Honey Badger
Recipe:
- 45ml bourbon
- 15ml Chartreuse Jaune
- 10ml ginger syrup
- 10ml honey syrup (3:1)
- 20ml lemon juice
- 2 dashes lemon bitters
- 1 sprig rosemary
(original recipe uses rosemary infused bourbon, 6 sprigs per bottle, infusing for 48 hours)
De-stalk a sprig of rosemary and muddle the leaves with bourbon in the base of the shaker. Add the other ingredients, shake with ice until sufficiently chilled and finde strain into a prechilled rock glass over ice. Garnish with a lemon twist (discarded) and rosemary sprig.
One of those drinks that are quickly understandable when reading the recipe, in this case obviously based on the well-known neo-classic Penicillin (although compared to other modern classics it has become rather quiet in recent years around that one?).
In the end, he just adds more layers to his famous relative, rosemary, the Chartreuse and some lemon bitters. Now, there is the eternal debate between bartender camps, whether you should always try to reduce to as few ingredients as possible and that more is by far not always better. I have had very different experiences and personally tend to add 2-3 ingredients more rather than less in my drinks too, to balance them out better or make them a touch more complex.
It works here too in my opinion, it just gives you more nuances to play with in the mouth, still remains a nice all-rounder. Very harmonious, herbal and yet fresh and of course also slightly sweet in this ratio, the Penicillin says hello to you while drinking, the spicyness is well integrated, but it is not rough at any point.
Source: Liam Baer, Fish and Meat, Hong Kong, 2015
