2 oz Gutierrez Colosia Amontillado Sherry
marc rizzuto Fall/Winter 2023
0.5 oz Freimeister Kollektiv Hazelnut Gin
0.25 oz Simple Syrup
1 tsp Il Gusto di Amalfi Bay Leaf Liqueur
0.5 tsp Bigallet Thym Liqueur
Method: Stir/Strain
Glassware: Sazerac
Garnish: Drop of White Truffle Oil* (optional)
There were always a few bottles that never got use on the expansive backbar at Death & Co., Bigallet Thym Liqueur being one of those. This liqueur is not subtle in flavor, it smacks your tastebuds with concentrated thyme and the added sugar coats your entire mouth for a lingering numbness from all the thyme. This product is a bully when it is used in cocktails, so using it in a small amount will be plenty. I was immediately drawn to using the “dusty” backbar bottles for the challenge and because the “normal” ingredients were pretty much beaten to death in cocktails already. The floral and earthy flavor of thyme would be perfect in a fall cocktail, but how should I use it? Thyme makes me think of French cuisine, so I decided to pair it with other familiar French flavors. Il Gusto di Amalfi Bay Leaf Liqueur was another liqueur I was eyeing for fall/winter R&D. I thought why not use both abrasive flavors in the same drink to really pack in those savory fall spices.
Fall draws my attention to stirred higher ABV cocktails, warm flavors, savory and earthy. The one cocktail category for our menu each season that would be finished last was the Old Fashioned. There were seven slots available and the overarching category of Old Fashioned was more broad than your familiar whiskey, sugar and bitters combo. This meant choosing from an Old Fashioned (Spirit, sugar, bitters; on the rocks), Sazerac (Spirit, sugar, bitters, Absinthe; served neat), TiPunch (Rhum, sugar, lime shoulder; served on cracked ice), or Low ABV (Chrysanthemum: Vermouth, Benedictine, Absinthe. Bamboo: Sherry, Vermouth, bitters). These were the usual templates chosen for the Boozy & Honest section. There had yet been a Chrysanthemum riff executed on a menu I was part of, so naturally I gravitated towards making a riff on a classic that was not used in a while.
The base of vermouth for a Chrysanthemum is the key ingredient, but at Death & Co there was plenty of wiggle room for what can be categorized as what. Vermouth basically means fortified wine ingredient. Chrysanthemum riff means using your “vermouth” as the main ingredient (base), one measurement with something like Benedictine (French herbal liqueur tasting of honey and light spices), dashes of Absinthe, and it should measure 3 ounces and be served Sazerac style (in an old fashioned glass with no ice). The sum of all the parts of the cocktail can also be split into whatever measurement as long as the parts equal its predecessors measurements. The 2 ounces of “vermouth” could be 1 ounce of Fino Sherry and 1 ounce of Blanc Vermouth, or 1.5 ounces of White Port and 0.5 ounces of Manzanilla Sherry, but in this case for the Foxglove I decided on 2 ounces of Gutierrez Colosia Amontillado Sherry. With two intense liqueurs as modifiers, also bringing that herbal quality of the Benedictine, this cocktail needed a fortified grape ingredient that would lengthen and stand up to such boldness. Amontillado Sherry as the base would work as a replacement here for vermouth, although wildly different in flavor they are similar in concept. Most Amontillado Sherry will have some sort of salinity and nuttiness to it, this is because of the process used in its production.
Gutierrez Colosia Amontillado has a rich amber hue with hazelnut and salt notes and is one of my favorite Amontillado’s to sip on. The notes of hazelnut also took me back to a recipe I read, most likely from a French cookbook, which used white truffle, hazelnuts, bay leaf, thyme and other ingredients I could not remember so I stopped there and rolled with the cocktail making. If a list of ingredients has worked before, it will work again. The problem is translating a restaurant dish into a liquid form that makes sense. Researching flavor profiles and tasting spirits over and over again is the only way to create this catalogue of flavor, texture and smells in your brain for later use. Once you have this rolodex or catalogue of memories, it is time to put pieces of the puzzle together: what style of cocktail best fits my creation. Is this drink meant to be stirred or shaken are the only two options, but then the branches of the cocktail tree start to expand. What ingredients do I want to be the spine, the vertebrae, and the ligaments. For the Foxglove the spine is the Amontillado Sherry, the vertebrae is the Hazelnut Gin, and the ligaments are the liqueurs.
Freimeister Kollektiv Hazelnut Gin is floral, savory and nutty and tastes like nutella if it was a gin. The gin was added to amplify the hazelnut notes from the Amontillado Sherry and help cut through the sugar of the liqueur to subdue the herbal spices. After having all these pieces together I felt like i had a finished drink, but something was missing and this is the part of creating drinks that always drives me insane, sugar. The drink already has sugar coming from three sources so does it need more, because it drank very dry and hot (overly alcoholic). Turns out it needed sugar. Simple syrup helped round out all the flavors into a well balanced savory fall Chrysanthemum riff.
Add all ingredients to a mixing glass, add ice and stir until drink is cold. Ideal dilution is roughly 18-20% water on this cocktail. To achieve this by stirring taste every 5-10 seconds you are stirring with kold draft ice until you taste a velvety texture and cold. *Using a dropper bottle, drop one droplet of white truffle oil on the top of the cocktail for an even more savory nose. An old co-worker and friend had this drink and loved it, but he said “why the hell did you ruin such a good drink with that white truffle oil?” He had his drink at a table, where the servers garnished cocktails and would sometimes overdo the white truffle. It should be a whisper, as much of a whisper as truffle can be, that goes unnoticed on the tongue but hits your nose first sip.
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