Aged Negronis

One cocktail trend I've noticed is the act of aging cocktails in some sort of barrel. I first saw barrel-aged negronis on a menu when I was in Portland last fall. I was pretty intrigued by this--what gets aged in the barrel? Is the cocktail mixed and the whole thing aged or was just one ingredient aged (and if so, which one)? What sort of barrel was it aged in? Once I got home, I did some research and found a good entry on the barrel-aged cocktail trend on Jeffrey Morgenthaler's blog. I like the idea of pre-mixing drinks; it certainly makes dishing up drinks at cocktail parties much faster. I love a drink experiment, so I thought about what I wanted to make and how I was going to age it.

I thought about what would benefit from being soaked in a bourbon barrel (or equivalent) for a few weeks, and I pretty much immediately wrote off bourbon-based cocktails. The bourbon's already been aged for years in bourbon barrels, what's the point of aging it a few more weeks? I can see aging a specific ingredient like Campari or sweet vermouth and then mixing it with bourbon, but that's a test for another day. Because my two main spirit bases are bourbon and gin, I decided to focus on a gin drink. Since Morgenthaler did negronis, I figured I start with that, too. Essentially, you can age anything that's all booze, but I wanted to start simple and focus on a drink that I'm already very familiar with.

Now, I had to decide what I was going to age it in. There are multiple places online to get mini barrels, but that seemed like a lot of booze when I had no idea if this was going to be drinkable or not. One of the places that sells mini barrels, Tuthilltown Spirits, also sells kits that have a 375ml glass bottle along with a wood stick from a barrel. These sticks use something Tuthilltown calls "honey comb" cutouts; the sticks have many little holes drilled at all angles to provide for more surface area. The price on one of these kits is low ($12.50) and it requires a lot less booze, so I went with this.

At some point in my research I came across this blog entry from ManMade. This guy was doing exactly what I wanted to, so I used this as a model. I ordered a bag of Jack Daniel's Wood Smoking Chips from Amazon as an alternative to the barrel staves from Tuthilltown (I used 12 grams of chips so it would be nearly the same weight as the stave) and went to work mixing my batches of negronis.

The recipe I used was a basic negroni mix, but because I was making two batches that were 375ml, I upped the size of my batch. Each bottle had:

• 1/2 cup Plymouth gin
• 1/2 cup Campari
• 1/2 cup Carpano Antica sweet vermouth

The picture on the left is the barrel stave kit from Tuthilltown; the right is a mason jar with Jack Daniel's wood chips.

Pre-aging

I put these both in the root cellar (a dark, cool place) for two weeks. I shook them up every three or four days. After two weeks, I opened them up, strained each into its own pitcher, and invited folks over for taste tests. I also made a pitcher of "fresh" negronis as a base line. Right away I could see that the aged batches were much darker in color than the fresh. I thought that might tip everyone off to which was the fresh, but it didn't. I labeled each pitcher A, B, or C so it was a blind taste test. To really nerd out, I made up a questionnaire to capture what people thought as they tasted each sample. If I was going to do this again, I'd probably give everyone all three samples at once so they compare each against each other.

Some photos:

 

 Pouring Sample A

Filling out the questionnaire for Sample A

Pouring Sample B

The samples have been consumed...now to score these!

Sample A was the wood chip version, B was the fresh, and C was the barrel stave version. I added an small orange peel garnish to each. Most people thought the wood chip version was the most bitter and they generally liked the barrel stave version the most. Personally, I thought A was pretty smooth, not overly smoky, and quite sweet. No one else really agreed with this opinion, but maybe I was biased because I was hoping the best would be the one with the cheapest barrel ingredient. Anyway, the two smoked versions were really very different from the fresh and from each other. I would definitely make either version again as they were both quite tasty.

I plan on aging other cocktails in the future--so far I've thought about the Bijou (gin, sweet vermouth, green Chartreuse, and orange bitters), the Martinez (Old Tom gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino, and bitters), and the Dubonnet Cocktail (gin and Dubonnet). Dear readers, have any of you jumped on this trend? Post in the comments what you've aged and how you've aged it.

Sloe Gin Fizz

Since my last post, I've had some amazing bar breakthroughs. I acquired a lovely 10 cubic foot refrigerator, located just a few feet from the bar that allows me to store all my supplies downstairs, which makes it far easier to prepare a drink without three trips up and down the stairs. I also found some amazing new liquors, so I've managed to swig back a couple new cocktails.

I've discovered a new love, the Sloe Gin Fizz. First of all, I know. We've all had a miserable experience with this weird cough syrup-like swill. I too had an unfortunate time with a bottle of De Kuyper's "Sloe Gin" shortly after the Jack White/Loretta Lynn song "Portand, Oregon" was released.

Anyway, it was 2004 and during those heady days, this weird faux sloe gin was all that was available, so I had one Sloe Gin Fizz (SGF) and a bottle of sloe gin that sat in my cabinet for approximately four more years before I threw it out.

Cut to this 2013 and I'm searching out vintage and curious cocktail recipes. In many of the new books I've gotten, sloe gin has popped up more than once and is always referred to as "Plymouth Sloe Gin." Interesting, as the only Plymouth I've ever seen is their spectacular regular gin. Their sloe gin has thus been on my shopping list for awhile, but until a few weeks ago, I hadn't been able to find it. We were in Madison, Wisconsin for an overnight trip and went to a liquor store there where, lo and behold, they had Plymouth Sloe Gin! It's not cheap (like $35), so I only bought one bottle. This past weekend, I wanted to try something new, so I found a recipe in The PDT Cocktail Book (I like this book, but many of the drinks are so complicated and call for such obscure ingredients that it makes Imbibe recipes look basic). There are a ton of different SGF recipes out there. Out of the books I have, maybe three of them include SGF recipes. All three of these are different. The PDT references a recipe from J.A. Grohusko in Jack's Manual from 1910, and because that was the oldest I saw, it won. A good friend had a good amount of Meyer lemons and she gave me some wonderful Meyer lemon simple syrup and I used it here (by the way, AWESOME). I've noted how I adjusted my recipe to account for this.

• 1 oz. Plymouth Sloe Gin
• 1 oz. Plymouth Gin
• .75 oz. lemon juice
• .25 oz. simple syrup (I used .5 oz. Meyer lemon simple syrup and .5 oz of lemon juice)
• 3 oz. soda water

Mix all ingredients except the soda water and pour into an ice-filled glass. Top with soda.

I am absolutely in love with this drink. The sloe gin is nice and fruity and not cough syrup-y at all. There are a lot of good articles out there about sloe gin (sloe gin at Wikipedia, how to make your own sloe gin from Gordon's, and the always-helpful Imbibe Magazine with Elements: Sloe Gin), so I won't get into all that. Just know that in England, sloe gin is one of those drinks like limoncello that people often make at home. This sort of explains why good sloe gin is hard to find, as there doesn't appear to be much of a market for it. I like this drink so much because it is incredibly drinkable. I think the mixing of regular gin and sloe gin kind of thins out the sloe gin and makes it more palatable. Additionally, the lemon adds just enough sourness to the sweetness of the sloe gin and simple syrup.

Even if you've had a bad experience with sloe gin in the past, give this a try. I'd love to hear of your past SGF indiscretions and current better experiences, so leave me some feedback in the comments section.

The Gimlet

This is a little embarrassing to admit, but sometimes I get the idea that I just don’t like something about a cocktail, and I will never try one. I’ve never had a martini (shocking, I know), for instance, just because I have the idea that I won’t like it (why, I have no clue—gin, I like, dry vermouth, sure, so what’s the problem?). I don’t like olives, so I think that’s where my skepticism of the martini lies, but I am tempted to try one with a lemon twist rather than olive juice. I’ll keep you posted on that front, but another drink I’ve thought I won’t like is the gimlet. Once again, no idea why. It could be because I think Rose’s Lime is a weird color. Anyway, a few years ago, Darci tried to get a gimlet at a bar here, and the bartender had no clue how to make one. We sent the server back with a recipe, and the horribleness that came back was enough to turn us both off of gimlets for awhile. I’ve had a revelation, though, thanks to an article by Troy Patterson over on Slate. You should pop over to that site and check out the article; it was very informative and piqued my interest in the gimlet.

I try to keep my bar well-stocked, so I tend to buy lots of little add-ons that I might use in the future. Rose's Lime Juice is one of these things, so I've owned a bottle for probably two years now. It has never been opened, due to the previously-mentioned blah feeling I had about gimlets. After reading the Slate article, I knew what drink I would be making that evening. I came home and mixed up a glass, not using the Raymond Chandler recipe (half gin and half Rose's Lime and nothing else), but instead the recipe off the Rose's Lime bottle. I threw in some orange bitters and wow! I plan on knocking more than a few of these back, at least until I run out of Rose's Lime. The ingredients:

• 1 1/2 oz gin (I went cheap cheap cheap and used Trader Joe's Jail-House Gin, which is actually quite tasty)
• 1 oz Rose's Lime Juice
• 2 dashes Bittercube Orange Bitters

In an old-fashioned glass, add ice, then gin, Rose's Lime Juice, and the bitters. Stir well and add a slide of lime to garnish.

I was completely blown away by how tasty this gimlet is. It's refreshing and is very simple to make, two things I appreciate. Most of the cocktail blogs or recipe sites I saw are pro-Rose's and anti-fresh lime juice in the gimlet, although I bet they'd be really tasty if you made your own version of Rose's Lime (I think you could mix 1 part 1:1 simple syrup and 1 part lime juice to make a reasonable facsimile, but I'm sure someone else has already done this and has posted about it somewhere on the Internet). Anyway, read that Slate article, check out some other recipes, and mix up your own version of the gimlet.

The Bronx Cocktail and the Income Tax Cocktail

I recently bought a set of four Thin Man movies. For those of you who aren't familiar with the film series, just know that the first one was released in 1934, is based around a detective (Nick Charles) and his wife (Nora), and includes a LOT of references to drinking. I highly recommend it--it's an excellent cocktail movie. Anyway, at one point, Nick Charles is at a bar, talking to some bartenders while he orders a Martini. He instructs the barkeeps, "The important thing is the rhythm. Always have rhythm in your shaking. Now, a Manhattan you shake to fox-trot time, a Bronx to two-step time, a dry martini you always shake to waltz time." I'd heard of a Bronx cocktail before (I love a Manhattan), so I decided to mix up a few of these. 

There are a couple of theories about who came up with the Bronx. Some people think Joseph Sormani created it in Philadelphia around 1905. Other sources credit Johnnie Solon (a bartender in Manhattan), sometime around 1899-1906. Check out the Wikipedia page about this cocktail out; the Solon theory has an entertaining creation story.

I generally don't trust the cocktail recipes on Wikipedia, so I hit the cocktail books and found this in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. It was filed under a different drink, the Income Tax. One of my favorite things about cocktails is the history of the cocktail or how cocktails relate to each other. For example, the Manhattan (sweet vermouth and bourbon) became the Martinez (sweet vermouth and gin) became the Martini (dry vermouth and gin)...I just find this incredibly interesting (this is an excellent story about just this genealogy). From the standpoint of a very amateur barman, these connections make it easier to add drinks to my "memorized cocktail" list, just by slight adjustments. The Income Tax is just a Bronx, but with two dashes of Angostura bitters. 

The Bronx

• 1 1/2 oz gin (I used Gordon's)
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 3/4 oz dry vermouth
• Juice of 1/4 orange, freshly squeezed (This is obviously really vague. I used 1/3 of an oz.)

The Income Tax

• 1 1/2 oz gin 
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 3/4 oz dry vermouth
• Juice of 1/4 orange, freshly squeezed
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

I quite liked both of these drinks. I would call the Bronx a citrus-y cousin to the Manhattan--the orange mellows the booze a little, but it is still pretty strong. As for the Income Tax, the bitters add a little sophistication and a lot of depth to the drink. These are ingredients that are pretty common, so you probably already have everything to make them, so that's a nice bonus that rarely happens. 

The 20th Century

The 20th Century is an unusual cocktail. It was named for the 20th Century Limited passenger train, that ran from New York to Chicago, and in 1937 introduced a new ultra-modern streamlined design for trains that started operating in 1938. The train was considered the epitome of modern luxury and sophistication. Ted Haigh in Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails says the 20th Century cocktail is "exactly what Art Deco tastes like."

The first time I saw the recipe for this cocktail, I couldn't wait to try it, just because it seemed so odd.

1.5 oz gin
3/4 oz Lillet Blanc
1/2 oz white creme de cacao
3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The recipe is very similar to the Corpse Reviver #2, with the lemon and Lillet, but replaces the Cointreau with creme de cacao. First, I will say that it does not really taste particularly chocolatey. The creme de cacao just gives the drink a delicious "what is that" quality. Ted Haigh also says that cocktail legend Gary Regan calls this his favorite "lost" cocktail. I think it's one that definitely deserves more attention.

The Aviation and the Blue Moon

Much like the Negroni and the Americano belong to the same family of cocktails, the Aviation and the Blue Moon are kissing cousins. The first documented recipe for the Aviation comes from Hugo Ensslin's seminal cocktail book Recipes for Mixed Drinks. Published in 1916, Ensslin's compendium of cocktails provides an interesting historical perspective on what are now established traditional cocktails. Ensslin's version of the Aviation includes gin, lemon juice, and both maraschino liqueur (such as Luxardo) and Crème de Violette (a liqueur made from violets); however, Crème de Violette, soon after the Aviation's debut, became increasingly difficult to find. As a result of this scarcity, by the time the Savoy Cocktail Book was published, the ingredient had been eliminated entirely. Thanks to Rothman and Winter, however, Crème de Violette is once again in regular production. 

This brings me to the Blue Moon. In Ensslin's book, the recipe calls for another difficult-to-find liqueur, Crème Yvette. Like Crème de Violette, it is also made from violets, but also features other aromatics like vanilla and orange peel. And, unlike Crème de Violette, Crème Yvette will give your cockatil a pinkish hue instead of the more periwinkle color of Crème de Violette. Rumor has it that Crème Yvette is now back in production--I've yet to see it, but I would love to get my hands on some!

On to the most important details--how they taste. The Aviation is a bit stringent for my tastes--we've been making it according to the Savoy recipe and to be honest I think it would benefit from a few dashes of Crème de Violette. The Blue Moon on the other hand is probably my favorite (of all the favorites) cocktail of the vintage cocktails we've been drinking. It's sweet, floral, and citrusy. The Crème de Violette reminds me of the violette pastilles I used to buy during my study abroad in France. I love how the gin is so perfectly complimented by the other elements in the drink. We use a basic London Dry, but I can imagine this is probably also very good with a more floral gin like Hendrick's. 

The Aviation (according to the Savoy Cocktail Book)

• 2 1/2 oz gin (we used Plymouth)
• 3/4 oz fresh lemon juice2-3 dashes maraschino liqueur

Shake in an ice cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with lemon twist.

The Blue Moon (according to Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails)

• 2 oz gin
• 1/2 oz Crème Yvette (or Crème de Violette)
• 1/2 oz fresh lemon juice

Shake in an ice cocktail shaker, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with lemon twist.

**Note: Sometimes we don't have lemons--I suppose there's no good excuse except for the fact that they are not native to Wisconsin, are frequently expensive, and we cannot be bothered with juicing them. So, based on Melinda's recommendation, we've been buying Santa Cruz Organic Lemon Juice and using it when we don't have fresh lemons. To be perfectly honest, I can't generally tell the difference between this bottled juice and fresh lemon juice. 

Negroni and Americano

Lots of people go for years seeing the bottle of bright red Campari on a shelf behind the bar, or at the liquor store, and wonder what in the world you do with it. Some of those people discover Campari by way of one of the most classic of cocktails, the Negroni. It's a 1:1:1 cocktail, like the Sidecar, but its flavor profile is completely in the opposite direction of that other classic.

1 oz gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz sweet vermouth

Stir in a mixing glass and strain into a short glass with fresh ice. Garnish with a wide swath of orange peel, which you should squeeze over the glass before dropping it in.

You may notice that the drink in my photo --it's the one on the left -- is missing the orange peel. Sometimes you realize you really want a Negroni, even if you don't have any oranges in the house. Brad Thomas Parsons, in his excellent book Bitters suggests a few dashes of orange bitters to bring out the flavor, so I thought that might be good, in the absence of the peel. The peel is fantastic, don't get me wrong. But it's a shame to forgo a Negroni for want of orange peel.

I used Aviation gin, because it's an American-style gin, which means it's slightly less juniper-heavy, so I thought it would play nice with the bitters. I also used Punt e Mes, which is probably one of my favorite things in the whole Booziverse. "Punt e Mes" means "point and a half", which refers to the fact that Italians traditionally like to put bitters in their vermouth, and Punt e Mes is Italian (sweet) vermouth with bitters already added. It's delightful with soda and a slice of lemon. You may certainly use whatever sweet vermouth you like. Punt e Mes with Campari might be just too much bitters for some, but we love bitters in this house.

On the right side of the photo above, you'll see the Negroni's cousin, the Americano.

1.25 oz Campari
1.25 oz sweet vermouth
soda water
twist of lemon peel

It's like a Negroni with soda and no gin. You might wonder in what circumstance you would want "no gin", but sometimes that's what hits the spot.

A note about the soda water: I have seen the Americano made as a highball, with more soda. I read in How to Drink by Victoria Moore that less soda is better with bitters than more soda. She claims that you might think you can soften the bitter taste of Campari by diluting it with more soda, but what actually happens is you dilute the sweetness, which only sharpens the bitterness and throws off the balance. I have tested this myself, and it's true. So when I make an Americano, I stick with the short glass, and add just a bit of soda.

Rhubarb Blush

Tonight's cocktail is the Rhubarb Blush, yet another drink that Peyton brought home from his adventures in Portland. Like the Tamarind Whiskey Sour, the Rhubarb Blush is a Pok Pok invention. Aperol is sort of like the sweeter and less sassy little sister of Campari. Not only does it have a lower alcohol content (only 11%), it's also substantially less bitter than Campari. This is not to say that I don't love Campari's bitterness, it's just that in some drinks I can see the advantage of having a Campari-like component that is a little less aggressive. 

But, enough about that and on to the Rhubarb Blush. This is a really delightful little cocktail--I think it might make a great aperitif in that it's rather low in alcohol and fairly modest in size. The flavor is slightly floral and citrus-y. Although there is a fair amount of lime juice in the drink, it is not overwhelmingly tart. The best part of the drink, however, is the rhubarb bitters. To be perfectly honest, I'm a little obsessed with them. For weeks now, I've been drinking Fees Rhubarb Bitters with soda water. I love both the flavor and the scent of the bitters--they perfectly compliment the Aperol and the gin in their floral and citrus profiles as well. 

Ingredients:
1 ounce London dry gin
1 ounce fresh lime juice from about 2 limes
1 ounce Aperol
1 dash Fee Brothers Rhubarb Bitters
Garnish: orange twist

In a cocktail shaker, combine gin, lime juice, Aperol and bitters. Fill shaker with ice and shake until fully chilled, about 15 seconds. Pour drink, ice included, into glass and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

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French Gin Rickey

I know it's November and we're supposed to put away our gin and ice cubes, but I had a stressful day today and it was dark and gray outside, and what I really wanted was something sweet and fizzy. This drink doesn't have a clever name, and it's just about as basic as it gets. Traditionally, a Gin Rickey is just gin, lime juice, and club soda, like a gin & tonic with no tonic. But if you went into an old-timey soda fountain, if you were lucky enough to be able to go into an old-timey soda fountain, and you ordered a Lime Rickey, you'd get something with lime juice, syrup, and seltzer, and no gin. So, I think for that reason, a lot of people make a Gin Rickey with sugar in it, even if it's not the original formula. I myself find the gin & soda version a little flat, and the times I've had it, I felt like I wished the soda was tonic.

You could probably make this with any number of things for the syrup, like simple syrup, Cointreau, grenadine, or any other kind of flavored syrup or sweet liqueur. Elderflower always tastes cheerful to me, and as I said, I was looking for a mood-lifter.

2 oz gin (a London dry style stands up well to the syrup)
1 oz lime juice
1 oz elderflower syrup or St Germain liqueur

Shake well with ice and strain into a highball glass with fresh ice. Top with club soda and throw a hunk of squeezed lime shell in the glass.

Note: I like St Germain. But it's expensive, and I'm cheap. I like to buy the elderflower syrup from IKEA to use in cocktails that call for St Germain. It's cheap and it tastes great.

The Communist

Today, we made our bimonthly (as in every two months, not twice in a month) trip to Andy's Liquor in Rochester, MN, to find some new kinds of booze and to stock up on favorites. Our shopping list included Cherry Heering, Carpano Antica, Vya sweet vermouth, Plymouth gin, and a case (!) of Darci's favorite wine, Predator. I had seen a good number of recipes for Cherry Heering in some of my cocktail books, so I was excited to find a bottle at Andy's. I really cannot rave enough about Andy's...they have amazing customer service (they carry the booze to your car!), the selection is pretty unbeatable, and they are just generally nice folks. Also, they have a good number of sample bottles of the stuff they carry, so if you are unsure about something, they'll often give you a taste.

Cherry Heering sort of smelled like cherry cough syrup, but it didn't taste anything like that. According to Imbibe, you can use Cherry Heering where you would use cherry brandy, but it really is not the same thing as a brandy. Anyway, the drink I decided to make is the Communist. This is a drink I saw in Ted Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. This is originally from a 1933 pamphlet called "Cocktail Parade." I tried to find more information about the pamphlet online, but no luck. The ingredients:

• 1 oz gin (I used Tanqueray)
• 1 oz orange juice (I used fresh squeezed, but I would use bottled in a pinch)
• 1/2 oz Cherry Heering
• 3/4 oz lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in an ice-filled shaker, shake, and strain into a cocktail glass. This is quite sticky so watch out. We garnished with an orange peel. It's tart and tangy, and slightly sweet, although it might be sweeter if we used bottled orange juice instead of fresh-squeezed. I don't know that I could pick out any of the ingredients except the gin, so they worked well together. Tanqueray seems a bit floral/herbal to me, so I think next time I will use something that's a little more neutral. Overall, I enjoyed this drink and can't wait to try more Cherry Heering drinks.

The Corpse Reviver #2

In honor of the spookiest of nights, tonight our cocktail is the Corpse Reviver #2. I'm pulling this recipe from the book I used for the Boulevardier, Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. The Corpse Reviver is more of a class of drinks than just one drink--as the name implies, these are drinks intended to cure hangovers. After drinking one of these, I'm not sure how much curing it does, other than the fact that it extends how long you are drunk (thus, no hangover, at least for the time-being). The famous (infamous?) cocktail book, The Savoy Cocktail Book, originally published in 1930 by Harry Craddock, warned of this drink, "Four taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again." Yeah. I'm pretty sure he was right about that.

The ingredients:

• 1 oz gin (I used Plymouth)
• 1 oz Cointreau (we are out of Cointreau so I used Grand Marnier)
• 1 oz Lillet Blanc
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 to 3 drops of absinthe or pastis (I used Absente)
• Garnish with one unstemmed cherry dropped in the bottom of the glass

Combine all ingredients (except the cherry) in an ice-filled shaker, shake until chilled, and serve. I actually used a shaker for this one, so go me. I've found that the absinthe can sometimes be really overpowering, but the lemon knocks the oomph out of it in this drink. It's quite tart and that masks the flavor of the booze, which can be dangerous (hence, the four in a row unreviving the dead). This is a tasty cocktail, and I'll be adding it into my normal rotation more often.

The Cheeky Negroni

I've been a fan of Campari for awhile now and I wanted to try its cousin, Aperol. I picked up a bottle yesterday and set to finding a recipe for a drink to test it out. I came across the Cheeky Negroni on Serious Eats and I had all the ingredients (well, except for the garnish), so I mixed it up. 

The ingredients are pretty simple:

• Ice
• 1 oz Hendricks Gin
• 1 oz Lillet Blanc
• 1 oz Aperol
• Grapefruit peel for garnish

Fill up a shaker with ice; add the gin, the Lillet Blanc, and the Aperol. Give it a hearty shake and strain into an ice-filled old fashioned glass. Twist the grapefruit peel over the drink to release the oils, plop the peel into the drink, and bottoms up.

I could definitely taste the relationship to a Negroni, but this wasn't quite as bitter. The Hendricks was a nice addition, but I might try a regular London Dry next time (this house enjoys Plymouth), but I'm happy with the way this came out.