As our extensive archive might suggest, we try a lot of cocktails. We regularly return to the classics (and the modern classics), pick up new favorites from around the world and throw in the occasional bartending project here and there. But it takes something special—a novel ingredient, an unbeatable flavor combination, a recipe that’s truly more than the sum of its parts—to stand out. Only a select few can become obsessions.
For Chloe Frechette, former executive editor of Punch, it’s the process, not just the final product, that makes the Search for Delicious an ideal cold-weather drink. While the recipe is quite precise (18 drops of lemon juice, six dashes of bitters and five swaths of lemon peel over a base of Cynar and Punt e Mes), it’s also made of elements that many home bartenders already have in their arsenals. The recipe serves “as a reminder that familiar ingredients, when used in thoughtful, novel ways, can yield unexpected, downright delicious results,” writes Frechette. “The preparation becomes a ritual in its own right.”
The Tea Ceremony, a warming blend of unexpected ingredients, likewise takes a routine (preparing matcha), and transforms it into something entirely new. For Punch contributor Emma Janzen, watching bartenders at Martiny’s in New York make the Old-Fashioned-like drink is “mesmerizing.” Capped off with “a heavenly froth,” the whisky-based cocktail reads like a boozy, yet light, iced matcha latte.
To really channel the season, though, consider the Basque Bamboo, a drink that screams fall. Created at the now-closed Brooklyn restaurant Bar Vinazo, the spritzy take on the cocktail that bartenders love to riff on combines Spanish vermouth, sherry and cider into a tart, mineral-forward drink. It’s ideal for the shoulder season, according to senior editor Mary Anne Porto: “It inhabits the casual air of aperitivo, now with a light jacket.”
Dining and Cooking