Tuesday, April 3, 2012

aprilia

1 oz Beefeater 24 Gin
1 oz Amaro Nonino
1 oz Cocchi Americano
1 dash Bittermens Grapefruit Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Twist a grapefruit peel over the top.

For dinner two Sundays ago, Andrea and I visited Eastern Standard where bartenders Hugh Fiore and Josh Taylor were behind the long marble bar. For a start, I asked Josh for the Aprilia created by Kit Paschal. Given how March was about to end, I assumed that the Aprilia was a tribute to the changing season; however, the drink's subtitle of "a fast start and a long finish" made me wonder. Instead, like the Moto Guzzi (equal parts Booker's Bourbon and Punt e Mes stirred with ice and strained into a rocks glass), I believe that the drink was named after an Italian motor cycle company.
The Aprilia began with a grapefruit aroma that later gained dark herbal notes from the Amaro Nonino. The sip offered a combination of citrussy wine and rich caramel flavors that led into a swallow that began with the amaro's bitter notes followed by the gin's botanicals. Moreover, the grapefruit peel in the Beefeater 24 in conjunction with the grapefruit bitters donated a pleasing finish to the drink.

2 comments:

Flash Fairway said...

This drink is a mess.

For an equal parts drink it deserves (and needs) more acid, and after first making it tonight as written and then making it again with the addition of an ounce of lemon juice, it's clear the lemon juice version wins hands-down!

But leaving out the lemon juice and jiggering the drink also does it justice: 1 oz gin and 1/2 oz. each of CA and AN with the bitters leaves it without cloy.

frederic said...

I am sorry that it did not work out as written. 2:1:1 is Eastern Standard's normal recipe which matches your 1:1/2:1/2 version. Drink in Boston's stock template is 4:1:1.

While lemon does dry things out, it probably takes the drink in a different direction (while decreasing the ratio a lot less so).