The Wild Mecury – Satoshi Cuvée

Sometimes there goes a lot of thought into my recipes. Some other time the drink starts with its title and I create a suitable cocktail for the song / music reference. Yet, in this case, I started with two ingredients which were coincidentally standing around in my living room at the same time.

Satoshi is a great little gin producer from Ludwigsburg. Yet, they also have a passion for eau de vies distilled from macerations in neutral grain spirit. In Germany, those spirits are called ‘Geist’. For their limited edition 2023 Satoshi blended two eau de vies, one made from raspberries and one distilled with juniper berries. In the end, Satoshi bottle their Cuvée at an ABV of 44 %.

Bitter wine

The other ingredient for the cocktail I had standing around was Cardamaro. Tosti prepare this Amaro by infusing wine with three different cardoon varities, calumba, juniper, Gentiana Lutea berries, cloves, liquorice root, cardamom, lemon peel and marjoram. The resulting liquor is low in alcohol 17 % and reminds you more of a vermouth than of an Amaro.

A 20th Century variation

The obvious choice would have been to mix up a Clover Club with the Satoshi Cuvée. However, I came up with a variation on the 20th Century cocktail, by replacing Kina Lillet with the Cardamaro. Since the Satoshi Cuvée delivers some berry notes, I also added the Spiced Cranberry Bitters from Bittermens.

I guess with its combination of forest flavours and spices from the Amaro as well as the bitters, you could call this drink Christmassy. The crème de cacao also helps with that. Like the original 20th Century, the ‘Wild Mercury’ is beautifully balanced between sweet and sour notes. Towards the end of the sip, even the berry notes shine through.

*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The Cuvée was provided by Satoshi and the Cardamaro by Tosti.