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. 

Frisco Club (Death & Co. Recpe)

 

The Death & Co. cocktail book includes this riff on a Pegu Club with Fernet Branca and grapefruit juice. I'm pretty sure that changing the name to Frisco club is a nod to how much the bartenders of San Francisco love Fernet Branca. In the industry this is a well-known fact and anyone in the service industry can count on an out of town San Franciscan to request a shot or cocktail made with the stuff.

The nice thing about this cocktail is that it satisfies the itch of the shaken gin cocktail drinker without putting them off because of the bitterness. Instead, the bitterness gives backbone to the grapefruit juice. A brief note about blood orange liqueur: there's not much of that available. Aperol or in my case, Ambrosia, are fair substitutes with their rich, sweet citrus flavors. 

• 2 oz. gin (Citadelle gin used)
• 1/2 oz. Solerno blood orange liqueur (Don Ciccio & Figili Ambrosia used)
• 1/4 oz. Fernet Branca
• 3/4 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1/4 oz. lime juice
• 1/2 oz. simple syrup
• grapefruit twist garnish

Combine all ingredients except garnish in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Squeeze the grapefruit zest over the glass and garnish with it as a twist. 

Amer Picon Cooler

I love that this is even an idea: a Gin Fizz with cherry Heering and Amer Picon, bitter and sweet, is the perfect spring afternoon cocktail.

Amer Picon is still unavailable in the U.S. and even the version they make in France is not the same as it was when it was used in classic cocktails. This is my homemade recipe that tastes pretty close to what I had in Paris.

• 1 oz. gin (MurLarkey ImaGination used)
• 1 1/2 oz. Amer Picon
• 1/2 oz. cherry herring
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• club soda
• orange slice (optional)

Combine the first five ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and stir. (If you use an orange slice, cut it in half and put a notch on one end to allow you to stick it on the glass rim. I used a blood orange!)