Not sure why, but I have discovered that I dislike cocktails with fresh squeezed orange juice. Tastes flat/boring. Maybe it's the oranges themselves...but I *do* live in Southern California & we supposedly have good oranges growing here. How can I zhuzh it up?

Wanted to like this since I love Angostura di Amaro. Seems unbalanced, but can't put my finger on what would improve the taste. It's essentially equal parts amaro|citrus (albeit split between lemon & orange)|rum. Might have benefitted with a bit more sweetness.

Before reading the caption, which explains that this was named after an 1863 battle, I was wondering why this cocktail was named "shrimp" since the taste didn't really make me think of the crustacean/shellfish, aside from the saline solution which seemed to overpower the cocktail for me personally?!

Missed seeing the 6 drops of orange flower water, so I made it last night without that ingredient. Overall, I was underwhelmed by the taste, so I added 5 ml ginger syrup & was *still* unimpressed. Can't add nutmeg due to an allergy, but will try it again sometime with the orange flower water. Not sure how it's getting a 4/5 rating since it lacks oomph IMO.

Please click "measures and measuring" under the recipe above for info on volume of a dash, etc.

Very helpful - thanks! I didn't realize that link existed until you mentioned it.

A little perplexed by the 0.6 ml of the Angostura Aromatic bitters - should it be 1 dash? How do you measure less than a milliliter? I suppose 0.6 ml is approximately 1/8 tsp, so I'm going with 1 dash.

Much of a muchness. There are better uses for all these ingredients.

Agreed, this is a bit of a meh cocktail for me. I wanted to like it, but it seemed to be missing something.

Mine was definitely not as pink/red as in the photo. Possibly because I made my own orgeat (which had a distinctly tan/brown appearance) + used a small batch grenadine rather than Monin. The result for me was a pale pink. Still tasty & one of my favorites of 2025.

Just made with a mildly smokey artesanal mezcal, fabulous! What to call it? A Pink Perro Pelón?

Thanks for the suggestion to use mezcal. Loved your choice of name for the resulting cocktail ;p For me, the smokiness got a little lost with the other ingredients. Might try a split spirit (50% tequila & 50% mezcal) next time.

For a name like "pinky," I was thinking it would be more colorful. Tasted great, but I opted to serve it up & it looked underwhelming. Will need to serve as instructed next time.

Odd that they named this cocktail "Mezcalero" when the main spirit is NOT mezcal. Honestly, I was a bit underwhelmed by the cocktail. There is no "hero" ingredient as the smoky agave gets lost in the Cointreau. Wanted to like this, but will have to make modifications next time.

Since I love ginger, I omitted topping up with soda water - delicious without it!

Patricia, I read your comment the other day and made some adjustments based on it and my own preferences. This seemed to work, though I could see room for improvement: 50 ml Cognac, 25 ml Benedictine, 20 ml apricot liqueur, 20 ml lemon juice, 6 cardamom pods. I might just finish this whole drink.

Thanks for sharing your revised ratios. I'll have to try this out soon!

Wanted to like this cocktail since I LOVE cardamom. The muddled cardamom gets lost with the strong flavors of the cognac & Benedictine. I suggest omitting the muddled cardamom pods & instead add 3-5 drops of cardamom bitters after straining into a chilled glass. The aroma and flavor of cardamom would be more present then.

Sweet enough even WITHOUT the rich sugar syrup :)

30 ml grenadine seems excessive :8

Since I don't like pineapple juice, I tried this with seabuckthorn juice instead -- DELICIOUS! Also, I used my homemade lime cordial as a sub for fresh squeezed lime juice + agave syrup. WOW! Now I need to learn how to submit this as a variation :)

A lot to like in this drink. Quite flavorful, if arguably a bit intense. Suggests more sweetness than it really has. The aftertaste is relatively dry. The color I got was more fuchsia than the light orange in the photo. (2 Feb 2022, 3:43p)

I was just about to comment that my cocktail had a much pinker hue than the photo shown! I wonder if the cocktail in the photo was made without blood orange juice.

I have a bottle of apricot umeshu in my home bar - could this count as either a "brandy" or an "eau de vie"?

The Apricot Umeshu bottle from Ventura Spirits (Ventura, California) says: Green Apricot Liqueur 25% Alc. by Vol. (made by combining unripe apricots with pluot brandy & sugar) - no sake involved with this.

I have a bottle of apricot umeshu in my home bar - could this count as either a "brandy" or an "eau de vie"?