Monday, July 4, 2011

milord gower

1 1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse
3/4 oz Orange Juice
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1 Egg White

Shake once without ice, add ice, and shake again. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with 5 drops of orange bitters.

For Thursday Drink Night on Mixoloseum, the theme was "orange and lime," and participants crafted cocktails out of one or both of these juices in a wide variety of styles. For a drink idea, I decided to make a riff on the St. Germain that appears in the Café Royal Cocktail Book. The St. Germain pre-dates the elderflower liqueur of the same name by over 70 years, and it features a healthy slug of green Chartreuse that helped it get its name. The name is a reference to the Comte de St. Germain who claimed to have created the Elixir of Life; Chartreuse was referred to as an elixir of life as well, although the two elixirs were unrelated until the creation of this recipe. In my variation, I swapped the original's green Chartreuse, grapefruit, lemon, and mint garnish for yellow Chartreuse, orange, lime, and orange bitters garnish but kept the egg white Sour base the same. For a name, I went with Milord Gower who was a Parisian comedian that made making fun of St. Germain's grand claims and far-fetched stories a large part of his act.
The orange bitters contributed greatly to the Milord Gower's nose where it joined the aroma of the yellow Chartreuse. The sip contained the orange juice flavor along with the crispness of the lime, and this was followed by a sweet herbal swallow with lingering lime notes. Overall, the Milord Gower was ambrosial and rather easy to drink.

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