Paul Harrington, Emeryville, 1990s.
| 1½ oz · 45 ml | GIN | 40 % |
| ¼ oz · 8 ml | CAMPARI | 24 % |
| ¼ oz · 8 ml | COINTREAU | 40 % |
| ¾ oz · 22 ml | LEMON JUICE |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 2.75 oz mixed with ice, 0.76 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Shaken: +20 % of the pre-batch, +0.55 oz of water |
| Served | 2.75 + 0.55 = 3.3 oz in the glass |
| Strength | 0.76 ÷ 3.3 = 23.0 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.76 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 18 g · about 124 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM GIN
The pine note in juniper berries, and the reason gin tastes like a forest. Co-distilled with the spirit during production. Found in actual pine trees, rosemary, basil, and a good London Dry. The "Christmas tree" smell of gin and the smell of a forest floor share a single molecule.
ALSO IN Negroni · Martini · Gimlet · Gin & Tonic · Aviation · Corpse Reviver #2 · French 75 · Bramble
FROM CAMPARI
The bitter from gentian root, used across Campari, Aperol, sweet vermouth, Angostura, and most amari. Bitter compounds activate TAS2R taste receptors that evolved to detect plant alkaloids. The same machinery that makes broccoli taste bad to children also makes a Negroni taste like an adult ordered it.
ALSO IN Negroni · Manhattan · Paper Plane · Boulevardier · Sazerac · Naked & Famous · Last Word · Vieux Carré
FROM LEMON · the lemon aroma
Lemon's defining note: technically a mix of two geometric isomers (geranial and neral) that read as the same aroma to the nose. Lemon peel, lemongrass, lemon verbena, and Indian chai all carry it. In cocktails it's what a lemon twist contributes that lemon juice can't: the volatile expressed from the oil glands, not the acid from the pulp.
ALSO IN Margarita · Mojito · Daiquiri · Whiskey Sour · Gimlet · Moscow Mule · Paper Plane · Aviation
Gin, Campari, Cointreau and lemon. It is the Cosmopolitan's bitter cousin: Campari's gentiopicroside gives structure, with alpha-pinene from gin and d-limonene from Cointreau. It is pink not for sweetness but for the Campari. When built correctly, it tastes like grapefruit juice, though there is none in it.
Paul Harrington created the Jasmine at Townhouse Bar & Grill in Emeryville in the 1990s, named for his architecture-school friend Matt Jasmin. The drink became canonical through Harrington's 1998 book Cocktail: The Drinks Bible for the 21st Century, one of the first post-Prohibition American cocktail books to take craft seriously. The recipe's surprising element is the tiny quarter-ounce of Campari, which transforms a clean gin sour into something complex.
