Name: Bending Blades cocktail
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Blanco tequila; 15 ml Manzanilla sherry; 7.5 ml Gentian liqueur; 22.5 ml Pamplemousse liqueur; 10 ml Chilled water

Bending Blades cocktail
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Serve in a Coupe glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Patrón Silver blanco tequila
¹⁄₂ oz	Lustau Manzanilla Papirusa Sherry
¹⁄₄ oz	Gentian liqueur (e.g. Suze, Salers etc)
³⁄₄ oz	Giffard Pamplemousse liqueur
¹⁄₃ oz	Chilled water omit if using wet ice

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Coupe glass.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
STIR all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Manzanilla sherry - Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Tequila-based, zesty and bitter before turning bittersweet. In March 2022, I cut the volume of gentian liqueur from 15ml (½oz) back to 7.5ml (¼oz) so fans of bitter gentian my want to stick with the original spec.

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History:

Adapted from a recipe created in 2015 by Christopher Day at General Lee's in Los Angeles, USA.

Nutrition:

One serving of Bending Blades cocktail contains 179 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
19.96% alc./vol. (19.96° proof)
20 grams of pure alcohol

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Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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John Morris

4th April at 07:05

Made this with mijenta tequila and my last dribble of suze saveur d’autrefois. Added a bit of grapefruit and chamomile bitters and a couple of drops of saline. Couldn’t be happier. Bitter and sweet and surprisingly full mouthfeel - presumably from the grapefruit liqueur. Banging.

Frederic D.

22nd March 2024 at 01:12

I absolutely loved this drink. Made with Olmeca Altos Plata and Fino sherry, because I don't use enough sherry to justify keeping two bottles open concurrently. This was a great drink regardless, with a distinct evolution from bitter grapefruit to herbal tequila to sherry salinity. It's complex and well balanced and overall delightful.

Steve Erwood-Heijselaar

20th March 2022 at 16:23

Interesting comment about cutting back the Suze, Simon. The first time I tried this cocktail, I was unfamiliar with gentian and found it quite a challenging taste. Here I am, another spring, another Bending Blades... and now I can't imagine it without that Suzean slap. So I'm definitely sticking to the original 15ml, but I hope others will try it either way and add another favourite cocktail to their cabinets!

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