Sunset in the Garden

Ingredients:

1oz Nolet’s Silver Gin

1oz Aperol

1oz Cocchi Americano

.25oz Cointreau

.5oz Lemon Juice

1 dash Bittermens Orange Cream Citrate

6 drops Orange Flower Water

Orange Twist

Instructions:

Add the Nolet’s, Aperol, Cocchi Americano, Cointreau, Lemon Juice and Bittermens Orange Cream Citrate to a shaker. Add ice and shake vigourously until well chilled. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Scatter a few drops of the Orange Flower Water on top and then garnish with an orange twist to finish it off.

I had been playing with a shaken, i.e. “juicified,” Negroni Variation for some time. Unfortunately, something always seemed to be lacking. Maybe it’s because I’m more of stirred cocktail guy and would rather just drink a “normal” Negroni most days. That being said, I do appreciate a good sour from time to time. What follows is a good example of a drink that starts off down one path and then ends up somewhere completely different.

Lately my wife has been on quite the Cocchi Americano kick (and who can blame her, it’s good stuff). I decided to swap it into my Summer Negroni variation in place of the Dolin Blanc. I tried this with juice and it was just sorta “ehh.” After a little more experimenting, I threw in some Cointreau and swapped the gin from a standard London Dry to Nolet’s Silver. The sweet orange in the Cointreau and the extra accents of Rose and Peach in the Nolet’s both smoothed the drink out and added a “bouquet” of complexity (yeah I said bouquet, deal with it).

When all was said and done, Sunset in the Garden ended up tasting nothing like a Negroni, “juicified” or otherwise, but maybe that’s a good thing.

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