#10. Bill Lyken's Delight

I had high hopes for this drink. Or, at least, I hoped it wouldn't be terrible, but it kind of was. Equal parts dry gin and dry vermouth, topped with 4 dashes curacao, shaken with lemon and orange rind, served with a cherry.

The blue curacao left the drink an unpleasant blue-green that made it look like it was going to taste horrible. Its actual taste didn't do much to change anyone's opinion. The dry vermouth taste dominates, with only the slightest citrus character as competition. I don't know what the point of the cherry was at all.

I wanted the curacao to do something more interesting than it did. I probably used more than strictly necessary--the dashes turned into perhaps a half ounce, in a drink split three ways. But, the main factor here is the dry vermouth. If you don't like it, you won't like this drink.

We talked this one through a bit as we endured it. To the modern palate, it's odd to have so many drinks that don't involve any mixers but rather just booze. GG noted the Delight's odd combination--it tastes both too hot and too sweet. "Hot" meaning that the taste and feel of the alcohol is quite pronounced. Usually, sweetness covers up heat and makes a drink taste "weaker" than it actually is. In this case, the cocktail managed to taste too strongly of alcohol while remaining cloyingly sweet. This apparently delighted Bill Lyken, but Bill must have had bad taste in drinks. I never need to drink one of these again.

Closest corollary in Difford's guide would be the Snyder martini, which is the same basic mix

minus the rinds. I'm going to assume that it isn't terribly good either.

#8. Little Princess

What country has a princess who's drinking an equal mix of dry vermouth and rum? Surely this nation was never a world power. It was probably somewhere obscure like Bohemia or something.

In short, this was not a good drink. Rather than complementing each other, the rum and vermouth seemed to maintain their worst aspects. The harsh herbal character, almost savory, of the vermouth did nothing to combat the rum's heavy, chemical feel.

I had a feeling this one was going to be rough so I cut up a lime, thinking it would help, since of course rum and lime go together like funny hats and the Pope. It wasn't enough, though. The addition of lime just made it taste like the same mess, plus lime. Some other samplers hunted around the kitchen for extra additives, and threw in some ginger and sugar, and reported that that helped.

OF COURSE it helped! You can add ginger and sugar to anything, and it will taste marvelous. That proves nothing at all. I don't care how miserable your booze is- if you top it off with a generous layer of ginger ale, it will be imminently palatable. That doesn't prove anything. You add all this stuff, and you're essentially saying, "Hey, if you make this into a totally different drink, it tastes fine." Yes, well.

Skip this one. And, while you're at it, skip anything whose recipe is just some kind of liquor and dry vermouth because it's almost certainly undrinkable. There. I said it. Do whatever you must, vermouth lobby. I can take your fury. I've seen worse.