shakedown street

2 oz Tequila (Fosforo)
1/2 oz Aperol
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/4 oz Agave Syrup
1 slice Cucumber

Muddle cucumber in syrup, add rest of ingredients, shake with ice, double strain into a cocktail glass (old fashioned glass with ice), and garnish with a cucumber slice. Two Tuesdays ago, I was looking through The Madrusan Cocktail Companion and spotted the Shakedown Street by Rhiannon Enlil. Since Rhiannon was our first Cure bartender back in 2009, I followed my hunch and opened up the Cure: New Orleans Drinks And How to Mix'em book. There, it described how Rhiannon riffed on one of Maks Pazuniak's drinks called the Deadhead that was got its name from being herbaceous enough that it "tasted like some hippie shit," and perhaps that is why she named this one after a Grateful Dead song. Rhiannon kept the ratio but changed things around. "Cucumber and Aperol want to be together; cucumber and tequila want to go together... it came together naturally." The drink stood out due to the cucumber and Aperol combination; I first learned about how the two can conjure up watermelon flavors in the 3185, and I observed it in other drinks like the Sunday Service and Ghost Hardware. Once prepared, the Shakedown Street proffered a cucumber and watermelon bouquet to the nose. Next, lemon and watermelon notes on the sip transitioned into tequila and orange flavors on the swallow. After I made the drink, I realized that I kept the serving style from The Madrusan Cocktail Companion without noticing that the Cure book calls for it to be strained into a coupe.