, I was searching online recipe flashcards for uses of Amaro Ciociaro, and I pulled up a set from The Winston's Club cigar bar in San Juan Capistrano, California, for their opening menu this year. The drink, the Smokey Maduro, reminded me of an
Oaxacan Old Fashioned taken in an amaro-grapefruit liqueur direction. Mezcal and Ciociaro have worked well in drinks like the
Leatherman and
Little Zeddie, and I used it to great effect in the
Kilted Flower; and mezcal and grapefruit liqueur have paired excellently in the
Mezcal Me Maybe and
Mildred Pierce plus my
This is Not Berlin. Therefore, I gave this one a stir. In the glass, the Smokey Maduro lit up with orange, caramel, cherry, and vegetal aromas. Next, the caramel and orange notes continued on into the sip where they interlaced with smoky, agave, grapefruit, and bitter orange flavors on the swallow.
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4 comments:
"Smokey Maduro" sounds like the name of a cigar-chomping Venezuelan drug lord. "Peloton de la Muerte" (lit. "Peloton of Death") conjures images of zombies shuffling along for all eternity on some demonic treadmill so I went with Del Maguey Vida de Muertos mezcal instead. Didn't have Ciociaro, so went with China-China cause it smelled like it would work better than Lucano with pamplemousse. Pretty good result!
Cool! I find the products to be on a spectrum of flavor with all of them being dark caramel, orange peel, and quinine focused. Lucano is the lightest and B's China-China the most robust. Picon is king but I save my old remaining bottle for special recipes, and Ciociaro is in the middle with Picon and has a certain elegance to it.
There's apparently an Amer Picon knockoff originally made in CA by Torani that's now made by the Ferino Distillery in Reno NV: wineenthusiast.com/culture/spirits/picon-amer. I have a bottle of Amer dit Picon by Golden Moon Distillery in Golden CO, but it is expensive and hard to get outside of Colorado so I save it for Brooklyns. Have to try CioCiaro now.
I was able to get 2 bottles of California Torani Amer at Tales of the Cocktail 2010, and I still have most of 1 bottle left. Not great on its own, but it makes excellent drinks. We can't get it out here though, and it's towards the back of my amaro shelf so I grab it less often.
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