The Cardinal's Cocktail

Well, I did some drinking over the holidays, but I did not write anything. Suffice to say that my husband and I finally discovered what a difference homemade makes when it comes to eggnog. Husband made two batches of a somewhat famous recipe from an old Four Roses ad, and we were invited to share some of a friend's batch that had been aged for one year (Really! Alton Brown's recipe). The two eggnogs were different, but both were delicious and in no way like the stuff you buy at the grocery store.

Speaking of homemade being well worth the effort, a friend of ours gave us a bottle of homemade falernum and a bottle of homemade orgeat yesterday. I will write more about the falernum soon, but for tonight I tried the orgeat. Orgeat is a syrup made of almonds and a few other ingredients. Its most well-known use is in the Mai-Tai, but I wanted to try to find something different, so I consulted the CocktailDB and found this one that I had never heard of, called Cardinal's Cocktail. I have had no luck finding out any history of this one because most drinks I have seen called Cardinal involve red wine or Campari, for the bright red color. I'm not sure why this version is not better known, because it's really delicious. The only problem I could find with it was that it was all gone way too quickly.

Cardinal's Cocktail
1 1/2 oz white rum
3/4 oz lime juice
1/4 oz triple sec (Cointreau)
1/4 oz grenadine
1/4 oz orgeat

I have tried store-bought orgeat that was a "gourmet" brand and I didn't think it had much almond flavor at all, but this homemade stuff is terrific. It's thick with a pinky-beigey color, and you have to shake it really well but the flavor is sweet almond, like marzipan.

This recipe as written had 1 oz of lime juice, but it made more sense to me to cut it to 3/4 oz, to make it equal parts lime juice and sweetening ingredients. The balance came out just right, I thought. It definitely didn't need more lime.

If you don't know CocktailDB.com, definitely check it out. It's run by Martin Douderoff and Ted Haigh, aka Dr. Cocktail, the author of Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. Not only is it a great resource about recipes and ingredients, but also it features really fun photos of bottles from Haigh's personal collection.