I built my first draft of this cocktail in 2017 to showcase an infusion I had made using a noble fir cone found while on my first backpacking trip with my future wife along the exceptionally beautiful Eagle Creek trail in the Columbia River Gorge. Later that year my family (along with most folks in our region) mourned as the Eagle Creek fire decimated 50000 acres of lush, exceedingly scenic, and personally meaningful forest and rained down the ashes upon us for weeks. The original name I had picked out for this drink, "Forest Fire," felt abhorrent, and I stopped making the it altogether. Early in 2021, the Eagle Creek trail was finally reopened to hikers, if only briefly, and this semi-consciously prompted me to take another look at this cocktail, tweak it a bit (substituting Zirbenz for the now gone infusion) and renamed it as a dedication to the former beauty and ongoing rebirth of that special place.

In memory of a Naval Academy graduate who always enjoyed a superb cocktail at Centro Basco.

During Negroni Week, I recalled how well Campari and raspberry syrup, and I therefore decided to mashup the Negroni with the Clover Club and used the recipe from Green Street that included Peychaud's the mix.

When I spied the raspberry syrup bottle in the fridge, it was next to the dry vermouth which got me thinking of a Martini. I split the gin with apple brandy akin to the Pink Lady. The raspberry syrup also made me think of the Florodora which put me on a Zigfeld Follies naming theme; I dubbed this one the Gypsy Rose after Rose Louise Hovick's stage name when she was a burlesque entertainer and Zigfeld Follies girl in the 1930s.

In memory of a Naval Academy graduate.

In memory of a Naval Academy graduate who enjoyed weekends at Durrwood.

In memory of a Naval Academy graduate who enjoyed vacations in Kernville.

https://bojongourmet.com/indian-summer-blues-with-cardamom-rose/ublisge