After Midnight Kind of Flavors

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I still have a bottle of Pisco infused with some dried apricots. Like in the Bolivar cocktail, a good use for the simple infusion was for diluting over the top single malt scotches like Lagavulin 16 to create a nice fruit and smoke contrast. Last night a guest wanted a bitter challenging drink so I served one up as so:

1 oz. lagavulin 16
1 oz. apricot infused pisco. (handful of dried apricots in a bottle)
1 oz. “cerasuolo” americano* (substitute vergano’s “americano”)spoonful of chestnut flower honey liqueur (2 parts cognac, 1 part chestnut flower honey in a bottle)
stirred with a flamed orange twist.

The drink really delivers on the fruit and peaty smoke contrast. And the different fruit elements overlap to create a very sexy shade of something like a plum or cherry, but definitely stone fruit summery goodness. The bitter is evidently wormwoody and helps to lengthen the finish of the drink. This is like S&M in a glass so only serve it after midnight.

*this drink uses some proprietary ingredients but besides the cerasuolo americano I made myself, the ingredients are pretty easy to construct. The main technique is to put stuff in a bottle and then strain after a week or so. The chestnut flower honey liqueur is so worth making. The alcohol works as a great solvent and a crystallized honeys with lots of comb solids can easily be made clear and easy to work with. Vergano’s Aperativo Americano is slowly popping up in major cities.

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