Mixing Up the Left Coast, week 4

 This week we are featuring Kelly Swenson out of Portland, OR.

The Celeriac
2 oz Gin
3/4 oz pineapple juice
3/4 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz 2:1 simple syrup
4 dashes of the Bitter Truth Celery Bitters
1 egg white

Dry shake all ingredients together, then add ice and shake again. Double strain contents into a cocktail glass or champagne coupe. It's highly recommended to then spritz the top of the cocktail with a Misto Pump of the Celery Bitters. Otherwise, just serve.

We did mist the top of the cocktail with the Celery Bitters and found that it really added to the overall aroma of the cocktail. However, there is such a thing as over spritzing, which we did with our first go around on the Celeriac. The aroma of the bitters is of celery leaf, which really brought out the subtlety of the lemon and egg white. The flavor, however, was very herbal because of the over spritzing. The pineapple was forward but balanced the gin and hid the lemon flavor. It has a great creamy mouth feel thanks to the egg white and double straining. This cocktail finished with a hint of lemon and a strong celery leaf aftertaste. The second time we made this cocktail we spritzed the drink less and it was even better. There was still an aroma of celery but the lemon and gin were much more present. The flavor was also much more balanced between the lemon, gin, bitters and pineapple. It is a light, refreshing drink and perfect for a warm spring evening!

Toto
3/4 oz El Jimador Reposado tequila
3/4 oz Green Chartreuse
3/4 oz Cynar
Lemon twist (garnish)

Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The aroma of this cocktail is lightly lemony, crisp with hint of herbals from the amaro. The taste is of the warm honeyed flavor of chartreuse with a hint of astringent-ness from the Cynar a the end. It has a lovely mouth feel and surprisingly light tequila flavor. The subsequent times we made this there was a slightly stronger tequila flavor, but it was so well balanced that anyone (even those self proclaimed tequila intolerant) could appreciate this cocktail. It was so mellow and multi-layered that someone thought this had a gin like Plymouth or Hendrick's in it instead of tequila.

Simplicity can speak volumes! By allowing the Chartreuse, Cynar and tequila to speak for themselves Kelly was able to create a far more complex drink than some 15 ingredient behemoths. There is a lot to be said about a three component cocktail. I was impressed and this was a hit.