Rosita's Cafe (Original Recipe)

 

I liked the idea of a coffee Negroni, the way that bitterness of the coffee can accentuate the sweet and vanilla notes of sweet vermouth. Then I thought, "what about tequila?"

Corralejo is my favorite reposado. It is soft and round with caramal notes. I felt that orange bitterness for this cocktail, like the coffee and orange flavors in a Spanish Coffee, would be a great way to play up the caramel of the tequila. So I picked my homemade Amer Picon, but amari like Montenegro or Ramazzotti will work.

Coffee comes in the form of yet another spirit: MurLarkey coffee whiskey. This is coffee beans steeped directly into the whiskey while it rests in the barrel. There's no added sugar in the coffee whiskey, so it can be very bitter by itself, but using it instead of cold coffee keeps your cocktail stiff and prevents it from clouding up.

• 1 1/2 oz. Corralejo tequila
• 1 oz. MurLarkey coffee whiskey
• 3/4 oz. Amer Picon
• 12 oz. Cocchi di Torino

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Sitr and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Bonaparte's Manhattan (Difford's Guide)

 

I figure the best way to follow Napoleon's Sidecar is with his Manhattan. Difford's guide says that it is Italian amaro that provides the bitterness, not dashes of bitters. I, however, feel that this drink is better served with a French bitter spirit, Amer Picon. Had Napoleon himself lived to meet G. Picon, a French army officer who used his spirit of north African oranges and quinine to cure his malaria, he would have found a fast friend. That is how I feel about my homemade Amer Picon and rye whiskey.

The key ingredient, though, is Mandarine Napoleon (also my homemade recipe) which brings sweet and citrus-forward notes of mandarin oranges and cognac. For a Manhattan, which this drink fully resembles, there are a lot of very French things happening: it's the perfect pairing with a Balzac novella. 

• 1 1/2 oz. rye (Rittenhouse used)
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth
• 1/3 oz. Mandarine Napoleon (homemade used)
• 1/6 oz. Italian Amaro (1/4 oz. homemade Amer Picon used)
• maraschino cherry garnish

Combine all liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Drop the cherry in as garnish. 

Brittany (Homemade Shiedam Gin Version)

 

The Brittany celebrates the crossing of French aperitif Amer Picon with England's version of gin that is dry and heavily junipered.  Geographically, Brittany is on the north west coast of France, across from Britain on the English channel to its north. This cocktail swings the direction of the geography westward toward the Netherlands. 

The style of Shiedam gin is richer and less junipery than the English. The Dutch don't mind a little barrel aging and malt character getting into their gin. This is my third and most successful batch of Shiedam gin, and probably the most authentic. In each batch, I've lowered the juniper level a little bit and reduced the infusion time. Now I only do it for three days, after which I add about an oz. of Copper Fox single malt whiskey to add a touch of smoke and malt.

Here's the recipe to this delicious drink!

• 1 1/2 oz. Shiedam gin
• 1/2 oz. Amer Picon
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• orange peel garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist orange peel over the glass and drop it in. 

 

Parisian Manhattan

I guess you can call a Manhattan a Parisian if you use any French liqueur, but then it might not taste like a Manhattan. It depends on the flavor of that several dashes of liqueur you choose. That is why I felt that this Manhattan Variation was especially adroit!

Amer Picon is essentially an orange bitters recipe. Yes, it is a little sweeter--easier to drink by itself--but since many Manhattan recipes call for orange bitters, Picon is really an easy way to slip something French into an American classic without really changing the overall profile.

• 1 1/2 oz. blended whiskey (Seagram's Seven Crown used)
• several dashes Amer Picon
• maraschino cherry

Combine whiskey and Amer Picon in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the cherry. 

Picon Orange

I'm always looking for ways to enjoy Amer Picon and have a good time with my homemade French spirits. This simple cocktail is similar to an Aperol Spritz or Americano, just more French.

• 2 oz. Amer Picon
• 2 oz. orange juice
• club soda

Combine Amer Picon and juice in a shaker with cracked ice. Shake and pour into a chilled double Old Fashioned glass. Top with soda and stir gently. 

Picon Sour

You can make a Sour out of just about any liqueur or spirit, but you can't do it with Picon unless you get it from France or make it yourself. Since I knocked off the recipe last year, I've been enjoying this classic bitter spirit in just about any way I can mix it.

Amari (or Amer in French) are very trendy right now. Anyone who is on board with the trend probably has tried making Sours with them. And they are far more interesting than whiskey. Amer Picon has a rich citrus flavor--this bottle has two dozen orange peels in it. I like using the traditional Sour glass over serving it on the rocks.

• 1 1/2 oz. Amer Picon (homemade version used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• lemon slice and maraschino cherry garnish

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Sour glass and garnish with fruit.

Monahan (Revisited with Homemade Amer PIcon)

Whoever this Monahan guy was, he had a brilliant idea for a bitter Manhattan made with Amer Picon. Though I've made this drink before with Picon Biere, I felt that it needed another try with the Amer Picon I made myself a few weeks ago. It is more bitter and stronger than the sweet-ish liqueur you add to a glass of beer.

Cocchi Dopo Teatro also keeps things bitter with its amaro sweet vermouth with big vanilla notes to offset the deep bitter herbal flavors. The recipe calls for either bourbon and rye, so I chose neither: MurLarkey Heritage is a whiskey made mostly of corn and finished in wine casks. It has a bittersweet note to match the other ingredients, and I was very pleased with the revisited drink all around.

• 1 1/2 oz. bourbon or rye (MurLarkey Heritage old country whiskey used) 
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Cocchi Dopo Teatro used)
• 1/2 oz. Amer Picon (DIY Amer Picon used)

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Napoleon (DIY Amer Picon Recipe)

Lots of cocktails purport to be quintessentially French, which is to say they belong to a French tradition of drinking or use a selection of French-made ingredients. The Napoleon goes so far as to claim France's most notorious Emperor.

But setting all that bluster aside, Napoleon's namesake cocktail is an excellent mix of France's hard-to-find bitter aperitif wines. Amer Picon--so rare in its pre-prohibition form outside of Paris that we have to resort to making it ourselves--adds an orange bitterness to this classic gin drink. Dubonnet Rouge and curacao lend color and orange sweetness.

I could have picked a French vodka and used Cointreau if I wanted to go the full French, but I decided that a rum based orange liqueur like Vitae would work better as a substitute for curacao. Copper Fox Vir Gin is also a nice treat, it's star anise botanical gives it an absinthe-like flavor fit for cafe sipping. I'm glad I came back to this recipe to try it with these ingredients. Take a look at my attempt at this cocktail in 2015. It wasn't bad back then, but this is a surefire improvement on the concept.

• 2 oz. gin (Copper Fox Vir Gin used)
• 1/2 oz white curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used)
• 1 tsp. Dubonnet Rouge
• 1 tsp. Amer Picon (Homemade recipe used)

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass full of ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Picon (Revisit With Homemade Amer Picon)

This is a bitter cocktail akin to the Negroni, but with an overtly orange and herbal swing to it. A drink like this really requires the classic Amer Picon that is no longer available even in France. It has been sweetened and its alcohol content reduced so that it is now only available as an ingredient intended to be added to beer or wine. The Amer Picon that is available now is not the bracing bitter that it used to be in the golden age of cocktails. That is why making it yourself is so necessary. 

Cocchi Dopo Tetero is a bitter sweet vermouth that uses more cinchona and bitter herbs than many sweet vermouths which are losing their appeal in this era when drinkers really appreciate bitterness. I was surprised that the Dopo Tetero has deep roast notes similar to dark chocolate. It is rich! Doing a cocktail with it and equal parts DIY Amer Picon makes for a dark and bitter drink.

• 2 oz. Amer Picon (DIY Amer Picon used)
• 2 oz. sweet vermouth (Cocchi Dopo Tetero used)

Combine all ingredient in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Sanctuary (Revisit WIth Homemade Amer Picon)

The Sanctuary is one of the first cocktails I made for this blog when I thought I had a suitable substitute for Amer Picon--a very difficult to find French Amaro that bartenders now have to recreate in order to get the strength of flavor of the original recipe. All this fuss over the Amer Picon, one tends to overlook the Dubonnet Rouge, another seldom seen classic cocktail ingredient. In fact, at two ounces, the Sanctuary is really a Dubonnet Rouge cocktail more than an Amer Picon cocktail.

Dubonnet Rouge (Love the new label!) is an aperitif wine spirit that is fortified and flavored with a secret blend of herbs and spices. Unlike Lillet, it is not purely an orange flavored wine, though there is some citrus in Dubonnet Rouge. There are chocolate and roasted cabbage notes in the aperitif as well. So with that depth, this wine cocktail gets punched up with Cointreau, a 40-proof triple sec made with bitter and sweet oranges, and Amer Picon, a bitter orange liqueur. The result is a complex cocktail that keeps changing as you drink it. As it warms it takes on a chocolate orange character and continues to be extremely rich, despite having a lower ABV than most cocktails.

• 2 oz. Dubonnet Rouge
• 1 oz. Amer Picon (DIY Amer Picon used)
• 1 oz. triple sec (Cointreau used)
• lemon twist

Combine all ingredients except lemon twist in a mixing glass (The NY Bartender's guide says to shake, but I really think that makes the Dubonnet Rouge cloudy and it's unnecessary so I stirred) with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon twist. 

Brittany (Revisit With Homemade Amer Picon)

Brittany is the northwest region of France, known for it's rocky coastline and resorts that dot the English channel. It seems appropriate that an especially fruity cocktail using gin and a French Amaro would bring together the best of English and French qualities in a single drink.

I did not use an English gin for this second run of this cocktail on my site. I thought that the German Monkey 47, with it's dryness and super botanical blend would work well with the bitter Amer Picon and tart juices. It keeps the drink interesting when orange and lemon juices tend to flatten out the flavors of gin.

The other interesting aspect of this cocktail is the use of my DIY Amer Picon. This is made with MurLarkey white whiskey infused with cara cara orange peels, Ramazzotti amaro, and Royal Combier--which is a kind of cognac and orange liqueur with Mediterranean spices. The Amer Picon really adds a deep bitter orange floor to what would ordinarily be a tart and floral cocktail.

• 2 oz. gin (Monkey 47 used)
• 1/2 oz. Amer Picon (DIY used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. orange juice
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• orange twist

Combine all ingredients except orange twist in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously to chill and dissolve sugar. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist. 

(DIY) Amer Picon

I've done it! Finally, I have my own Amer Picon knock off. I got the recipe from PUNCH, which was easy except that finding Combier is pretty difficult depending on where you live. But that is all easier to get than Amer Picon--a bitter orange liqueur that hasn't been available in the U.S. for decades. Even the varieties available in France are no longer the same bitter boozy product that Amer Picon once was.

It all started with picking up a bottle of Ramzzotti amaro. I'd seen Combier on bar shelves in the past and figured that the other ingredient wouldn't be too hard to find. As it turns out, Elixir Combier (which may or may not be the ingredient listed in the PUNCH recipe) is not available in the Washingtion, Virginia, Maryland region. Elixir Combier is a biter French orange liqueur with spices from the Mediterranean like myrrh. It turns out that I could find Royal Combier, the same liqueur with cognac added so that it is a competitor to Grand Marnier. This, I assumed, would be a suitable substitute.

The small jar on the right of the photo is orange bitters. I made these using MurLarkey Justice White Whiskey--a version that is 110-proof so that it makes infusions better.



I takes 2 cups of Ramazzotti and one cup each of Combier and orange bitters. Add 1/4 cup of orange peels (I used bitter cara cara orange peels) and let the mixture steep for a week in the refrigerator. For my bottle, I used an old scotch bottle and printed one of the many images of this long-lost spirit

Picon

Amer Picon is an extinct liqueur. I was able to re-create it as best as I know how with one of the remaining Picon liqueurs known as Picon Biere. It is sweeter and not as strong, so I used only a quarter portion of this orange bitter liqueur for the total amount of Amer Picon called for in this very old drink.

So 1/2 oz. of Picon Biere, 1/2 oz. Amaro Meletti and a whole ounce of 100-proof vodka sufficed to make a bitter orange liqueur with the potency of the original Amer Picon. It's the closest thing I can come to an original that I've never had a chance to try.

• 2 oz. Amer Picon (See substitute above)
• 2 oz. sweet vermouth

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.