drops of life

2 oz Hendrick's Gin (Tanqueray Malacca)
3/4 oz Dolin Blanc Vermouth (Servito)
1/2 oz St. Germain (St. Elder)
2 slice Cucumber

Muddle cucumber slices, add rest of ingredients, stir with ice, double strain into a coupe, and garnish with a skewered cucumber (cucumber wheel). Two Tuesdays prior, I returned to the online recipe flashcards for Sundry & Vice in Ohio and opted for the Drops of Life from a 2022 set. The drink was much older than that, for I found a reference as early as 2015 in a Yelp review and as late as 2024 in a Yelp menu photo. Overall, the idea reminded me of the Day for Night that I had at Bar Lunette but without the gentian liqueur and with muddled cucumber instead of cucumber bitters, and perhaps the St. Germain for simple syrup riff on the East Side that I made on occasion at Drink. In the coupe, the Drops of Life offered up a cucumber, grapefruit, and floral bouquet to the nose. Next, sweet grape and orchard fruit notes on the sip cascaded into gin, cucumber, vegetal, floral, and grapefruit flavors on the swallow.