Sforzando
Recipe:
- 30ml Rittenhouse Rye
- 22.5ml Del Maguey Chichicapa mezcal
- 15ml Bénédictine D.O.M.
- 15ml Dolin dry vermouth
- 2 dashes Bittermen's Xocolatl mole bitters
Stir everything on ice for about 30 seconds, strain into a prechilled cocktail glass. Express the oils of an orange zest over the drink, use as garnish.
A nice Death & Co. drink. Manhattan variants are often "nice/ok" for me, but rarely really mindblowing. They either end up in the overly bittersweet nightcap-only genre or get easily unbalanced and harsh. BUT the complex interplay of flavors was a great fit here. Even though it originally comes from the famous Death & Co, it is also a top drink from the "Mezcal + Tequila Cocktails" book by Robert Simonson. You can find the review here.
Nuts, herbs, a hint of agave and lovely orange oil on the nose.
Candied walnuts and pecans at the beginning, followed by fine agave and a hint of smoke. This smoke is well masked by the nuts, you could almost think you had used a nice anejo tequila instead of mezcal. Some cocoa, herbal tea and honey, herbal-nutty-sweet, very complex.
Source: Eryn Reece, Death & Co., NYC, 2012
Taken from "Mezcal + Tequila Cocktails" by Robert Simonson, p. 77
