Robilar's Gambit

Photo by Paul Bratcher, from flickr.

Combining strong liquors is a bit like putting on flashy pants with a flashy shirt. Often, it's just going to clash, but every once in a while it can really come together nicely. For some reason, I was inspired to try mixing Cherry Heering with Green Chartreuse, a recipe that sounds destined to taste like some sort of Lovecraftian cough syrup. But it ended up turning out smooth.
I started by just tasting the Chartreuse and the Cherry Herring together, to get some feeling for what I was working with. It didn't taste great, but it gave me hope that if it was chilled and mixed with a base spirit, it wouldn't be too bad. My first try involved scotch. I thought that scotch would be strong enough to stand up to the other ingredients in the mix. It's not, really, but mezcal wasn't either. A really peaty scotch might be the way to go here. Alternatively, if it doesn't really matter, maybe just a cheapish whiskey.

The result was pretty good. I added some Boker's Bitters, because it needed something else, and I wanted to let the other ingredients shine through. But they're probably strong enough that you could use something like Hellfire bitters and get a totally different drink. The cherry ends up balancing the Chartreuse quite well, so that the final result is pretty understated. Ironically, it might make a good winter warming drink. Recipe after the jump.

Green Bitch

When I first got a bottle of Green Chartreuse, I experimented with it like mad. There's really nothing quite like it, and I wanted to try it in a variety of settings. One of the things I learned is that strong flavors can balance each other out, creating a complex, layered drink. The Green Bitch demonstrates this nicely. Here, the mezcal and Chartreuse balance each other out, so the Cointreau dominates initially with a burst of orange. After that, you get waves of smokiness from the mezcal and herbs from the Chartreuse. It's quite good, though I suppose if I were inclined to tinker, I might decrease the amount of Cointreau so that it's less sweet. Recipe after the jump.

High Plains Drifter #2

Picture from flickr, by mslaura

Recently, the Speakista ran a series of posts on tequila cocktails. It made me sad, because I like tequila, yet I didn't have the ingredients required to make most of his cocktails. So there was only one solution. Buy some green Chartreuse! For the most part, that was the ingredient I was missing. And it does go well with tequila. Green Chartreuse is very herby, which meshes well with the vegetal nature of tequila.

I'm not sure this cocktail is the best showcase for that pairing, however. It's tasty, don't get me wrong. But it ends up being a bit too sweet; I think the Chartreuse ends up over powering the tequila. There's two solutions here. I could put in less Chartreuse, or I could add something. I suspect mezcal would work okay, but that would change the drink. And now that I'm transcribing the recipe, I realize I forgot the Campari. That might make a difference. Recipe after the jump.