Time for a Drink: Diamondback
Let's start the weekend right—with a cocktail recipe from Paul Clarke (The Cocktail Chronicles). Need more than one? Hit up the archives. Cheers!
Sometimes, at this time of the year, you want a drink that’s light and crisp. Something with a gentle character that's as soft and invigorating as a cool autumn breeze.
The Diamondback isn’t one of those drinks. With the assertive double-barreled flavor of rye whiskey and applejack and the robust herbaceous richness of green Chartreuse, the Diamondback isn’t a casual little tipple for a lazy afternoon. Bold, strong and deeply alluring, the Diamondback is a robust fortifier, the kind of drink well suited to capping the work week and getting the weekend started.
Diamondback
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey
3/4 ounce applejack
3/4 ounce green Chartreuse
Procedure
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
View other entries from Cocktail Concoctions.
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2 Comments:
oh my, chartreuse .... i had a shot of that in 1977 and i can still feel it! (or not feel it)
pooch at 8:49PM on 09/25/09
Yes, yes, yes, I finally made one... two…ok, three. In a row.
And at first this cocktail was intriguing (obviously, I mean who needs three to “be sure”) but as mentioned (in other notes I have on this cocktail) the Chartreuse can be overly sweet and cloying (with a recommendation for the yellow as compared to the green Chartreuse and reducing it to ½ oz).
The proportions are perfect as they stand (I only had green Chartreuse), my mistake was having more then two. A Manhattan (2:1) I can quaff all night; but a Diamondback can be rather cloying. An interesting mix none-the-less, but I’ll stick with my pre-dinner Manhattan (2 oz Rittenhouse Rye, 1 oz Martini Sweet Vermouth, 2 dashes Fees Barrel aged-bitters and a long stir over ice). I love the idea of mixing rye and apple brandy at this time of year but maybe due to the high proof (Rittenhouse and Lairds bonded) the Chartreuse didn’t help to mellow the alcohol content as vermouth would, but instead it seemed to heighten the peppery alcohol content of the base alcohol and medicinal/herbal flavor of itself.
Is it balanced? Yes. I tasted rye, applejack and Chartreuse. Would I recommend or serve it to guests?
No, no, no. Well, maybe one.
Rich
JerseyRED at 1:50AM on 10/17/09