I enjoy the Liberal cocktail (using Bigallet China-China Amer rather than Amer Picon) and some variations, and wanted to do a riff on it employing Carpano Dry Vermouth rather than a sweet vermouth. The Carpano Dry has become my favorite dry of late, and I thought it would fit well here, providing flavorful body while allowing the orange of the Amer and bitters to stand out.

I kicked around several names, including references to Teddy Roosevelt's "Bull Moose" Progressive party as a Liberal riff. My emphasis for the drink was making orange the star, but I didn't want a generic name, so I began looking for some other way of referencing it. Orangutan seemed a tongue-in-cheek way to invoke the orange, so I fused that with progressive.

Attempting to recreate a wonderful cocktail from a recent outing to a local imbibery. The original featured tobacco bitters and madeira. Without those ingredients at home, I replaced the tobacco bitters with a dash each of Angostura and black walnut bitters, and the madeira with a half measure of Carpano Antica. Proportions of the original were unknown, but 2:1:1/4 felt right for this split-base, Manhattan/Boulevardier offshoot.

This cocktail was borne out of scarcity. I had a bunch of bottles with dregs in them, but I wanted a negroni. Turns out, splitting the elements made for a very interesting drink. I didn't split the base and I'm glad because the funk of the S&C stood up well to what was going on with the sweets. FWIW, it seemed to improve with a little time to sit. Or maybe that was just my mood.