ENDANGERED COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH

THE MODERN COCKTAIL No 2

1 ounce of blended Scotch whisky
2 ounces of Sloe Gin
1 dash of orange bitters
1 dash of Absinthe
1 dash of grenadine

Stir ingredients with ice in a mixing glass. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

By Pink Lady

AS THE MORNINGS GROW CRISP and autumn leaves start to turn, now is the perfect time to tuck into a robustly flavored scotch cocktail. Single Malt aficionados may turn up their noses at the idea of blending their drams with other ingredients to make a cocktail. We LUPEC ladies disagree. While the baller bottle you got as a gift for your wedding/promotion/birthday is best used for straight sipping, a nice robust blend can make for great cocktailing. In many cases, Scotch cocktails are greater than the sum of their parts, and an ingredient list that looks strange on paper – perhaps really, really strange – becomes magical in the mixing glass. THE Modern Cocktail No 2 comes to us from Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book, originally penned in 193O. This is a great cocktail to try today, but it may not have been so prior to 2OO8. The drink calls for a generous dram of sloe gin, a gin-based liqueur made with sloe berries, the fruit from a wild shrub native to England bright purplish in color with a tart, tangy flavor For many decades a decent bottle would have been impossible to find in the United States. About 8 years ago Plymouth introduced a reproduction of an 1883 recipe, making high-quality sloe gin sipping possible once again. Look for Plymouth or The Bitter Truth brand, which launched in the States in 2O1O, pair it with a robust blended Scotch, and you’ll be off to the races.