Meet Virginia. A young girl with a question. A question for a newspaper. (Remember newspapers?) Virginia O'Hanlon asked her father if Santa Claus really existed. He famously replied, “if you see it in the [New York] Sun, it's so.” Taking her father at his word, she wrote a letter to the editor of The Sun. And a few days laters, one of the most famous editorials, assuring the young girl that there was a Santa, appeared in the paper. And a Christmas classic was born.
Virginia and her family lived in Manhattan so we decided to make her drink a variation on a Manhattan. Perhaps strong for a young girl, but you can never be too young to start appreciating the good stuff. There are several variations on a Manhattan, but most include vermouth and an orange garnish. We decided to play with the orange little and use Aperol, a liqueur similar to Campari but with a more orangey taste. We kept the sweet vermouth to help take the slightly bitter edge off the Aperol.
Virginia Cocktail:
- 2 oz whiskey
- ¾ oz Aperol
- ½ oz sweet vermouth
- 3 dashes of Fee Brothers Whiskey bitters
- orange rind
- lighter
- rocks glass
[drink image goes here - use your imagination in the short term]
Pour the whiskey, Aperol, and sweet vermouth into a cocktail shaker with some ice. Swirl with a bar spoon to chill. Pour into a rocks glass over ice. Add the bitters. Over the glass, squeeze the orange rind into the lighter to flame the orange oils. Rub the rind around the rim of the glass and then put rind into the drink.
Cocktail Notes:
Originally, we were going to make the Manhattan with a mist of a smoky scotch over top (you know, tobacco, smoky, Virginia…) but the two that we tried, well, didn’t taste that good. They accentuated the bitterness of the Aperol too much and made the drink, um, shitty. The whiskey bitters elevated all of the flavours and the flamed orange rind did the trick for the smokiness.
Inspiration:
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