Food & Wine Thursdays: A Good Cocktail

I forgot to post earlier today. I apologize. My morning alarm that reminds me to post if I hadn’t already done so didn’t go off. I gave my iPhone a good talking to on that one. Anyway, here’s a quickie for you.

Before my magical adventures in wine, I was a bartender off and on for about five years. I worked at a couple mid to high-end restaurants in the SF Bay Area in the mid-2000s, just as the artisan cocktail movement was beginning to take off there. So I love a good cocktail but I also take them fairly lightly. In the end, it’s not too hard to make a good cocktail if you use high quality ingredients and consider some basic flavors ratios: a dash of strong flavors like bitters, approximate 3:1 or 4:1 ratio of principal spirit to vermouth/Cynar/digestif, citrus to taste (always to taste), and just enough sugar if needed to take the edge off. It’s not rocket science. It’s the opposite of rocket science.

(And if you use the term “mixology” or “mixologist,” I will seriously consider knifing you. Just consider it, mind you.)

So, for your enjoyment, here’s a cocktail I came up with the other night. I liked it a lot. If it’s strikingly similar to something you’ve had before, that would make sense. Good drinks follow the same basic rules.

David’s Unnamed Rum Cocktail

• 2-3 oz Dark Rum (I used “The Kraken”)
• 0.5 oz sweet vermouth (I recommend Antica Formula)
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tsp agave syrup
• Citrus bitters (I used Urban Moonshine brand. Fee Brothers or Angostura Orange Bitters would also be fine.)

In a shaker full of ice, shake 3-4 dashes of bitters. Add agave syrup and lemon juice (freshly squeezed if possible.) Add vermouth and rum. Shake vigorously for 10 seconds or so. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

Alternate serving suggestion: stir in lieu of shaking and strain in a tumbler over crushed ice topped with fresh seasonal berries.

Enjoy!

Also, if anyone has an idea for a name for this drink, please leave your suggestions below.