Chris Brislawn

The Fog Cutter appeared earlier in Vic's 1946 "Book of Food & Drink." Same recipe as quoted above, with NO pisco. Smuggler's Cove replaces all of the cognac with a full ounce of pisco; this is kinda like replacing the rum with arrack, and I wrote off the Fog Cutter as a shipwreck the first time I made it. Not sure replacing just half the cognac with pisco is all that much better. Tonight I followed Vic more closely (NO pisco), cutting Vic's 2 oz rum to a less keel-hauling 1.5 oz and balancing the orange and lemon juice at 1.5 oz each (I might even go to 2 oz orange : 1 oz lemon). A much more deserving concoction to serve in an appropriate (or inappropriate) tiki mug!

I can't seem to get Clement Rhum Agricole Blanc out here in the provinces nowadays but I did have Rhum J.M Blanc, which is a bit less grassy than Clement, so I upped it to 1/2 oz along with 1.5 oz El Dorado 3-year-old white Demerara rum per F. Yarm's recommendation. This restored Baker's 2 oz of rum, with slightly greater amounts of vermouth (Cocchi) and falernum (J. Taylor). A fascinating, suitably complex but not tiki-grade over-the-top, and harmonious combination of flavors; I never would have thought to combine white Demerara rum, rhum agricole blanc, and dry vermouth in a single drink. Expressed lemon zest seems like the perfect garnish. And it's as crystal-clear as a martini.

An excellent Paper Plane variant. I upped the base liquor (bourbon) to 1 oz to tame the sweetness, which I do for pretty much all Last Word/variant cocktails, and used Cheritelli rather than Luxardo maraschino for its more pronounced maraschino flavor, which stands up to the bourbon and amaro. No Braulio, though, and lacking Difford's vast library of 60+ amari I considered Lucano because it's next to Braulio on Difford's amari page, but then remembered I had a new bottle of Meletti I'd been meaning to try, so went with that instead. Good choice. Its flavors work well with the bourbon and maraschino, and Meletti is light enough that it doesn't overwhelm the other ingredients in this drink as a darker, heavier amaro might (see comments of R. Spain below).

I finished off a bottle of Contratto not too long ago, which means I'm down to just 3 different varieties of Italian red bitter (plus Cynar), and Select isn't one of them (nor is Strucchi). Fortunately, Negroni variants work with a wide variety of red bitters, so enjoy using your favorite(s).