Doc Daneeka Royale (Death & Co. Recipe)

What is up with the Catch-22 reference in the name? This is the famous fictional doctor who gives name to the insanity catch underpinning the novel. Maybe this is a drink for paranoids, or maybe it is a balm for paranoia. Either way, it was an interesting take on a French 75 with maple syrup used as the sweetener and grapefruit bitters to provide a bitter lifting notes. 

This cocktail is an all-around fruity and bitter drink that is far more complex than the French 75. A squeezed grapefruit peel adds even more citrus bitterness on the nose, and dry sparkling wine (Aria cava) and herbal gin (MurLarkey ImaGination) do not let up on dry and spicy notes. The direction the flavors take on your tongue is up, only up. Sourness and tang give way to a bubbly tingle that isn't solely produced by the sparkling wine. What a fun and dangerous drink!

• 2 oz. gin (MurLarkey Imagination used)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz grade B maple syrup
• 1 dash bittermen's hopped grapefruit bitters (Fee Brothers' grapefruit and celery bitters used)
• dry champagne (Aria cava used)
• 1 grapefruit coin

Combine all liquid ingredients except for champagne in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled champagne flute or coupe and top with champagne. Squeeze the grapefruit zest coin over the glass and discard. 

Julian Sorel (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

For some reason, Julian Sorel is called "the worst drink name ever," in the Death & Co. recipe book. I don't see why, exactly, though. It's named after the protagonist in The Red And The Black, by Stendhal. In my mind, that makes it a bit of a Scholarly French name. And Julian Sorel doesn't appear in the list of staff picks for worst names in "On The Naming of Cocktails" page of the bar book. Good name or no, Julian Sorel is a good idea.

It blends The Last Word with a champagne cocktail, which is an awesome idea--dare I even say "a genius-level move." If a Negroni can be crossed with a French 75, then why can't a Last Word be mashed-up with a classic French 75 with cognac. And it works surprisingly well. Best of all: it maintains the easy-to-remember proportions of The Last Word!

• 1/2 oz. Courvoisier cognac
• 1/2 oz. green Chartreuse (Dolin Genepy used)
• 1/2 oz. Luxardo maraschino
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• dry champagne (Aria cava used)
• 1 lemon twist garnish
  

Combine all ingredients except champagne and garnish in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled champagne flute. Top with champagne and garnish wtih the twist.

 

Lilly's Cartel (Death & Co. Recipe)

 

Perhaps one of the largest category of cocktail in Death & Co.'s book is the champagne section. There are just so many cocktails you can make with champagne or sparkling wine. I'm using Cava, which is dry but doesn't have the same bread-like notes in the nose we associate with a good dry champagne. But a good champagne is worth appreciating by itself, so as long as your sparkling wine isn't sweet, most of these drinks are worth doing with sparkling wine or champagne. 

Blood orange juice is a rare ingredient that is seasonal. It also varies in sweetness a lot between oranges, so it isn't always a reliable juice. I fully understand why blood oranges are more interesting to work with than naval oranges, but I can't expect to get them like I can any other kind of orange. 

That is why I chose to use half naval orange juice and my blood orange infused spirit. This liquor is an infusion of blood orange peels as well as their juices in vodka that is sweetened by blood orange syrup made from the juice. It is really intense in its particular flavor, and after mixing it with naval orange juice, you only notice the blood orange. 

Other minor substitutes include using Don Ciccio & Figli Ambrosia for Aperol. 

• 1 oz. pisco (Capel pisco used)
• 3/4 oz. Aperol (Ambrosia used)
• 3/4 oz. blood orange juice (naval orange juice and blood orange liquor used)
• 1/4 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup (scant 1/2 oz. used)
• dry champagne (Aria cava used)

Combine all ingredients except for champagne in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled champagne flute and top with champagne.