FIX MY DRINK
Each week in this space, we better our beverages together.
Cocktail inventors often name their concoctions for battles, places, musicals, people (real and fictional) and popular songs. Less typical is a drink named after a scientific discovery, such as the latest big one, the claim by U. S. astrophysicists to have evidence of gravitational waves, which were predicted by Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity a century ago.
Let us mark the gravitational wave breakthrough with a beverage, even the majority of us who don’t quite understand it. Since black holes were involved somehow (please don’t ask me to get more specific), we might yearn for a black- coloured drink. There aren’t too many decent black cocktails, much as we would often like there to be. The blog Honestly Yum’s black beard cocktail is a relatively savvy solution to that need. The drink is black by virtue of cuttlefish or squid ink, which is available to Canadians by ordering through Qualifirst (whose deliveries arrive at the speed of light). There’s no need to be too squeamish at this dark matter; it tastes salty, not fishy, and the amount employed is tiny anyway.
THE BLACK HOLE
1½ oz The Kraken spiced rum
1 oz dark crème de cacao
1/2 oz Fernet-Branca
1/8 teaspoon (about one sachet) cuttlefish or squid ink
about 1/2 oz chilled stout, ideally chocolate-flavoured
Method: Add all ingredients except the stout to a cocktail shaker filled with ice, and shake well, until very cold and very black. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and top up with a little bit of the stout. The cocktail canon is light on space themes generally. Maybe it’s because looking up at the stars supposedly makes you feel insignificant, whereas we sometimes drink cocktails for precisely the opposite effect. One exception is the Jupiter cocktail, probably invented at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris circa the 1920s. It’s hardly a stellar formula, and meanwhile you probably can’t find a required liqueur called Parfait Amour in Canada. (Saskatchewan liquor stores once carried the Marie Brizard brand, and a few bottles may be hiding somewhere.)
In search of a substitute and in the spirit of science, I experimented, which led to the new discovery below. It’s an improvement on the original Jupiter, though I admit that’s relative.
PARTICLE AND WAVE COCKTAIL
50 millilitres flavourful gin (e.g. Victoria)
20 millilitres dry vermouth
10 millilitres each freshly squeezed orange juice (try blood orange) and Bénédictine liqueur
5 millilitres crème de cassis optional but recommended:
2 drops rosewater, administered via eye dropper
for garnish: thin wheel of blood orange
Method: Add liquid ingredients to cocktail shaker, fill with ice, and shake vigorously until cold. Fine strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish and serve.