The Departed

1 oz Campari
1 oz Rum, El Dorado 12
3⁄4 oz Averna
1⁄2 oz Mezcal, Del Maguey (a very smoky Mezcal works best, I use emmascarado 45.)
1 twst Orange peel
2 ds Peychaud's Bitters
Instructions

Stir. strain into double old fashioned over 1 large cube. zest orange swath.

Cocktail summary
Created by
Sandy De Almeida, Drake Hotel, Toronto
Is the
author's original creation
Curator
Not yet rated
Average
4.5 stars
(47 ratings)
YieldsDrink
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From other users
  • Made with nonino. squeeze/wedje of orange
  • Kind of bitter and complex - good with an orange squeeze - first sip was strong but liked it a lot
  • Sweet, bitter and smoky! I gave it a little squeeze of orange - even better!
  • Ron zacapa or el dorado 8/12 Bozal mezcal — ★★★★★
  • This is absolutely one of my all-time favorites on KC. I've made it at least 20 times now. Always a home run. Perfect if — like me — you're a rum fan but also gravitate toward the bitter.
  • Try
  • Strong rum notes. Very interesting and different. Maybe more orange zest could be good.
  • Made with Pyrat XO and Vida. A kind of tobacco-ey Negroni. Grew on me, as happens with mezcal.
  • Play with the rum. Tried Appleton.
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Comments

Love it. Used Santa Teresa for the rum and Ramazzotti for amaro. Just what I had on hand. And that's saying something because I'm not a huge Campari fan. For my girlfriend I call this drink "Love to hate or hate to love?" because she loves Campari and amari in general but despises mezcal more than any other alcohol.

Like many drinkers, I'm not terribly fond of heavily peated drinks, but "The Departed," I found to be within my level of tolerance for peated drinks. As a result, this drink more than tolerable, but actually enjoyable. The Campari was able to assert itself over the Mezcal, and the El Dorado 15 (which I used), provided some appreciable sweetness, and the orange zest gave a nice, contrasting flavor to the drink (in hindsight, I wish I had added more orange zest than I did).

Overall, I found this drink to have many flavors that worked together to provide the drinker with a memorable drink, which I rated at 4.0. In short, "The Departed" should have a long life, and give a lot of pleasure to those who enjoy a better than average drink.

Dan commented on 10/14/2016:

Substituted wildly: Contralto Bitter, Pyrat XO, Foro amaro, Vida, Peychaud's and a dash of Regans' Orange. Interesting patten. Needs more experimentation.

Round two, as written, but with El Dorado 15. Very nice, but dramatically improved with 1/2 oz dry vermouth. I used Dolin.