The back bar
This is my back bar. Each entry says what a spirit is, which cocktails it belongs in, how to buy it and where the popular stories go wrong.
amaro · bitters
Roots, barks and peels steeped in spirit and sweetened until the bitterness becomes pleasure. Campari, Aperol, fernet and the alpine amari, the aperitivo and digestivo habits that made them, and the drinks they anchor.
6 min read · 5 sources
gin · botanicals
Juniper is the law and everything else is the argument. London dry, Plymouth, Old Tom, genever and the contemporary styles, what they must be, how they are made, and which drinks each one serves best.
6 min read · 7 sources
liqueur · botanicals
Herbal secrets from Fecamp and the Chartreuse mountains, orange liqueurs from curacao to Cointreau, marasca cherries, Danish cherry liqueur and coffee. The sweet modifiers that give classic cocktails their second voice.
7 min read · 10 sources
vermouth · botanicals
Wine, a little spirit, and wormwood by law. Sweet, dry and bianco, Turin and Marseillan, why an open bottle belongs in the refrigerator, and the three cocktails that would not exist without it.
6 min read · 6 sources