SMFD – Stars and Moons
When Adam of Soundtrackmydrink calls, I am always happy to oblige. Especially, if it is the Christmas edition. In this case, Rewati from seulfood_ chose Mezcal as a base spirit for my entry and the song ‘Stars & Moons’ by Dizzy. The obvious choice was to come up with a Harvest Moon variation.
I think Adam would appreciate my take on the base spirit since he is a big fan of brown-butter fat-washed Mezcal himself. Similar to him, I stole some left over sage infused brown butter while my wife was cooking. I added it to Papadiablo Espadin Mezcal and put it in the freezer for three days. I dialled back on the Mezcal a bit, because I was using cask-strength calvados, too.
Rosé fortified wine and spices
On top of that, Rewati used some Starlino in one of her recipes. So, I replaced the Lillet Blanc with Starlino Rosé (no pun intended with the song title here). Instead of green Chartreuse I used the M.O.F.S. version, but yellow Chartreuse will also work. Last, I replaced the Abbotts Bitters with some Chai bitters from Dashfire. – They do make excellent Christmas flavoured bitters!
1,5 cl Christian Drouin Cask Strength Calvados
3 cl Starlino Rosè Aperitivo
1,5 cl Chartreuse M.O.F.S or Jaune
Stir – strain – chilled Cocktail glass;
Garnish: No garnish; Song: Dizzy – Stars and Moons;
Strong flavours going on
First, the Mezcal works great with the rest of the ingredients. The brown butter also gives the drink a nice mouthfeel. Yet. I should have poured the drink over ice cubes instead of the festive presentation. The drink can live with a bit of dilution from the ice. After a short while the grapefruit flavours of the Starlino show through and work great with the spiciness of the rest.
