Absinthe-Minded

Scared? Many people are by Absinthe. Why? It’s one of the enduring myths of alcohol that Absinthe is scary; it makes you hallucinate, it drives you mad, it gets you inordinately drunk…. (well, the last one might be kinda true) What is it about this one spirit that frightens people so much? By people I don’t just mean Joe Public, I mean everyone: bar tender and customer alike. So, to quote Starship Troopers: Would you like to know more?

La Fée Verte (The Green Fairy)

What is it? At heart it’s a green, anise flavoured spirit that is usually highly alcoholic. Flavoured from a variety of botanicals; notably green anise, sweet fennel and the flowers and leaves of artemisia absinthium (or Grande Wormwood in French). It’s the artemisia absinthium which gives the drink its name. Now it’s the artemisia absinthium which is the most interesting part to the drink; this is what contains the wormwood. Wormwood contains trace elements of Thujone which was later to be discovered to be a neurotoxin. Still scared? Stay with me and I’ll allay your fears. We’ll come back to this in a moment.

Wormwood, for the all the fear I’ve just put into you has been used as a medicinal elixir as far back as Greek times, but where we enter into the modern world with it is around 1792 when, according to popular legend a French doctor, working in Switzerland, called Pierre Ordinaire distilled artemisia absinthium with anise and other local Swiss herbs to create a powerful (72%ABV) tonic which was hailed as a medical marvel. This tonic was reputedly passed to a Major Dubied whose son-in-law was Henri-Louis Pernod. Pretty sure most of you reading this will recognise that surname? From there things snowballed rapidly. By 1805 hundreds of distilleries had sprung up across France. Momentum carried on and by the mid 19th century it had become the most popular aperitif in France, so much so that the time between 17:00 and 19:00 was known as "l'heure verte" (the Green Hour). Think about what you associate with the image of absinthe in your mind? Van Gogh, Moulin Rouge, Picasso, Manet, Baudelaire, Rimbaud: tres boheme do you not agree? By about 1870 or so France was consuming 1 million litres of Absinthe. By the time we entered the 20th century that had sky rocketed to 21 million litres! Can’t have been all that bad then?

The Fall From Grace

Now here come the horror stories

“It’ll drive you insane/kill you!”
“It will make you murder!”
“Van Gogh cut his ear off after drinking it!”

Pretty sure we’ve all heard these, or variants of them. Where do these stories stem from? At heart our old friend The Temperance Movement. At the start of the 20th century the Temperance movement was in full swing; all alcohol was evil was must therefore be driven out be it Demon Rum or our friend The Green Fairy. Now we come to the myth of the absinthe ban. Absinthe was never banned per se. To be precise the original ban in France was on the ‘sale’ of absinthe and here it the UK it was never banned. I won’t list the ‘ban’ by country, but if these things tickle your fancy go have a wee nosey here: http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/absinthe/absinthe_law.shtml.

So what prompted the ban other than the temperance movement? Two main stories at the start of the century helped spur this on. The first was a scientific experiment. As I mentioned earlier Thujone, which Wormwood contains traces of, is a powerful neurotoxin. By dosing lab mice with high concentrations of Thujone the mice convulsed and died. Don’t want to be drinking that, do you? But note I said ‘high concentrations’; the equivalent would be drinking 150-200 shots of absinthe. The alcohol content of that would also kill you. Or to put it another way the Thujone content of a sage leaf is higher than that of wormwood, so by rights we should ban sage and onion stuffing.

Right; so that’s the “It’ll drive you insane/kill you!” part covered. What about the murderous intentions it places in the hearts of absinthe drinkers? This stems from the notorious “Absinthe Murder” in Switzerland. In 1905 a gentleman named Jean Lanfray murdered his pregnant wife and two children in a drunken rage. Absinthe was blamed as the culprit after it was revealed he’d drunk two ounces of the stuff. The seven glasses of wine, six glasses of crème de menthes, one coffee laced with cognac and two crème de menthes weren’t mentioned by certain people reporting the story. Absinthe was the culprit and it took the fall. Switzerland did indeed ban absinthe in 1910. This spurred the Temperance movement on and added to their arsenal to drive demon drink from all our shores. (Oh, Lanfray hung himself by the way)

“Van Gogh cut his ear off after drinking it!” Weeellll, maybe he had been drinking. Maybe not. This one I’ll leave well alone. We’ve all done stupid things whilst drinking, but I can’t say I’ve severed part of my ear with a razor blade and handed the piece wrapped in a handkerchief to a prostitute. I’ll attribute this one to the ABV of absinthe, if it is indeed the culprit, rather than anything else.

Back On The Road

So, absinthe was off the map. Where do we go from here? It lived in the memories of people and it was substituted for by pastis and anisette, but it wasn’t quite the same. It had never been huge here in the UK so it wasn’t missed that much. It took until the late 80’s/early 90’s that we began to take to the green fairy. How? Why? Tourism and a British taste for powerful spirits took us to the new destination of the Czech Republic where absinthe could be found, imbibed and brought back to our island. The scary reputation remained in our cultural consciousness, but we took to it quite rapidly. Sadly for the wrong reasons. (But UK drinking culture’s an article for another time) Suffice to say, where there’s a desire, or a market, someone will step in and step up to the plate: enter BBH Spirits who began to import Czech brand Hill’s Absinthe to the UK. Things ramped up rapidly with new EU laws skipping over, or forgetting, individual countries laws regarding Thujone legislation. In 2000 La Fée Absinthe became the first commercially available absinthe produced in France in almost a century.

Suck It And See

So, has this article piqued your curiosity? Well on March 18th Corpse & Cocktail, in conjunction with La Fée Absinthe, step back to the bohemian bars of Paris of yesteryear and enter "l'heure verte”, well 4 hours to be precise. A full menu of absinthe cocktails prepared by the Corpse bar team, including a fully functioning absinthe fountain so you can have your green fairy prepared the way it should be; will, hopefully, allow you to learn to love la fée verte. Come down and find out if it’s a scary as you think it is; we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Last Word Competition - Sian Ferguson (Winner)

Congratulations to Sian Ferguson of Ninety-Nine Bar & Kitchen for taking 1st place in the Aberdeen heat of the Last Word Twist competition by Chartreuse.  The two other finalists were Barry Hickey (Orchid) and Iain Selkirk (Dusk).  The round was judged on a number of initiatives including a mystery shopper, marketing and promotion, plus a tasting by the Brand Ambassador Matthew Dakers and myself, Adrian Gomes of 10 Dollar Shake.

Here's Sian's winning drink...

The Last Wynd

25ml Yellow Chartreuse

25ml Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
25ml Havana Club 3 yr old
25ml freshly-squeezed lime juice
Bar-spoon honey

[Shake and fine strain all ingredients into a chilled coupette.]

Bacardi Legacy 2012 Finalist...Dan Bovey

In the first part of our series on the three finalists of this year's Bacardi Legacy UK Finals, we welcome Dan Bovey, GM of Reading bar 'Sahara'.  We've actually been chatting to Dan since before he placed in the top 3 of 2012 (each of them has one year to promote their drink before the ultimate winner is announced at the 2013 finals).

Back in November last year, we asked Dan to give us an intro about himself, his drink and his hopes for the competition:

"My name is Dan and I manage a bar in Reading called Sahara.  I have been bartending for around 7 years.  This year is the second time I have made it into the Bacardi Legacy final and I think it has given me a fantastic opportunity to give the judges exactly what they want.  The idea for the competition is to create a classic cocktail that will have the same kind of staying power as the Daiquiri, Mojito and Cuba Libre.  I feel I have done this with my drink as it contains classic ingredients that have been around for a very long time; I imagine the classic bartenders in London like Ada Coleman or Harry Craddock would have used similar flavours in their drinks and that is why I settled on these.  It is also well-balanced and easily replicable, so could be made anywhere in the world.

I really hope the El Momento Perfecto goes down well this year as it's a fantastic competition to be involved in and a great chance to make a cocktail for my heroes, as well as get my name out there and further my career in the bar industry."

D-Day came on the 9th February as Dan and the six other finalists presented their drinks to the guest judges which included Ago Perrone (last year’s international winner) and mixology legends Audrey Saunders, Dale DeGroff and Peter Dorelli.  Along with Gordon Purnell from Edinburgh's Voodoo Rooms and Chris Moore from the Savoy Hotel in London, Dan came one step closer to the badge of Bacardi Legacy UK champion.  Follow his journey on the El Momento Perfecto Facebook page.

El Momento Perfecto

45ml Bacardi Superior
25ml Lillet Blanc
20ml Byrrh
10ml Campari
4 Dashes Orange Bitters
1 spoon Strong Marmalade

Stir over cubed ice, then strain into an old fashioned, garnished with a twist of lemon.

We tried this at last week's Corpse & Cocktail.  It's a fantastically-aromatic drink with heavy orange notes, with a sweetness that makes this very accessible.

Bacardi Legacy 2011 Winner...Zdenek Kastanek

Congratulations to Zdenek Kastanek of Quo Vadis, London for winning the 2011 UK Bacardi Legacy.

To explain the inspiration for his cocktail, Zdenek tells a little story. “Once upon a time there was a girl called Hermosa. Her mother was typically French: a bitter character on the surface, but really as sweet as honey. Her father was a Spanish sailor. He was rough like the ocean, but charismatic still and a good man. Hermosa lived a simple life in Cuba. Everybody loved her, the men for her beauty and big heart, and the women for her smile and optimism. Hermosa’s life was as sweet as an orange, until one day everything turned as sour as a lemon. Her family had to leave their home and move to Puerto Rico. However, the journey bound her family together. Hermosa grew up and met a charming and exotic man who smelled of almonds and oranges. The oranges reminded her of her happy life in Cuba and they fell in love.”

Zdenek was competing against May Kongsrivilai from the Bon Vivant in Edinburgh and Manchester's Jody Monteith of The Liquorists.  The overall winner from a year-long campaign of promoting each of their drinks was announced on 9th February 2012, along with the three most promising finalists of this year.  One of them, Dan Bovey from Sahara in Reading, is up next...

Firstly, here's Zdenek's drinks, 'La Hermosa':

60ml Bacardi Superior rum
20ml La Gitana manzanilla sherry
4 dashes Yellow Chartreuse
15ml Triple sec
15ml Orgeat syrup
25ml Freshly-squeezed lemon juice

Method: Build drink in a tall glass filled with crushed ice and swizzle.

Last Word Competition

Chartreuse have launched a competition in the UK to find the best twist on the classic cocktail – The Last Word.

For every great classic cocktail in the world there are dozens of twists on it floating around from the sublime Tommy’s Margarita to the not so sublime Frozen Banana Daiquiri. For Chartreuse the iconic cocktail is The Last Word (find out all about The Last Word in an article by Chartreuse Ambassador Matt Dakers here) and they are tasking UK bartenders with finding the next great twist.

There are some big shoes to fill with the most famous twist being The Last Ward by the one and only Phil Ward from New York (he swaps the gin and lime juice for rye and lemon juice). However such and iconic drink with such a rich history is perfect for you to have a play with.

The first round was concentrated in Islington with Zilouf’s, Stuart Binks taking the honours with his ‘monsieur, I beg your pardon’ – watch a video of him making it here.

The Aberdeen leg of the competition takes place over the month of February in your own bars.  To enter:

- Decide within your bar which bartender's original and unique recipe the team will get behind and push over the month.
- By any means neccesary, promote this cocktail to your guests during the month of February - Facebook, Twitter and point-of-sale are just some of the channels (this is NOT a sales/volume-based competition).
- Points will be awarded for the following: drink recipe and mystery shopper.  The point system is not disclosed.
- Drinks may be added to the cocktail menu for The Green Lounge at Orchid on Thursday 23rd February (doors 8pm).
- Any questions, email gomes@10dollarshake.com.
- Results will be announced at the end of February 2012.  All bars are welcome to enter.

The competition will be growing in the coming months with some fantastic prizes up for grabs (and a feature in Bar Life UK).  If you think you can have the last word send your recipes (and good quality photo) to gomes@10dollarshake.com by Friday 27th January.

Good luck!

...I'm Sweet Enough.

A fundamental building block in mixed drinks, we thought we'd give you a brief insight into sugar: where it came from and how it got here.  I referenced a few sources to compile this, but in all fairness, the majority of this article has been heavily-influenced by Wayne Curtis' fine book on rum: 'And a Bottle of Rum - A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails'.

Sugarcane first appeared in Asia around 4000 B.C. - most likely Papua New Guinea.  As trade routes opened up and empires expanded, as did the reach of sugarcane, with the cultivation and processing moving west via China, India, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Iberia and the Atlantic islands of Madeira, the Canary Islands and the Azores.  Christopher Columbus was subsequently responsible for carrying live sugarcane seedlings to the New World on his second trip in 1493 (his Father-in-Law was a Madeira sugar planter) planting these on Hispaniola (now the Dominican Republic and Haiti).  It turns out the Caribbean islands offered the perfect climate and soil conditions for sugarcane and the colonists were quick to establish plantations in Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

To produce sugar, the cane syrup is machine-pressed from the cane and heated until near-crystallisation.  It is subsequently cooled and cured (this is the point at which the by-product molasses appears).

With great quantities of sugar being produced in the New World colonies, prices fell in Europe and many of the plantation owners were ruined.  Meanwhile, New World plantation owners were making a killing, building great houses like the one below...

In England, the demand grew quickly as sugar evolved from a luxury item only the aristocratic classes could afford, to a staple for the common man.

To keep up with the sugar needs of Europe and their emerging colonies, slaves were imported.  On the colonised islands, native tribes had been decimated by European disease (such as small-pox) and poor working conditions.  Thus began the Trans-Atlantic triangular slave trade, carrying sugar and rum from the Caribbean and New England to Europe where these were sold and the profits used to purchase goods to be traded in West Africa for slaves to be transported to the Caribbean to work in the plantations, to produce sugar for...you get the idea.

As the European powers continued their colonisation of the world, sugar, in turn, reached new territories: Brazil, Pacific Islands and Australia, among others.  Significantly, in 1747 a German scientist discovered sucrose in Beet Root and shortly after, beet sugar began production.  This didn't really take off until the British blocked all Caribbean trade with Napoleon's French Empire.  Beet sugar grew as a result and now accounts for 30% of today's sugar production.

An important point to note is that, currently,  sugar prices in the US and Japan are higher than the rest of the world due to import tariffs and as a result their domestically-produced high-fructose corn syrup is favoured over sugar, especially for soft drinks and processed foods.

The trend with us bartenders is to make our own 'cane syrup', usually to 65 degree brix.  'Degree brix' is the sugar content in an aqueous solution, with one degree brix equating to 1 gram of sucrose in 100 grams of solution measuring representing the strength of the solution as a percentage of weight.  Hence, if you make your cane syrup (or sugar syrup, or simple solution) in a 2:1 ratio of sugar to water, then the degrees brix is 65.

Bacardi Legacy Finalist...Metinee Kongsrivilai

The second of our series of posts on the outstanding Bacardi Legacy competition (Matthew Dakers, eventual winner of the 2009 competition, featured back in February 2010) highlights Metinee Kongsrivilai (May) of Edinburgh's Bon Vivant, who placed in the final three with her drink, The Matinee.

The Bacardi Legacy competition has firmly cemented itself as one of the top bartender competitions in the world, with a grand final that must put a slight dent in the (deep) pockets of Bacardi every year.  Having been a guest at two finals myself, I can confirm that no expense is spared in hosting this magnificent occasion.

Every year, three finalists are chosen to spend the next year marketing their drink in any number of ways.  May has chosen to initiate a website featuring bars and bartenders who are supporting The Matinee.

In May's own words, here's the story behind the creation of The Matinee:

"Initially it started out as remark from a friend who thought it would be funny to make a joke out of my name: 'Metinee Kongsrivilai'..."hahaha...why don't call the drink 'Matinee'?". At that moment, the switch was clicked inside my head. To me, the definition of a 'Matinee' is “a performance or entertainment that can also be enjoyed during the day”. Something that I think The Matinee delivers. Jokes aside, there’s an element of seriousness to the background of the drink.

Learning about the hardship and the success that the Bacardi family had experienced across eight generations inspired me to take a look at my own family history and heritage. Generations of my family lived in poverty surviving floods and supporting such a large family with minimal money. Throughout all of this, the Kongsrivilais attempted a sweet and dessert making business. Their business wasn’t amazingly successful, yet, Like the Bacardi family, it was their determination and passion that made has eventually established them as one of Thailand’s greatest dessert business, three generations on.

In the end, I was inspired to incorporate the element of heritage into The Matinee. The Characteristics of Bacardi together with the Martini Rosso and Vanilla represents the dessert component that is so important to my family. The Kaffir was inspired by the Jungle that had surrounded my home for generations and a source of provisions that helped my family survive. We're very lucky to live in a globalised world, and have access to so many wonderful flavours of the world. I thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of this.

The Bacardi legacy competition has been career changing for me and has helped me rekindle my love for this industry a just before the competition, I started to have doubts as to whether there's a place for me within it. For the time being, I'm just going to keep pushing the Matinee as I believe that there's a place for it in this new generation of contemporary classics, but we'll just have to see."

We're currently hoping to tie up a Guest Bartender appearance from May as part of her final Bacardi Legacy presentation, so we'll keep you updated on that one.  In the meantime, best of luck May!

The Matinee

50ml BACARDI SUPERIOR
2-4 Kaffir Lime leaves
12.5ml Martini Rosso
12.5ml Lemon Juice
12.5ml Vanilla gomme
12.5ml Egg white

Shake and double strain, serving straight up with a kaffir lime leaf garnish.

10 Dollar Shake & 17th Letter Presents...Repeal!

The anniversary of the repeal of the Volstead Act is upon us again, albeit we're celebrating a day early so we can land on our usual Sunday night.  The 18th Amendment to the US Constitution, and the only amendment ever to be repealed.

If you look back to this time last year, we did a little write-up on the history.  The long and short of it all is that prohibition in the States was much more complicated than a few paragraphs can illustrate.  Take our advice and hunt down Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's documentary, 'Prohibition'.  In three episodes and five-and-a-half hours, the documentary runs the gauntlet from the rise of the temperance movement, the ratification of the 18th Amendment, the age of the speakeasy and subsequent gang warfare, and the eventual repeal.  I can't recommend it enough.  Sure, viewing time is steep but you'll gain a fantastically-detailed insight into the 'Noble Experiment'.

Education-aside, we always find a way to party so this Sunday we're holding our annual party, Repeal!.  Prohibition-era cocktails, live jazz courtesy of our house band The Corpse Revivers (17th Letter) and bartenders dressed appropriately in flat caps and braces.  Doors from 8pm, look forward to seeing all you fellas and broads...

Hallelujah! The Mojito's Are On Me...!

Ladies and gentlemen, remember this day.  Bacardi have somersaulted into my good books.  Bacardi was a brand who's stylish ad campaigns (see "True Originals") always impressed me, but the product never did.  Not that it is not a good product, I wasn't sure where it fitted in cocktail-wise as the rum category is amazingly diverse and top-heavy with great brands.

Now, I get it.  The Bacardi Mojito (in a bottle) is the answer to my (and your) prayers.  Next time a chump comes up and asks for 4 mojitos, I'm going whip my bar blade out my pocket and whack off the lids on four of these bad boys.  "There you go.  £24 please."

Now before you start calling me pretentious and a snob, that is not the case at all.  I'll actually enjoy making one of these for the first time in a long-time when someone asks for an Appleton's Mojito, or a Rhum Acricole Mojito.  That shows that someone is drinking something that they didn't just see on a billboard, but can appreciate the fact that the Mojito is indeed a great classic cocktail.  The chump that asks for "4 fajitas" wouldn't know the difference between the contents of this bottle and a finely-balanced labour of love.  I'm going to rep these big-time!  Bacardi, you are back in the circle of trust.

More here: http://barmagazine.wordpress.com/2011/01/21/bacardi-unveils-mojito-and-cuba-libre-in-a-bottle/

Pomegranate & Ginger Mimosa Punch.

Pomegranate & Ginger Mimosa

50ml Kings Ginger liqueur
50ml Grenadine
Top with equal parts orange juice and Prosecco

Add a couple of scoops of ice, some orange slices and other fruit. Serve with flutes or wine glasses.

Christmas Jumpers!

For all those planning on heading down to The Corpse & Cocktail tonight, please take heed of this gentleman above. He is sporting a magnificent specimen of the kind of attire we would like to see a-plenty of tonight. We bartenders will certainly be abiding by our self-imposed dress code and we expect the patrons of our establishment to follow suit. Remember, you're only silly if you look different...

Here are a couple of the recipes we'll be warming you up with tonight:

Brandy Alexander
Okay, so we'll be serving this chilled, so not exactly warming you up with this one - anyway, your jumper should keep you warm enough.

50ml Martell VSOP

12.5ml White Creme de Cacao

12.5ml Brown Creme de Cacao

25ml half n' half (milk + cream)

Shake ingredients with ice and fine strain into a chilled coupette.  Sprinkle with freshly-grated nutmeg.

Washington Hot Toddy

So-called due to this recipe being found in the Washington Post.  Sorry the background story isn't more exciting.  Not sure exactly why Mike was reading the Washington Post.  I never asked.

40ml Goslings Black Seal Rum

15ml King's Ginger liqueur

60ml hot water

Build in a teacup or heat-proof glass (with handle...!).  Stir and garnish with a lemon peel.

Hopefully see a good few of you down tonight.  Merry Christmas from the Corpse & Cocktail.

Mulled Wine...The Swedish Way.

Surprisingly, the few shifts I have done at 99 recently have seen a higher-than-expected number of patrons asking for a warm festive drink.  As an experiment, a small batch of mulled wine was hand-crafted in the kitchen.  It proceeded to sell very well leading us to devise a warm festive menu for this Sunday’s Corpse & Cocktail.

All over the world, different cultures have some sort of variation of mulled wine.  The Germans have glühwein, the Croats kuhano vino  and the Swedish, Glögg.  It is Glögg that we will be serving on the menu this Sunday. Like many of these drinks, there is no set recipe and you really can experiment with a variety of fruits, spices and alcohol to obtain wonderful results. Use the following recipe as a guide rather than one to follow to the letter:

Glögg

(taken from “Swedish Recipes Old and New” by Lesley Jacobs Solmonson, 1955)

15 Blanched Almonds

0.5 Cup Raisins

4 Cups Red Wine (Australian Shiraz recommended)

4 Cardamom Pods

3 Whole Cloves

1.5 inch stick Cinnamon

0.25 Cup mix of Dried Apricots and Candied Orange Peel (see below)

0.75 Cup Brown Sugar (Demerara Sugar)

Peel of one-quarter Orange

1 Cup Martell VSOP

Add the almonds and raisins to the wine. Break open the cardamom pods.  Add cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, raisins, candied orange peels, and dried apricots to a cheesecloth bag, tie closed, and add to the wine.

In a separate bowl, cover orange peel with the sugar.

Let all of the above stand overnight.

The next day: Heat wine mixture slowly to simmering.  Do not allow to boil. Stir in sugar and orange peels until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat.  Stir in brandy.  Remove cheesecloth bag.

Ignite liquid, allowing it to burn for a 1 or 2 seconds, then extinguish (you do not want to burn off the alcohol completely) by covering the pot.

Remove orange peels if Glӧgg is going to sit for more than a few hours. Serve warm with a few raisins and almonds in the bottom of the glass.

Thanks to 12bottlebar.com for this.  God Jul (Merry Christmas).

Opening Night.

The good and the bad came out for the Corpse & Cocktail opening night. Good people abiding by the law of the cocktail list (Bartender's Choice) and bad weather, a law unto itself.  Welcome to winter in Aberdeen.

The brave souls who made it down were easily impressed by the £1.50 rum & mixers on offer, but just as easily persuaded to let their bartender fix them up a drink of their choice.

My go-to drink for gin lovers was a Pear Daisy.  Floral and zesty, I had no one send it back - which I usually take to be a good sign.

The Gomes Pear Daisy

50ml Tanqueray gin

12.5ml Merlet Creme de Poire

5ml St Germain elderflower liqueur

25ml freshly-squeezed lemon juice

Shake and strain over ice into a 10oz hi-ball.  Charge slightly with soda.  Garnish with a lemon twist and a physillis fruit.

Looking forward to next week.  James Mackay will be presenting his homage to prohibition-era drinks in honour of the 77th anniversary of the repeal of prohibition.  RSVP to the event here.

Dopo Cena - The Disaronno Mixing Star

After a long trip to Manchester to compete in the Disaronno Mixing Star castings, I am pleased to say they liked my after dinner concoction, the Dopo Cena.  Winner of each UK and European casting proceeds to London next month to compete for a trip to LA and a potential part as a bartender in a US movie/TV series.  I'd be happy enough with the trip...!

Dopo Cena 

30ml Disaronno

30ml Kirschwasser

12.5ml Maraschino Liqueur

25ml Fresh Lemon Juice

5ml Sugar Syrup (2:1 Sugar to Water)

2 Dashes of Angostura Bitters

Shake and fine strain all ingredients into a chilled cocktail glass.

As my good friend Andy Stewart pointed out, it's basically an Amaretto Sour for grown-ups.  I tend to agree.