#33. Blackthorn

1:1 sweet vermouth to sloe gin.

I have a question: does anyone make a good sloe gin? I'm not criticizing the drink. I'm talking about the fact that the only sloe gin I can find is a bottle of Leroux that was collecting dust in the discount corner. It seems like the majority of liqueurs leave me only two choices: Leroux or Hiram Walker. I assume both are highly sweetened and chemical-ized.

G said that the Blackthorn was somewhere in between candy and cough syrup. The sloe gin has a bit of a fake cherry quality, and an aftertaste, which I think explains the cough syrup feel. It's not bad though. It's hard to know what to do with a description like, "oh, kind of like cough syrup, but in a good way," but that's more or less the way it is.

Not a bad drink, but I need to find somebody else's sloe gin to really know. Otherwise I'll just assume that sloe gin is kind of an also-ran spirit.

Difford's recipe for the Blackthorn is nothing like this at all. It's much more like an Appetizer--all Difford's recipes with Blackthorn in the name have gin and Dubonnet. The color and taste are extremely similar, which makes sense. None of the ingredients are the same, per se, but all the ingredients are similar. Both are simply gin, plus a sweetener, plus an apertif wine of some sort.

#26. Beauty Spot

Two-thirds gin to one-third grenadine. Oh, and an egg white.

I believe this drink was the beginning of my downfall, but I'm well on the way to recovery so I forgive you, Beauty Spot. That is an absolute huge amount of grenadine. I've been making my own with straight sugar and either pomegranate juice or pomegranate and cherry, and I'm pretty sure I use slightly less sugar than generally recommended. But even that way, a 2:1 ratio of booze to syrup is a sweet mess.

And the egg, yes. The egg white. On the one hand, it adds some nice froth. On the other hand, that's a lot of egg. With no soda water or anything to cut things a little, it starts to feel like an awful lot of egg. Or maybe that's purely psychological? And I'm just not over thinking that drinking raw egg is a strange thing to do? Not that strange a thought, considering that there is no question but that drinking raw egg is kind of an odd thing to do.

Not a terrible drink, mostly because it's too sweet and nothing that's too sweet can be all that bad. But, pretty unlikely to be a part of my regular repertoire.

#4. Seventh Regiment Cocktail

I'll get some extra ingredients this week so I can branch out better, but for now I'm stuck with a lot of gin and vermouth concoctions that are all similar to each other and not super tasty.

This regiment prefers, apparently, a wet martini with lemon rind. Gin to sweet vermouth in a 3 to 2 ratio, and Ensslin calls for two pieces of lemon rind.

This gets into one of my only complaints about Ensslin's book--garnish. I assume that the lemon rind is garnish, as it doesn't make any sense to shake up a drink with lemon rind and then strain it. At least, I don't think it makes sense. Maybe that was Hugo's plan. In any case, his instructions can be more than a bit ambiguous.

This is not a particularly good drink. The sweet vermouth is way too strong and I feel like it overpowers the gin handily. I thought that the lime in the polo cocktail helped smooth things out considerably, but the lemon rind is barely a participant in this drink. It makes my martini glass prettier (this is a lovely looking drink, to be sure) I can barely detect citrus.

This is not a bad mix, to be fair, and I'm sure I'm enjoying it more than I would enjoy gin and dry vermouth in a similar ratio. But, It feels only tolerable. Were I not trying to work my way through this book, I would have much rather had a gin and tonic. The 7th regiment is the sort of simple drink that does not stand up against simpler drinks, and for that reason, is not one I'll be making again anytime soon. It's not bad, just not memorable. Mostly, I just want to know more about this seventh regiment. Seventh regiment of what? And why are they drinking so many martinis?

#1. The Perfect Cocktail

I thought the perfect way to start off this project would be with a 1916 martini. However, in my mind Ensslin called for gin, vermouth, and Angostura bitters, but in real life, he wanted orange bitters, which I have not yet acquired.

So instead, I went with "The Perfect Cocktail" which is a mix of gin, sweet vermouth, and dry vermouth. I was leery of the vermouth, my lone experience with it at home being an attempt to make vodka martinis with Martini Rosso vermouth many years ago. I used too much; I found the mix almost undrinkable.

This time around, I got Noilly Prat for both the sweet and dry, and I have to say, this is not a bad drink at all. It's not going to be my new favorite or anything like that, but I enjoyed it more than I expected.

Overall, the gin dominates the nose, but I think the sweetness of the red vermouth is the stronger taste. I notice a fair bit of gin aftertaste (I used Bombay) but the drink itself is almost like drinking strong red wine cold. Lots of herbal taste, though, and I thought a little sweeter than I would prefer. I look forward to some of the many other gin / sweet vermouth / dry vermouth drinks that pepper Recipes for Mixed Drinks in different rations. I think I'd probably like this mix pretty well with a higher ratio of gin to vermouth.

Throughout this project I'll be checking to see if these drinks still get references in modern guides or whether they've been forgotten. I'm checking with Difford's first because I got a copy of the 8th edition of his bar book and I find it tiny and fantastic. The closest I can find in name and recipe at his site is the Martini Perfect, which is exactly like Ensslin's recipe only with the addition of orange bitters. If I happen to try it again, I'll add the bitters and see what I prefer.

But, on the whole, a pleasant surprise, since I kind of expected not to like this one. Unlikely to drink too many of these in the future, but not bad at all.

[ADDENDUM] Went to see Prayers for Atheists (great show, by the way) after writing this and had an Abita Amber at the bar. And, it tasted just like dry vermouth, which was extremely unpleasant. The perfect cocktail seems to be a bit of a palate ruiner, so I'm going to downgrade its charms slightly. Not a good drink to order if you plan on enjoying anything else after.