Bijou

The Bijou, first cocktail of the new year from the new book.

PDT Interview
Personal Preferences: dark liquor, slow sipping
Style of Drink: classic, rocks
Spirit of Choice: scotch, bourbon
Last Drink: Manhattan

Over the Christmas break, the beverages for the fam vacillated between Manhattans and Tequila Sunrises.  It was a cooler evening on Friday, so for the first beverage in the new year from the new book, I was thinking an amber beverage was more appropriate to the mood and weather than a tequila cocktail.  I was also willing to push the envelope a bit with an accent liquor.   Interestingly enough, the Bijou, first mixed in 1895, fit the bill when considering my PDT Interview criteria.  French for jewel, what a jewel the Bijou is.  Look at that picture!  Rich ambers, the flash of red & yellow from the garnishes.  Meehan notes in the text that the liquors are supposed to represent the jewels of their color:  Gin=diamond, vermouth=ruby, Chartreuse=emerald.   And how about my new Waterford rocks glasses?  One of my Christmas gifts from The Partner!  Not a coupe, but I wanted to start with new glassware.

We were very pleased with the choice.  It was indeed a slow sipper, allowing us to pass the time and share our day while waiting for our late dinner reservation.  I was taking a risk here since Chartreuse is one of those very herbal liquors with occasional licorice notes – a flavor The Partner just can’t stomach.  ("Hmm...what all's in this?  Wait, don't tell me until we've finished it.  I wanna keep liking it.")  The flavors are complex and shift as one sips.  We added an ice cube to both keep it cool and dilute a bit as we sipped.  Impossible to drink quickly, it was a one-rounder.  It is just that rich.  It is so complex we both felt our next beverages – Martinis at dinner – seemed downright weak & one-dimensional by comparison.  A marvelous, grown-up cocktail to linger over while having good conversation with a spouse or friend.

Bijou
1 oz. Gin
1 oz. sweet vermouth
1 oz. green Chartreuse
1 dash orange bitters
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.  Garnish with cherry & lemon twist.

Bitter | 19 down 256 to go

Bitter: a cocktail to be appreciated if not liked.

Bitter is an amazingly complex cocktail and the name perfectly describes it.  That said, it's not one I'd say we liked so much as appreciated.  A bonus of mixing this bev was finding another opportunity to use an ounce of Chartreuse (the level of which is now half a finger below the neck of the bottle).  

Besides the name, I knew I'd have to sneak this one passed The Partner.  He loathes licorice, so the Pernod would be a challenge.  When he left the room, I quickly scrambled to concoct.  But even at a mere dash, the Pernod was so strong it filled the bar with its dark, syrupy scent.

The Bitter demanded our attention.  We paused TiVo to give it its due.  We drew in the nose, intrigued (scared?).  The first sip was a test to be sure.  But each one following revealed multiple layers of flavor.  The gin provided a sort of liquid canvas accenting the herbal Chartreuse and citrusy lemon.  The Pernod, while contributing a strong licorice aroma to the cocktail, surprisingly enough, was not so much a flavor on the tongue as a dimension or depth.  Kind of an alcoholic umami.  

This is perhaps the strongest proof yet that tastes certainly have changed when it comes to cocktailing.  For the evening one Bitter was enough.  Still, characterizing it as either Make it Again or Once was Enough would be inaccurate.  Perhaps we need a new category that captures a beverage such as this one.  Perhaps something like…"Respected".

Bitter
1 1/2 oz. gin
1/2 oz. Chartreuse
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1 dash Pernod


Shake with cracked ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass; garnish with a lemon twist.

Drink Without a Name | 10 down 265 to go

To make the Drink Without a Name, I had to purchase Chartreuse and learned several things I never knew before. (Hey, alcohol as a “gateway” drug…to learning!  Ha!)  While it comes in two colors, yellow & green, it’s the green that is traditional.  In fact, the name of the color derived from the liqueur and not the other way around.  Chartreuse has been made exclusively by Carthusian monks for about 270 years and named after their monastery in the Chartreuse Mountains of Grenoble, France.  The recipe is highly guarded, though we know it’s made with 130 herbs and aged in oak barrels.  It’s one of the few liqueurs to continue to improve in the bottle as it ages.
 
As for its taste, it is exceedingly smooth, very herbal and bitter.  Even medicinal.  It reminded me of a digestif my friend brought me from the Czech Republic, once upon a time, Becherovka.  It is not an inexpensive liqueur and now I know why.   Given that it packs quite a wallop and challenges the contemporary palate, one doesn’t drink it in vast quantities.  Therefore, it will last forever.
 
I had high hopes for this cocktail.  How could you not with its cool, pale green hue made even more vibrant with the orange garnish.  But at the risk of sounding downright Rumsfeldian, the DWAN tastes like Old Europe in a cocktail glass.  Still, we were troupers and finished our medicine before we moved on to our next Saturday evening refreshment.

Drink Without a Name

2 oz vodka

1/4 oz Cointreau

1/8 oz Chartreuse

Mix over cracked ice, stir to chill and serve in chilled cocktail glass.