Picon Cremaillere – Recipe below from David Embury’s ‘The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks’

1 part Amer Picon

1 part Dubonnet

2 parts Gin

1 dash Bitters to each drink

Follow instructions for the Dry Picon, above. (12-01)

My French is pretty poor, but from what I understand with Googles help, Cremaillere translates to rack and pinion, which for those of you like myself who had no idea what this is, Wikipedia tells me “A rack and pinion is a type of linear actuator that comprises a pair of gears which convert rotational motion into linear motion” sexy huh. Its basically a long convoluted and French way of calling it a pick me up.

And Pick me up indeed. Its light, dry, and the Dubonnet works beautifully with the Picon, both of which work stupidly well with gin. Despite all the bitter elements in the drink, there’s just enough sweetness in the Dubonnet to balance them beautifully.