Sweet & Vicious

This recipe is from Masson & Boehm's modern wad o' drinks "The Big Bartender's Book".

With over 1000 authoritative recipes it's a great book to simply open eyes closed and point to a page. It rarely takes me more than a few tries to land on something that looks really good.

The "Sweet & Vicious" is accredited to one "Alexander Day, New York", (of Death & Company fame).

One sip of this concoction and I was transported back to the famed NYC watering hole. Here's an easy, modern classic, that I hope you will enjoy.

The Sweet & Vicious

2 ounces (60 ml) rye
1/2 ounce (15 ml) dry vermouth
1/2 oz (15ml) Amaro Nonino
1 teaspoon maple syrup
2 slices Fuji apple

Lightly muddle apple in the base of a mixing glass. Add remaining ingredients, ice and stir. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with thin slice of Fuji apple.

Even lightly muddling, you may want to use an additional fine mesh strainer as you pour from the mixing glass into the cocktail glass. This is to remove any apple pulp and keep your drink nice and clear.

I used Wild Turkey 101 Rye for it's nice nutty characteristics and Noilly Prat for the dry vermouth because I prefer Noilly over the other French dry vermouths that I have tried and...well, I just don't go through much dry vermouth, so it's the only one I keep on hand. If I get small bottles I usually go through it before it goes bad, as long as I keep it refrigerated. (Always use fresh vermouth!)

I'll sometimes use Lillet Blanc or Cocchi Americano in place of a dry vermouth in a recipe, but not here. The Noilly is just right. No, I wouldn't change a thing here. This one is very good, enjoy.

The Habitant

A recipe adopted from Ted Saucier's 1951 publication "Bottom's Up", as it appears in  "The Big Bartenders Manual" by Masson & Boehm. 

The Habitant

This Canadian cocktail is credited to "Larry Dennis, Seignory Club, The Log Chateau, Quebec"

"The Seigniory Club"

The exclusive private retreat of the "Seigniory Club" took its name from the French land grant system. "Seigniory" is the anglicized version of the French seigneurie.  The club was only open to an elite membership for its first 40 years of operation. Among Canadian members during this period was former Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson; and non-Canadian members included Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, Prince Ranier and Princess Grace of Monaco. Among the many titled visitors was the Prince of Wales who revisited when he became the Duke of Windsor.

Château Montebello - home to the "Seignory Club" -  in 1930

"Habitant" is a word originally used in the early years of "New France" to designate any French colonists permanently resident in Canada.

I  heard about this one recently from a friend, and I was curious to find out if maple syrup was better in a cocktail than it sounded. 

It did sound odd, but I had just read that drinks sweetened with maple syrup would be among the "Top 11 trends of 2011" in a recent blog by Kara Newman, so I was curious. 

The Habitant is a seductively good cocktail. The spicy rye and sour lemon notes are here, and in good balance with the sweet to make it an excellent "sour" cocktail. Using maple syrup and Angostura bitters to provide that balance, this becomes a complex and warming libation. 

The maple flavors fall way back and are hard to pin down, yet still there. I love the way this one stays with you too, like a warming fire in your belly. It's easy to imagine this being a favorite in any crowd, let alone the uber elite and exclusive group credited here.

The Habitant

Ingredients
1.5 oz (45ml) rye
1 oz    (30ml) lemon juice
2 tsp.  (10ml) maple syrup

1 dash Angostura bitters

Instructions
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.