Amber Dream – Recipe from David Embury’s ‘The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks’

Sweet Martini with 1 dash orange bitters and 5 or 4 dashes Chartreuse to each drink. Shake. 

Also called the BIJOU and the GOLDEN GLOW.

 

Nice to have a little Chartreuse in this one, being a bit punchier than a lot of other liqueurs it really punches through the vermouth and adds a wonderful herbal piquancy to the drink. Its quite different to the Bijou from the Waldorf (February 19th) guide, which was a vermouth and Grand Marnier stirred drink, so not something I could imagine evolved from this.

I often wonder how writers of these books differentiate between drinks, that is if something is worth its own entry, or just becomes a note on the end of another drink, the Waldorf seems to list every single drink separately, which I guess makes the guide more useful as a bar companion, meaning something you keep behind the bar as a recipe guide, although having said that the book is filled at least 50% by hotel anecdotes, so not the ideal book to use as reference on a busy night.

Embury’s book is also not designed for this purpose, being laid out a little more like an exploration into cocktails, which makes a much better read, especially if you have a more science orientated brain as at times it reads a little like a text book.

The drink itself is good, its nice for an ingredient to stamp its mark on the flavour profile, even if its just used in a sparingly small amount, and anything with a Martini base, especially a sweet one at that is normally a winner for me. This is well worth a try.