Not-Quite -A-tini

Mixology Monday

Mixology Monday XCIV is upon us and this month’s theme is “That’s Not a Martini!” Our host, Nihil Utopia, has hit upon something we really enjoy: messing with gin and fortified wines. We have two offerings for this round, (We had to pare it down from 6 or 8!!). First is the G-n-Tini, which, combining gin, dry vermouth and quinine syrup, might also qualify as “That’s Not a Gin and Tonic!”. For our second we offer The Wellington: barrel aged gin, sweet vermouth and amaro.

I think that Fords Gin cries out for grapefruit. It so happens that grapefruit is one of the primary flavors in Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s tonic recipe. His quinine syrup, that you can add to club soda to make tonic water, is simple and takes less than an hour to make. I thought that including the quinine syrup directly with the drink would make an interesting bitter sweet addition. I believe I was correct! Here’s the recipe:

G-n-Tini

1 1/2 oz. Fords Gin
1/2 oz. Dolin Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz. Quinine Syrup – see here
Grapefruit peel for garnish

Stir the first three ingredients in a mixing glass with ice to chill
Strain into a chilled coup
Express the grapefruit peel over the drink and float the peel

The Wellington

Treaty Oak Distilling is aging their gin in whiskey barrels to create their Waterloo Antique Gin. This is truly a unique gin. It has the sweet caramel nose that you would expect from the barrel aging but with the addition of the herbaceous input of gin. The flavors are citrus, spice and herbs with a finish of charred oak that is long and smooth. We combined this with Italian vermouth and Amaro.