Curtain Call
Recipe:
- 40ml white rum
- 20ml fresh lemon juice
- 15ml simple syrup (2:1)
- 10ml Campari
- 30ml Brut Champagne
- 3-4 fresh basil leaves
- black olive brine (for rinse/aromatizing)
- (alternative: Cynar for rinse/aromatizing instead)
Slap the basil to release the aroma, gently muddle (don't rip apart!) the leaves in the base of the shaker, add the other ingredients except the Champagne. Shake on ice until sufficiently chilled. Fine strain into a iced champagne flute or coupe, rinsed with some black olive brine or aromatized with Cynar (if you don't like olives). Top with the champange. Garnish with a black olive or optional basil leave.
An absolute highlight, the 2016 Bacardi Legacy Germany Winner, "Curtain Call".
A very complex and fascinating riff on the Old Cuban, a lot of flavors to discover, slightly culinary and at the same time also simply very tasty. Bitter, fresh, sweet and also a slight umami note, all in one.
In the original, the glass is flavored/rinsed with some olive brine from black olives. If you, like me, can't stand olives, I tested out Cynar as a perfect substitute, artichoke & olive, not too far off in flavor, vegetabley, slightly bitter, etc.
Therefore I also "cheated" in the picture, it is a pickled cherry, not a black olive.
Source: Arash Ghassemi, Green Door/Schwarze Traube, Berlin, for Bacardi Legacy 2016 (German winner)
