herbal, mildly bitter, and bright- like this a lot. Though the I didn't know what a dash of orange and grapefruit meant (bitters?), I assume a typo- so I had to skip that part.

Apologies for the inaccuracies, now corrected. I'm not sure what Deep Elum's house aromatic bitters are like, but I think regular Angostura or similar would work well. Attribution corrected. Gratitude to Cocktail Virgin Slut's excellent blog.

Re bitters, I dunno what the original calls for, but I actually thought this needed more verve than it has so I went generous with Bittercube Bolivar.

Subbed Absinthe. Anise forward. Get some mintiness on the finish. Vermouth takes a backseat, but shows up on the finish and lingers. Unique and greater than the sum of its parts.

Imbibe Magazine updated the recipe in 2022 to be closer to the original, citing Drink in Boston (while open) as one of the strongholds for the drink and quotes me back in late 2022:
https://imbibemagazine.com/recipe/anatomy-of-a-drink-appetizer-a-litali…

Made this with Carpano Antica, Pernod, lemon, and 1/4 oz Fernet- deliciously complex but still approachable

I don't think I've ever had another drink that brought out the "grapey-ness" of sweet vermouth so amazingly. Insanely delicious against the bitter Campari. I'm guessing the cachaca is is doing something to showcase the other flavors. 5/5.

I had this drink at the bar where it was created and it is superb there and at home.

Made mine with Laird's Bonded and O.F.T.D. This thing is a velvet-covered sledgehammer. I read that the original Vic recipe called for 0.5 oz of overproof rum, not a full ounce. I believe it.

FYI, this one needs curating to change 1 oz Peychaud's to 1 dash.

Done. Thanks for the catch.

It's outstanding with a dash! 5/5.

A little bit of work, but a gorgeous color. I subbed Campari + Soda for the Sanbitter, which is impossible to find where I live. It's got nice balance, and interesting flavors, but there's a serious "Strawberry-Banana Jello" character here, and while the cucumber adds some freshness and complexity, the whallop of Peychaud's leaves sort of a metallic/phenolic bitterness. I think I admire this more than I love it.

I've made this drink both ways, and it's actually a pretty different drink with the sanbitter, which has less bitterness up front and more of a kind of weird bubblegum taste.

However, I agree with your basic assessment - this is a must try drink, but once you've had it I don't know how many times you'll go back to it. There are probably 10-15 drinks in Rogue and/or Beta that I would pick over this one for my go to drink.

Also, while I generally love drinks with a ton of bitters, I'm a bit wary of drinking 2 whole ounces of peychaud's at once, as it kind of seems like the most processed (i.e. least potable) of the major bitters.

I realized that I had all the ingredients, including Sanbitter, to make this. That doesn't happen often! I have to admit that I didn't love it as much as I did before. I found it surprisingly flat. The strawberry takes a little mental control to suppress the mundane connotations. With all the muddling, it didn't have much alcohol. I added an ounce of J Wray & Newphew overproof rum, which helped considerably. A juniper-forward gin might work well, too.

I still stand by my belief that this is a mind-blowing drink -- worth making at least once.