March, as the idiom goes, comes in like a Lion, and goes out like a Lamb. This month may bring us spring-like temperatures, but also one more blizzard for the road. Winter’s last blast requires a libation celebrating the flavors of the season and is worthy of the ferocity of the month’s namesake, Mars, the Roman God of War.

Meet the Lion’s Tail, the last winter cocktail you will order.

Some background: Eryn Reece, bartender at Mayahuel in New York introduced me to this delicious drink a few years ago when she worked at the Rye House. It was an off menu standard and nightcap. The cocktail actually dates back to the 1930s, first appearing in the Cafe Royal Cocktail Book (1937). The Lion’s Tail returned from the cocktail graveyard thanks to Ted “Dr. Cocktail” Haigh’s book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails.

At its core, the Lion’s Tail is a variation of a whiskey sour with a wintry flavor profile and tropical influences. The components are bourbon, allspice or “pimento” dram, lime juice (instead of lemon), simple syrup, and good ole’ Angostura bitters. As Don Draper says, “Keep it simple yet significant.”

Allspice is the flavor that stands out in the Lion’s Tail. St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram is produced by Haus Alpenz of Austria and registers at 22.5% alcohol (45 proof). It is crafted in the tradition of pimento dram from the Caribbean. Pimento dram is a pimento berry infused rum based liqueur that hails from Jamaica. According to Cocktail Database, the English named the pimento berry flavor “allspice” because it tasted like a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove. Original pimento dram was popular in pre-prohibition tropical cocktails.

The use of bourbon in this recipe is important from a historical context. For one, 1937 is barely four years after Repeal so the supply of aged bourbon was not exactly plentiful. Only six distilleries had been licensed by the federal government to keep producing whiskey for medicinal purposes during the Dark Age, so bourbon cocktails were rare until the industry recovered in the 1950s. Hence, there is a preponderance of Canadian rye showing up in cocktails lasting well after prohibition. Secondly, bourbon is not typically paired with lime juice in shaken cocktails. However, allspice’s rum base is a natural with lime. Both of these facts make the cocktails’ existence to be quite unique.

I recommend using a bourbon that can stand up to the allspice dram and not get lost in the citrus. Eagle Rare 10 year Single Barrel (45% alcohol/90 Proof) displays robust oaky flavors with hints of chocolate, toffee, and almond works very well in this formula. Eagle Rare delivers the punch and balances the sour and spicy essence. Buffalo Trace Straight Bourbon (45% alcohol/90 Proof) is also stellar in this recipe. Both Eagle Rare and Buffalo Trace are produced at the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Building the drink: Start with bitters, freshly squeezed lime juice, and simple syrup. Then add the liqueurs and ice, shake for 25-20 seconds, and double strain into a chilled coupe. The allspice taste is prominent, as a cocktail modifier should be used sparingly. So I dialed back the original spec of ¾ oz to ¼ oz allspice dram. The original recipe has no garnish though I have seen it served daiquiri style with a lime wedge. I find three Luxardo maraschino cherries to be an excellent addition in presentation and palate cleanser.

LION’S TAIL
2 oz Eagle Rare 10 Year Single Barrel Bourbon
¼ oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
¾ oz Lime juice
½ oz Simple syrup
Dash of Angostura bitters

Tools: mixing tins, jigger, bar spoon, coupe, Hawthorne strainer, fine strainer

Combine bitters, dram, lime juice, and simple syrup in mixing tins. Add ice, and then shake until well chilled. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with three Luxardo maraschino cherries.

*Got a cocktail question? Reach Fredo on twitter @loungerati, email me at fredo(at)loungerati(dot)com, or simply comment below!

**Fredo Ceraso is the editor-at-large of the lounge lifestyle blog Loungerati.com. He is head cocktailian and a co-producer of The Salon parties. Fredo is a member of the USBG New York chapter and rolls drinks at many Lounge, Swing, Jazz Age, & Burlesque events in New York City.

***Payman Bahmani will return in April for his weekly Happy Hour column and is honored to have Fredo tend the bar while away.

We’re a couple weeks into 2011 and many of you are still hopeful about staying true to your resolutions. Although last year I did my best to aid you in detoxing from the holiday gluttony, this year my intentions aren’t so pure. Rather than fortify your resolve, I’m here to steer your ship back to the harbor of iniquity.

How you ask? Three words my friends. Hot. Buttered. Rum.

It is a classic wintertime potion that soothes the soul and warms the physical faculties, while adding a layer or two of insulation to your frame. Sure you can have a Hot Toddy to fight the frost, and I love those as well. But sometimes you simply want some butter in your drink. In those times, a Hot Buttered Rum is where it’s at.

Truth be told I wrote about this drink last year but somehow that piece got lost in cyberspace, never to be found again. I was dumbfounded, but interpreted it as a sign and decided to hold off for another year. So here’s take two of the Hot Buttered Rum, and the timing is especially fortuitous if you live in one of the snowed in cities on the Eastern seaboard like I do.

Hot Buttered Rum
2 oz aged rum (or a good spiced rum, ie not Captain Morgan)
3/4 oz demerara syrup (raw sugar dissolved in equal part water)
1 tbsp (or more) spiced compound butter (will get to that in a minute)
Hot apple cider to top
Cinnamon stick as garnish (optional)

Glass: any mug or glass appropriate for hot drinks

Pour the syrup in the glass along with the compound butter and a little hot cider. Stir to dissolve the syrup and melt the butter. Add the rum and more cider to fill, then give it a light stir. Add the cinnamon stick (or not) and enjoy.

It’s not a Hot Buttered Rum without the butter, and although you can use plain butter in a pinch, the compound butter adds nice depth if you have the time to make it. This recipe comes from Dale Degroff, and I liked it enough to use as is, but you’re certainly encouraged to get creative and spice it up as you wish.

Spiced Compound Butter
1 lb softened butter (I recommended unsalted sweet cream butter)
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg (fresh is best)
1 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 cup dark brown sugar

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix until thoroughly combined. Place the compound on wax paper and roll it into logs. Set in refrigerator or freezer to set. Though you can use it immediately, it’s best to give the flavors some time in the fridge to marry. Once set you can use as needed by cutting pieces as you would a stick of butter.

It makes much more sense to make more than single portions since the effort is the same, and the recipe above should give you enough for a sizable group of folks. I usually make a supply that’ll last me the winter, freeze half and keep half in the fridge. Then a few minutes before I want to use it, I set it out to get it to room temperature. Just as you wouldn’t want to add any hot components to a cold drink, you don’t want to add a cold component to a hot one.

Cheers, and good luck on those resolutions. You’ll need it even more now.

*Got a cocktail question? Hit me on twitter @paystyle, email me at payman(at)lifesacocktail(dot)com, or simply drop me a comment below!

Thanksgiving has long been the source of mixed emotions for me. On one hand it’s a day when I can unleash my monster appetite without abandon. I love to eat, and I love to eat well. Yet on the other hand I consider myself a person of conscience, and Thanksgiving is a yearly reminder of how much a particular group of people have sacrificed, usually by force (I’m speaking of Native Americans here), so that another group could thrive (I am, of course, referring to the European immigrants). In my younger years I felt a sense of guilt when celebrating the holiday, as if somehow I was compromising my principles.

Later in life I realized I wasn’t ever really compromising anything (other than my caloric intake limit) because I was never really celebrating Thanksgiving. Nobody in my family did. It’s not like we ever prayed or performed any pre-meal ritual to honor the day. That wasn’t ever my family’s style, and that’s something I’ve always been thankful for. Of course we served turkey along with many of the other obligatory Thanksgiving items, but even then it was usually a mashup with dishes found on a traditional Persian table. Rather than traditional stuffing for example, our turkey was stuffed with saffron-scented Persian rice and barberries.

Eventually I concluded that in my family Thanksgiving was simply an excuse for everyone to get together over great food, and I suspect that’s the case for many other families as well, especially families like mine whose members are predominantly first generation immigrants.

The immigrant perspective as it relates to Thanksgiving is an interesting one too because it’s the perspective that tells us everything we know about that so-called first Thanksgiving gathering at Plymouth. As the story goes, the Pilgrim immigrants were set to freeze their asses if not for the generosity of their native hosts who shared with them their bountiful harvest. And per that old axiom, the natives not only provided fish, but also taught the visitors how to fish so they could survive in this strange new world.

So at its most basic, the story of Thanksgiving is a lesson on how to be a great and generous host. And whether we’re talking about a bunch of family members coming over to your house or a bunch of poor families coming over to this country, the same lesson applies. Just be a good fucking host and stop whining about how somebody broke the gravy dish or drank too much wine.

So does all this have anything to do with cocktails? Well, a little. The stuff above is what’s been on my mind all week, so I channeled it into this week’s creation which I call Dolores’ Huerto, made with tequila, Chartreuse, lemon, ginger, and apple butter.

The name of this drink is a play on the name Dolores Huerta, a woman that’s been on the forefront of immigrant rights for over four decades. Along with Cesar Chavez she founded the United Farm Workers in the 1960s which helped propel the Chicano movement. The drink’s name literally translates to “Dolores’ Orchard,” (the word ‘huerto’ means orchard in Spanish) which is both a reference to the fruit fields where she led numerous strikes and the apple flavor found in the drink.

When I was coming up with this drink it was clear that tequila should be the base, because it represents the farm workers and immigrants who were the base of the UFW. But just as symbolically important as which ingredients I included is also which ingredient I didn’t include, grapes. “No uvas” or “no grapes” was the chief rallying cry of the great Delano grape strike and boycott of the late 1960s that first put the UFW on the map and helped the struggle of the farm workers gain national attention, and eventually won over Bobby Kennedy as their champion in Washington. For that reason I made sure there was nothing in the recipe related to grapes.

Dolores’ Huerto
1 1/2 oz tequila blanco
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1/4 oz ginger syrup (see recipe near bottom of this post)
2 barspoons apple butter (about 2 tsp)
Apple slices for garnish (optional)

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: cocktail or coupe, chilled

Shake all ingredients fervently as if you’re shaking your fist at the man. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Here’s to being a great host. Cheers!

*Got a cocktail question? Hit me on twitter @paystyle, email me at payman(at)lifesacocktail(dot)com, or simply drop me a comment below.

I recently read an article by Gary Regan about a couple of modern cocktails he predicts will eventually become classics, and it made me think about exactly what makes a cocktail a classic. The answer may seem fairly obvious in that it just needs to taste awesome, but I’ve had many newly created cocktails that were quite awesome tasting and yet I wouldn’t even think to categorize them as classics.

So it begs the question, when does a great cocktail become considered a classic? Or better yet, when does a modern cocktail gain such immortal status? What does it take for the cocktail cognoscenti to confer the crown on a particular drink created within our generation? Of course there is no particular rule, nor even a definitive list of classic cocktails, but the query’s still an intriguing one.

I don’t feign to know the answer, but I presume it has something to do with achieving the critical mass of consensus that flings certain cocktails into the stars to live forever and leaves others to wither on the bar (or blog page). So often at some of the city’s top craft cocktail bars we see complicated drinks involving a dizzying array of ingredients. Perhaps this is a natural byproduct of constantly pushing the envelope, because you certainly won’t see any creativity at your average shot-and-beer bar. Yet while we might be awestruck by the creativity employed in some of these enevelope-pushing potions–and they may even taste amazing–we don’t really see these ultra-complex cocktails achieve the status of the two modern classics Regan discusses in his article, the Gin Gin Mule and the Cable Car.

Of these two modern creations, the Gin Gin Mule created by Audrey Saunders of NY’s Pegu Club is one that figures most prominent in a discussion of modern classics. Created about a decade ago, this clever yet simple combination of gin, ginger beer, lime, sugar, and mint has rightfully achieved such an exalted status among cocktailians that most of the top craft cocktail joints in the world will be able to make you one if you ask. Now that’s bragging rights, to say the least.

What’s really interesting is that both of the cocktails that Regan mentions are riffs on other classics, which speaks volumes about the importance of keeping it simple. The Gin Gin Mule is basically a cross between a Moscow Mule and a Gin Gin Cocktail, with the addition of mint. So maybe that’s the primary lesson here, that a drink can’t have a shot at staying power if the person who created it is the only one that can execute it, either because of esoteric ingredients, technical difficulty, or some combination of both.

So with that idea in mind I played around with the Gin Gin Mule and came up with the Gin Gin Sour. Now let me first state my intention is to showcase the virtues of simplicity, and not to create a potential classic cocktail. All I did was take a “long” drink (the technical term for highballs and such because you can take a longer time drinking them since there’s ice in the glass to keep things cold) and make it a “short” drink (the technical term for cocktails served up, because you ought not take too long to drink them, for they’ve no ice to maintain the chill). The point is to illustrate how creating a delicious and refreshing cocktail doesn’t always require egg whites, wine reductions, and amazonian tree bark tinctures.

Gin Gin Sour
2 oz gin (recommend G’vine Floraison here)
3/4 oz ginger syrup (recipe below)
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
Lemon or orange twist for garnish

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: coupe or cocktail glass, pre-chilled

Combine everything except garnish in cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake until well chilled and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist the lemon or orange peel over the drink to release its oils and place as garnish.

Ginger Syrup (makes about 4 cups)
2 cups chopped ginger
2 cups sugar (I like using demerara aka raw sugar)
2 cups water

Place everything in a pot and bring to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar. Reduce to a slow simmer and once the sugar has completely dissolved, turn off the heat and let it sit for at least a half hour, both to cool the mixture and to allow the ginger flavor to fully infuse. Strain out the ginger pieces through a cheese cloth or fine sieve into a jar or bottle. Add about an ounce of 80 proof spirit (Vodka if you don’t want to alter the flavor) which will help keep it longer, and store in the fridge. Remember that like garlic, the intensity of flavor that ginger gives off depends on the size of the cut pieces–the smaller the pieces, the more flavor it gives off. So if you like more intense ginger flavor in your syrup, place it in the food processor, or for seriously intense flavor juice it or grate it and add the juice and ginger pieces to the pot. Conversely if you like a less intense flavor, slice the ginger into larger pieces.

In this cocktail you can use any type of gin you prefer, though the varying botanicals in various gins will result in subtle differences of flavor. I particularly like the G’vine Floraison in this particular cocktail because of the noticeable hint of ginger on the palate of the gin itself, which gives the cocktail a bit more depth of flavor and rounds out the sharp edge of the ginger in the syrup.

The more you try different spirits the more you’ll begin to see how they work to produce different outcomes in cocktails depending on the other ingredients the spirit will be interacting with. Naturally this can mean endless tooling and tinkering, which for someone like myself is where most of the fun is. And of course sometimes we can let our creativity carry us away, but if the example of the Gin Gin Mule teaches us anything, it’s the power of less quite often being more.

Keep it simple, kid.

*Got a cocktail question? Hit me on twitter @paystyle, email me at payman(at)lifesacocktail(dot)com, or simply drop me a comment below.

Admittedly, I’ve always had a much easier time coming up with cocktails than coming up with names for cocktails. But every now and then, after concocting something I consider worthy of sharing with you all (you should see the pile of cocktail recipes that didn’t make the cut), a fitting name reveals itself without too much undue fuss.

Today’s cocktail is called the Literary Agent.  It is a cross between a Whisky Sour and a Hemingway Daiquiri (not just one of my favorite summer cocktails, but one I like to tinker with quite often), with a Japanese twist and a bit of history which provide context for the drink’s name.

Writer, adventurer, ravenous drinker, hunter, early supporter-turned-critic of Fidel Castro, exuder of much machismo, and all around man’s man and true bon vivant–these are all the various adjectives and aspects of Ernest Hemingway’s life that most recall when describing the man.  But there’s one more aspect that’s lesser known, and has only come to light in the last few years, that during the early years of World War II Hemingway served as a U.S. spy in Asia, working for the OSS (Office of Strategic Services, pre-cursor of the CIA) at the request of President Roosevelt.  Under the guise of a honeymoon with his third wife, journalist Martha Gellhorn–a respected literary figure in her own right–the two were charged with the task of reporting back on the developing war between China and Japan.

Both Hemingway and Gellhorn were well known by that time, so they certainly wouldn’t have been able to do anything undercover, but therein may have lied the logic and genius of the idea.  Perhaps their high profile more easily enabled them to gain access to Asian dignitaries. And few could argue against Papa Hemingway’s charm, not to mention he was probably a really good drinking buddy, two very useful traits in the art of eliciting secrets.

Literary Agent
1 1/2 oz Yamazaki 12 yr whisky
3/4 oz yuzu juice (I used Yuzu Passion)
3/4 oz fresh grapefruit juice
1/2 oz rich muscovado syrup (2:1 ratio of muscovado sugar to water)
1/4 oz Maraschino liqueur
grapefruit twist

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: chilled cocktail glass or coupe

Place ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker and shake like the Kuomintang in the presence of the Red Army–or at least until the shaker is well-chilled and frosted.  Strain into your glass and twist the grapefruit peel over and into the drink.

For the uninitiated, yuzu is a variety of Asian citrus that’s thought to be a cross between the mandarin orange and the Ichang lemon, both native to East Asia.  For the sake of easy comparison, it’s most similar to a lemon, yet much more tart and sharp, with a very slight tinge of sweetness.

Although I normally eschew using pre-bottled juices in favor of freshly squeezing your own, an exception has to be made in the case of yuzu, as the fresh variety is rather difficult to come by.  Even a trip to NY’s Chinatown is hit or miss.  The one thing to keep in mind when purchasing bottled yuzu juice is that not all bottled yuzu juices are equal.  Even quality aside, many have added salt, which is not what you want, at least not in this cocktail.  Yuzu Passion is a good brand to look for, and is pure yuzu juice and nothing else.

Cheers, and see you next week, as the theme all month at Umamimart will be HOT HOT HEAT!  Think cocktails that both refresh you from the heat and tingle your tongue.

*Got a cocktail question? Hit me on twitter @paystyle, email me at payman(at)lifesacocktail(dot)com, or simply drop me a comment below.

This past week has been quite a bittersweet one for me. On the bitter side, one of my favorite musicians passed away; my people in Iran are facing unimaginable cruelty in their fight to take back a dream stolen from them first in 1953 and again in 1979; and of least relative importance, my computer’s hard drive crashed and burned for reasons yet unknown. So it is a surreal experience, to say the least, that I find myself sitting behind a borrowed computer writing about cocktails of all things, while a veritable whirlwind is spinning around me.

Yet throughout the chaos and tragedy, life faithfully proves there are moments of glory, celebration, and laughter to be savored along the way. In fact, it’s as if the bitter and the sweet have a symbiotic relationship in which the presence of one is necessary to fully experience the other. Thus despite the barrage of bad news this week, there was a proverbial silver lining for me.

This week I finally brought to fruition a business project that I’ve been working on for most of this year, which up to now had only resided in my imagination. It is called Life’s a Cocktail, and its purpose is to elevate the art of the cocktail by focusing on four general areas: cocktail consulting for restaurants; signature cocktail services for special events; cocktail edutainment for smaller private parties; and marketing, ambassadorship, and public relations tailored to upstart spirit brands and micro-distilleries. The website (www.lifesacocktail.com) is currently under construction, so if you go to the url all you’ll see is a “coming soon!” sign, but in the coming weeks the rest of the details will be unveiled on the site.

On Monday I had the first opportunity to put my vision to the test, as Life’s a Cocktail created and presented the signature cocktail for the VIP reception of the first annual Tommy Awards, a ceremony honoring the contributions of outstanding USC alumni, named after the USC mascot, Tommy Trojan. The distinguished honorees included Steve Smith of the NY Giants, Broadway producer Kevin McCollum, and film director Andy Tennant.

Appropriately, the signature cocktail I created for the event is called the Tommy Collins, a refreshing thyme-infused alternative to the classic summer cooler, the Tom Collins.

Tommy Collins (aka Thyme Collins)
1.5 oz gin (London Dry or Plymouth)
1 oz thyme-infused syrup
1 oz lemon juice
club soda to top
cherry, lemon for garnish (optional)

Tools: shaker, strainer

Glass: Collins (above recipe is according to 10 oz glass, so adjust amounts as necessary)

Fill a Collins or other tall glass with ice. Place all ingredients except club soda in a shaker also filled with ice. Shake and strain into the glass, top with club soda, and stir. Add optional garnish.

I prefer this drink shaken and strained over ice per above, but if serving a large group, you can simplify your life by making the Collins mix (everything but the club soda) in advance, keeping the same ratio as above. Right before serving, give the mix a good stir to redistribute the ingredients. Then simply fill glasses with ice, pour mix about halfway, then top with the club soda and stir. For drinks such as this it’s always a good idea to provide a stirrer for guests, especially if you’re not shaking each drink.

For the event I made over 4 gallons of thyme syrup alone, and have a good 1/2 gallon to spare, so if any of you are local and thirsty, feel free to come on through for a drink, although I think I’ve had my entire summer’s share just from testing and perfecting this drink the week before. Then again, there’s always room for one or five more.

Here’s to life’s bittersweet moments. Cheers.

*Paystyle was born in Tehran and grew up in Los Angeles (aka Tehrangeles) before moving to Brooklyn with his wife and co-pilot Vanessa Bahmani who provides the stunning photography of Pay’s cocktail concoctions. Return every Wednesday for his weekly Happy Hour column.

I gave the Clover Club Cocktail the slight edge for its combination of simplicity, pleasance on the palate, and intriguing history (a common trifecta among classic cocktails). Also, it is one of those rare cocktails whose flavor profile fits so well with modern tastes that it seems like an invention from this very decade. And although it is a drink whose hey-day has come and gone, the recent revival of cocktail culture may signal its rejoiceful return.

Written references to the Clover Club Cocktail date as far back as 1911, though the drink’s inception could certainly reach back even further. The cocktail originated at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, where members of the legendary Clover Club gathered to discuss whatever it is that captains of industry discussed at the time; and the Clover Club Cocktail was their apparent beverage of choice. I won’t delve into the cocktail’s full history here, but I urge you all to read Paul Clarke’s fascinating piece on the drink’s rise and fall from popularity.

The Clover Club Cocktail has spawned many a variation over the years, and even the original recipe itself has undergone numerous adjustments in order to suit society’s ever-evolving palate. For example, depending upon one’s historical text of favor, the recipe either calls for grenadine or raspberry syrup as primary sweetening agent.

My favored bible of imbibing (imbible?) happens to be The Savoy Cocktail Book, originally published in 1930 by the Savoy Hotel of London, and contains recipes compiled by the legendary Harry Craddock. Below is the recipe for the Clover Club Cocktail exactly as it appeared in Savoy. In addition, I will show you how to make a couple of variations: the Royal Clover Club and the Bitter Clover Leaf–the former being a classic in its own right and the latter being a creation of mine made specially for this month’s Mixology Monday theme, “Superior Twists.”

Clover Club Cocktail (from The Savoy Cocktail Book)
Juice of 1/2 lemon or lime
1/3 grenadine (1 part)
2/3 dry gin (2 parts)
1 egg white

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: cocktail or coupe

Place all ingredients in cocktail shaker along with ice. Shake well and strain into glass. Another common recipe with measurements that are more conducive to modern measuring tools can be found on cocktaildb.

Two quick notes on the use of raw eggs in cocktails: 1) There’s nothing to worry about as long as you use fresh eggs from a reliable source. I used fresh organic brown eggs. 2) When using egg whites in cocktail recipes, I prefer to do a dry shake (shake egg white by itself) first for 30 seconds to 1 minute in order to really froth the white, before adding the remaining ingredients and shaking again.

The Royal Clover Club is a variation of the Clover Club Cocktail that is a classic itself, and is also found among the original recipes published in the Savoy. The only difference is that the recipe calls for an egg yolk instead of an egg white. Of course this produces a slightly different flavor as well, subtly reminiscent of an orange creamsicle. Below is the recipe for a Royal Clover Club.

Royal Clover Club
1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz grenadine
1 egg yolk
Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: coupe

Place all ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 15 seconds. Strain in chilled glass and enjoy.

And now on to this month’s MxMo, hosted by The Wild Drink Blog. The theme for this month is “Superior Twists,” which urges us to put a twist on a classic cocktail. Accordingly, I offer to you the Bitter Clover Leaf, which puts a much needed twist on an uninspired variation of the Clover Club Cocktail called the Clover Leaf–a twist on a twist, or double twist, if you will. The Clover Leaf is a prime candidate for revamping because it was essentially a Clover Club Cocktail with a mint sprig added for garnish, and nothing more. My twist on the Clover Leaf goes further by switching a mixed berry simple syrup for the grenadine and adding dry vermouth and mint bitters for greater depth.

Bitter Clover Leaf
1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz berry simple syrup
1 egg white
2 dashes Fee Brothers Mint Bitters
1 mint leaf for garnish

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: coupe

Place egg white in shaker and dry shake for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add ice and remaining ingredients and shake again for another 10-15 seconds. Strain in chilled glass and garnish with mint leaf.

There you have it. The best cocktails you’ve probably never heard of, until now. Cheers!

Check out the rest of the “Superior Twists” from this month’s MxMo here.

Come back every Wednesday for Paystyle’s weekly Happy Hour column.

Photography by Vanessa Bahmani.