(Listening to "The Color of Right" from Test for Echo, by Rush)I whipped this up for Lindz and myself after a day of her being very productive and of me being much less so. She painted the upstairs (almost the entire upper storey), and I raked a couple of leaves, oiled a squeaky storm door and bloodied my thumb somehow.
It is built on standard cocktail methodology, but it has a magical ingredient that wouldn't be sitting around the house any other time of year. Lindz made candied orange peels, and the sugar syrup that was left is packed with flavor. The oranges were cara-cara oranges, rich in that spritzy orange zest goodness. My favorite cocktails (especially the whiskey sour) involve the use of simple syrup, but it was clear that this orange syrup would add more to a drink than just sweetness.
I figured "December Cocktail" would be a fairly civilized name that wouldn't be out of place in the Savoy Cocktail Book. More respectable than "Winter Bitch-Slap" or "Aberdeen Reacharound."
2 ounces gin (I used Amsterdam)
3/4 ounce sweet Italian Vermouth
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce orange peel infused sugar syrup
Add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker full of ice cubes. Shake the hell out of it, and strain the drink into a red or green cocktail glass. Put a few ice cubes in there and garnish with a candied orange peel. Enjoy. Repeat as necessary.
If you use bourbon instead of gin, it is a delicious but different cocktail. A bit darker in character. I would call that one a "Manhattan in December."
