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Wow, so aromatic and herbaceous. A touch sweet, but subbing in some dry vermouth helps and adds to the fragrance. Great drink, and maybe worth experimenting with different amaros.
A bit bitter, but tasty — ★★★★
Made it to spec with Beefeater and Dolin. Worked great, a still-more-interesting Martinez. On a whim, made a second subbing xocolatl bitters for orange and liked that too.
Excellent. Split the sweet vermouth between dry and Punt e Mes for a lovely off-dry balance. — ★★★★
I expected to really like this, but found it too sweet. I think the Maraschino tips it over the edge, even thought the ratios are quite a bit dryer than a 1:1:1 Negroni. I added 1/2 oz of dry vermouth and found that it transformed the drink, both drying it out and adding a bit more wine accents. I did use Carpano Antica, so perhaps the vanilla notes enhanced the sweetness. I'd use Punt e Mes next time.
I used Cocchi, which is pretty sweet, but didn't have a problem with over-sweetness. I have sort of a sweet tooth, though, and can happily tolerate quite a bit of sweet.
I made this last night with Beefeater, Punt e Mes, Regan's, and an added orange twist (expressed and discarded). Very good. Very well integrated, though you can certainly pick out what all the ingredients are doing. They made themselves known at different points: gin and sweet vermouth up front, Maraschino mid-palate, bitterness from the Cynar and Punt on the swallow. As the drink warmed, the savory and tobacco notes of the Cynar asserted themselves more and it became easier to tell it apart from the vermouth. I regret using Punt e Mes, as I think it crowded out the other modifiers to an extent, and possibly would have dominated the cocktail if I hadn't used such an assertive gin. I'd like to try it with a more conventional sweet vermouth, perhaps split equal parts with the Punt e Mes, and see how that works. Alas, the only other sweet vermouth I have on hand is an ancient, flat bottle of Stock I use for cooking. I definitely didn't find it too sweet the way I made it, at any rate.
This afternoon I made it again with Farmer's gin, thinking I'd cut the Punt e Mes with Dolin blanc and see how that went, when I got the weird idea of cutting the PeM with an equal amount (3/8 oz) of Cherry Heering. (Possibly I was thinking of the Black Lodge, which I also made last night.) I'm sipping the results now, and I've got to say, I'm a fan. It's probably a different cocktail at this point and deserving of another name (I'll try to think of something), but it's worth a shot if that combination sounds intriguing to you.
Make this again tonight, splitting the sweet vermouth between dry and Punt e Mes. Also increased the gin to 2 oz, although if I had had something like Juniperio, this might not have been necessary. (The gin was buried before I added the extra gin.) This is a lovely drink as modified. I also might skip the orange bitters next time. Orange is such a common flavor that the drink is a bit more unusual without it.
Just revisited this one using Bluecoat, Cocchi di Torino, and Cynar 70. Mixed it once as posted and it was very nice: the C70 intensified the bitterness and ABV and in so doing balanced nicely against the hefty maraschino. Mixed it again with 2 oz gin and reduced the maraschino to 1 tsp. Better? Maybe. YOU make the call. Glad you dug it, wthrift.
