Improved Dunlop Cocktail
Recipe:
- 60ml tawny port
- 30ml rhum agricole VSOP
- 5ml Clément Sirop de Canne (or sugar cane syrup)
- 1 dash mole/chocolate bitters
Stir everything on ice until sufficiently chilled, strain into a prechilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a grapefruit zest.
Unsexy name, sexy as f*ck cocktail.
In fact, it is solely responsible for the fact that I now have to have a Tawny Port permanently open in the house bar now. I find the name interesting and almost daring to call something "Improved XY" if not ONE ingredient is the same. Rhum instead of rum, port instead of sherry, different bitters, completely different ratios. I'd like to give it a new name, but after all it's not my invention/riff.
The nose is wonderfully complex and vinous with green notes, bitter grasses and cocoa beans in between. The taste is similar, with an intense sugar cane and grass note behind the fruity port, as well as the bitters and a hint of oak and dry cocoa beans in the finish. Very dangerous, how delicious it is.
Of all things, a grapefruit zest (rather surprisingly) as a decoration is also exciting and the perfect choice. The oils and while sipping smelling it, it actually goes very well with the rather fresher, grassy Agricole than a more typical orange zest, adding another level of complexity.
Source: Lulu Martinez, LunaDrinks Inc., NYC, USA
