There’s a moose loose…
Moose Factory.
As my regular readers will remember over a year ago I embarked upon a quest to deUSAify my cocktail shelf* in favour of more ethical options. Experimentation gleaned some useful substitutes from Canada but to my immense surprise my boycott has so far failed to bring the administration to its knees. Ah, well – can’t win ‘em all. Undeterred today I shall honour Canada’s impressive resistance to coercion, bullying and general nastiness from its southern neighbour. In cocktail form! So with a bottle of Lot 40 Canadian rye whisky in hand we take arms against a sea of Trumple and mix our way to freedom. My paen to Canada is, I hope, an interesting cocktail which plies its route between such whisky classics as the Manhattan, Boulevardier and Old Fashioned, is deep and complex yet still simple to prepare. Indeed, in preparation we shall take a leaf from the Negroni’s book (and thus also the related Boulevardier) to stir with ice, strain over a large block of ice in an Old Fashioned glass with a twisted orange garnish. “But, but, but, what of the other ingredients?” I hear you cry. Fear thee not and be enlightened hencewith. Campari! “But are we not then making a Boulevardier?” Mai non! For we shall eschew the vermouth having already and Italian ingredient and having a need to also honour the French Canadians. Grand Marnier (King of the orange liqueurs imho) shall be deployed in small quantity for both its Frenchiness and affinity with Campari. We’re leaning just a touch sweet here so a couple of dashes of bitters will both remedy this as well as adding even more depth. I chose Bogart’s – the German reboot before you accuse me of hypocrisy – but another aromatic bitters is fine should you lack it. And there we are: fighting the forces of hate and division on drink at a time. What? Oh, right sorry. I named my creation after a small town on the Hudson Bay.
Moose Factory.
2oz/60ml Canadian rye whisky.
0.75oz/22ml Campari.
0.25oz/7.5ml Grand Marnier.
2 dashes Bogart’s bitters (or other aromatic bitters).
Stir with ice and strain into a double Old Fashioned glass containing a large block or sphere of clear ice. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.
Toast the good folks of Canada.
*And, to the maximum practicable extent possible, my life in general.
