![]() ![]() ![]() Growing Old and Dying Happy Is a Hope, Not an InevitabilityĬynar: Accept no substitutes. It’s one of my absolute favorites from their little book and I could go on and on, but it suffices to say that if you read “Growing Old and Dying Happy is a Hope, Not an Inevitability” on a cocktail menu and it still sounds like something you want to try, I can say with confidence that it’s the perfect drink for you. It’s bitter and savory with real brightness to match, strong enough to not be too sweet, and resonant in its complexity. Like its name, this drink is weird and dark, and completely new. The salt here makes it so the Cynar isn’t too bitter, allowing the round savory caramel notes to shine out of the liqueur, while the absinthe and ample lemon oil provide brightness, and the rye helps dry the whole thing out. After a brave foray into Hervé This’ heady Molecular Gastronomy, he discovered salt can lift the aroma of liquids, and reduce bitterness even more than sugar does. “The theoretical underpinning of the salt application in this cocktail was the idea of ‘seasoning’ the artichoke essence of the Cynar,” Pazuniak wrote. Nonetheless, they tried it and found it worked brilliantly. If salt was at the bar at all, it was exclusively for Margaritas. It then enjoys not one but five lemon peels, to be expressed-on and stirred-with the ice, a spritz of absinthe, and, in a further bizarre flourish, a pinch of salt. This is spiked with an ounce of rye whiskey, making the proportions a kind of inverse- Manhattan. To start with, it uses, as a base spirit, Cynar (“Chee-nar”), a low-ABV, vegetal, resoundingly bitter liqueur, which is flavored with, among other things, artichokes-as a base still an unusual choice now, but in 2009, it was practically heresy. is one of these, an original of Pazuniak. Successful in their early attempts, they sent out a call to their bartender friends for similarly bizarre drinks, and collected them and a bunch of originals in a brief little pamphlet they called Rogue Cocktails (which, because of uninteresting legal nonsense, was updated and reprinted as Beta Cocktails). The duo, working together at the now-legendary bar Cure, had become fed up with the persistent sameness of the cocktail world, and set out to prove that the rules we all tend to follow-everything from when to stir/shake to what base spirits are even allowed to be-are, to lift a line from everyone’s favorite pirates, more like guidelines than actual rules. Weighing in at 11 words (and a comma!), I realize this sounds like a Camus quote or a Fall Out Boy song or something, but the Growing Old and Dying Happy is a Hope, Not an Inevitability, but comes to us from a couple bartenders in New Orleans, Maksym Pazuniak and Kirk Estopinal, in 2009. ![]() I say all that to say this-if you see a cocktail called “Growing Old and Dying Happy is a Hope, Not an Inevitability,” what are you expecting from that drink? And just to give you a peek at the last page, I’ll go ahead and tell you that what you’re imagining is pretty much exactly what the cocktail is like. Conversely, if you have a bright-pink Martini on your menu and you call it “The John Wayne,” one could only assume you’re doing it specifically to piss people off. ![]() This can be literal (a “ Mule” has a kick, the Penicillin is medicinal, the Bitter Tears is bitter) or simply evocative: A Shirley Temple is sweet and childish. Some part of you already knew this because it’s intuitive. This Premium Ernest Hemingway-Inspired Rum Is Meant to Be Sipped Like Fine Whiskey The 50 Best Vineyards in the World, Ranked The Texas Food Scene Can’t Decide Whether It Wants a Michelin Guide ![]()
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