I’m in the same camp as Jay¹ , except for the occasional excursion into Thursday Drink Night with an experiment of a drink among friends, I tend to leave the development of original drinks to the experts. Or, at least those in Playboy’s Top 10. That is until there is an interesting Rye or set of bitters at stake, which is exactly where I found myself this weekend with the allure and deadline of Marshall’s contest looming large in my mind. I also had bergamot-tarragon syrup to experiment with. As for why I had that particular syrup hanging around, that’s a tale for another day. With “Spring” and rye as the guiding stars per the contest rules, I set my boat a sail. I landed on the friendly and warm shores of The Revivalist, my attempt to acquire bitters and Templeton Rye in my favorite way, at Marshall’s expense.

The Revivalist

• 2oz Rye whiskey
• 1/2oz Amer Picon
• 1/2oz Bergamot-Tarragon syrup*
• 1/4oz Maraschino liqueur
• 1/4oz Lemon juice

Shake all ingredients with ice and double-strain² into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist lemon peel over the drink and garnish with a lemon twist.

*Bergamot-Tarragon syrup: Bring simple syrup (1:1.5) just to boil and remove from heat, add tarragon and bergamot leaves and leave to sit and cool with syrup for at least one hour. Strain all into sterilized container.

This took several tries to get right. Originally I had the lemon juice and Amer Picon inverted and the tartness of the lemon juice along with the herbaceousness of the syrup led it into highly unfortunate bile territory. There was a good start there but it needed to feature the freshness of the syrup, the heartiness of the rye – and I do recommend a hearty rye in this, a nuttier and milder rye like Old Overholt will play dead in this – and the dancing combination of rye and Amer Picon more clearly. After several adjustments and misses I arrived at the recipe above.

I was worried that the volume of syrup would overly thicken the drink and make it tacky but the Amer Picon tamps that down and counters well enough to allow enough of the syrup to be present to bring the cucumber notes of bergamot and the fresh tarragon through. Also, using a strong rye alongside the maraschino allows the rich cherry must and nut character of the maraschino to express itself without overtaking the drink, which maraschino can quickly do. This iteration presents a well-structured drink that settles through several nuances on the palate and yet finishes cleanly. I was surprised at how much of the syrup could be present without dropping it off a cliff of candyland yick but, again, the drink strikes a nice even chord. Hopefully I’ll get to try it with Templeton in short order. Thanks for the opportunity fellas, it was fun.

To enter the contest yourself or to keep up with the submissions and results, visit the contest submission rules.

1. this is a reference to Jay’s comments in the latest issue of Mutineer Magazine [↩]
2. yes, it’s obvious in the photo I didn’t double-strain and, dammit…fine, I admit it, it very often improves a drink, you bastards [↩]

Those 8 of you that were actually awaiting the results of the contest, there is a winner; I’ve just been too taken up with Real Life (RL©) and spewing clean-outs in my basement coating everything within in rotten detritus and funk to get to much of anything blog-related done recently. The basic run-down however is that the entries fell into three categories:

• Cocktail mixers being used in nefarious and inappropriate ways,
• Cocktail mixers being just plain awful, and
• Using mixing ingredients as substitutes when they really ought not be.

Let’s take an example from each¹ , the first being:

1. some entries have been edited for length and grammar, but not style [↩]

If you’ve read this site for anything length of time at all you know my feelings on fresh juice specifically and mixers generally. Mixers on the order of Finest Call and Master of Mixers are the bane of good drinking and it is an extreme rarity when use of these products lends you anything but heartache, pain, and a solemn promise to never ever ever again follow the proportions requested on any damned bottle at all. The weird 3-gallon buckets with a spigot inviting you to throw in a bottle of tequila and go should be banned, taken from shelves, and drop-shipped to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, where between the methane, nitrogen and these toxins some ammonia-based life and intelligence will surely sprout. Malevolent and sinister life, certainly, but life nonetheless. The vast majority of bottled “bloody mary”¹ , tom collins² , margarita³⁴ , and manhattan⁵ mixers are one grade above a mix of Nonoxynol-9 and Nads and should only be served when Ipecac is nowhere to be found and someone’s life is severely at risk lest they hurl post-haste.

So, on that tasteful note, I’d like to present the first contest, in conjunction with Stirrings, hosted by Cocktailnerd.com to share your worst cocktail mixer experience where your response, if selected, will earn you a selection of Stirring mixer products through you which you can turn your nose up at the Master of Mixers and Finest Calls of the world and make a far better cocktail. My experience with Stirrings products has only been positive, especially where their syrups and tonic water is concerned but they are largely unavailable in my area and their products feature more natural ingredients and they tend to have a care about the drinking experience they’re springing on the often hapless public.

Tell me about your worst mixer experience below including the circumstances, use, and aftermath and submit it by April 21st and, if selected by this highly subjective panel of one, Stirrings will send you bottles of their Mojito, Strawberry Daquiri, and Blueberry mixers free-of-charge. All submissions will become the property of Cocktailnerd World Domination Enterprises, LLC⁶ and may be used in the compilation post summarizing the contest results and winner along with my own tale of woe.

Now, bring it:

Submissions after April 21st shall be mocked and generally rued. Unless, of course, there are very few submissions at that point. Then, well, we’ll be more than happy to receive it.

1. bloody awful [↩]
2. hi, meet “barf” collins, his cousin [↩]
3. you mean make you sheeit-ah! [↩]
4. ok that’s a really terrible and lousy joke…my apologies [↩]
5. just wrong, is a proper manhattan really beyond people to make? [↩]
6. very limited liability [↩]