All the rage.
Rage in Eden.
Welcome to yet another of my own creations that doesn’t look very exciting and has a kinda dull unappealing rusty colour. You’re welcome. Hopefully that has scared off all the skin-deep riff-raff types and now you – the enlightened cocktail lover – can dig into a rather tasty and unusual tipple. I am a fan of what I call the “hybrid sour” which twists the more traditional sour with a bit of amaro or other aromatic component – at the cost of an inevitably muddy hue. This lack of visual appeal perhaps explains why you will rarely see such a drink on a cocktail menu. While we do care somewhat that our drink looks good we care much more about what it tastes like, right? I thought so! And so here we are with my Rage in Eden which uses calvados as its base spirit. In the unlikely event that you be all “WTF is calvados” a quick explainer. Despite being no expert on the other other spirit I can tell you that it is an apple based spirit made in Normandy in the north of France and with an ageing nomenclature familiar from the cognac world (VO, VSOP, XO). Other apple brandies could be used if calvados is unavailable. In the US, for example, applejack* is an acceptable substitution but, frankly, calvados is as good as you are going to get for an apple brandy with a good VS or VSOP being the best range for mixing. Chateau du Breuil (as pictured) is a good choice and probably easiest to find and I’m also keen on Coquerel. Having come up with this cocktail in the ass-backwards fashion of listening to an album and thinking, “That would be a good name for a cocktail” I proceeded to experiment with ingredients that were vaguely “on message” and ended up with the following in addition to the glaringly obvious calvados: Lemons and honey which always work so beautifully together. Cynar – that slightly quirky Italian amaro with it’s pleasing vegetal notes. If Cynar eludes you Ramazzotti or Averna are close enough. For the rest nothing complicated is required – just shake with ice and double strain into a largish chilled champagne coupé. In this case I was lazy on the garnish but I see no reason not to employ a thin slice of apple if only to distract from the uninteresting colour of the drink.
Santé!
Rage in Eden.
2oz / 60ml Calvados (see text).
1oz/ 30ml Fresh lemon juice.
0.75oz / 22ml Cynar.
0.5oz / 15ml Honey syrup (3:1).
Shake with ice and double strain into a chilled largish champagne coupé.
Toast Ultravox’s best album** Rage in Eden.
*Europeans unable to find applejack for the likes of a Jack Rose would in any case do better to use calvados.
**In my controversial opinion.
