So, I really like gin. I like classic drinks made with gin. I like several different gins for them, but my favorite is Hendrick's, which isn't at all classic, but is completely awesome. I would let Hendrick's be my boyfriend and do really dirty things to him every night if I didn't know it was going to turn into this whole awful enabling thing, possibly ending with me needing to permanently avoid Vicodin and Tylenol to save my liver. (Plus, Hen getting mad and blah-blahing at me for occasionally cheating with bourbon or vodka instead.)
I'm kinda boring about what I do with it, though. I am an old man in terms of cocktail drinking. It's like this—
I grew up here:
I (kinda sorta) dress like this:
But when it comes to drinks? I'm mostly an old guy at the 19th Hole:
The most creative I usually get is to add cucumber to my Hendrick's gimlet in summertime. Which, by the way, is so delicious. Do that.
Also, I have a lot of teenaged-type kids and not a lot of extra money for fancy liqueurs and mixers. I have what I have, and when I run out, maybe I get that again, or maybe I substitute with a different thing all the kids are talking about. (Not my kids. I mean, you all out there. And yes, I know, not you. But those others.)
Right now on my bar I have some Maker's 46 bourbon, Amaretto di Saronno, Bacardi Gold Rum, St-Germain, Patron Citronge, Patron XO, Noilly Prat Sweet and Dry Vermouth, Fee Brothers bitters, Chambord, Frangelico, Poma, and four cheesy liqueurs to (probably not as I mainly use them in cooking) be named later.
In the freezer (people do disagree on this, but really, shhh,) Hendrick's gin, Effe Black Cherry Vodka, and Absolut vodka.
The only constants are the Hendrick's and the Noilly Prat Dry. All else is negotiable.
Anyway. Someone gave me a portion of maraschino liqueur, and it leaked out of the container and made a mess. I keep wishing to use it, remember I can't, and then I make a drink with something else instead. I'm trying to branch out, people, without putting much more money into the thing.
Tonight I started to make a not-Aviation, and then a not-Martinez, and so I ended up with this. If it already has a name, well, allrighty.
80 ml Hendrick's gin
40 ml Amaretto di Saronno (it does have a certain similar profile to the cherry liqueurs)
20 ml sweet vermouth
20 ml Meyer lemon juice
2 dashes of "regular" bitters, which may not be necessary for balance in this case, but I like the cinnamony nature of the Fee Bros. mixed with amaretto.
Shaken, strained, with a wee lemon almost-wedge, which is my current cool garnish.
It's much sweeter than my usual martini or gibson for winter or gimlet for summer. But not cloying or girly. And I'm digging it.
