Aromatic, herbaceous, spice, caramel
A cocktail comfortable with New Orleans cuisine and seafood. Try it with oysters!
Appearing in print in 1937, this vermouth double header intrigued us from the menu of Maison Premiere in New York, one of the country’s great oyster meccas. Popular belief says that this was a favored drink of Andrew Jackson (nicknamed Old Hickory) when he was stationed in New Orleans in 1815. But that can’t be true because dry vermouth wasn’t available until much later—the first record of a shipment of French dry vermouth to the United States being Noilly Prat to New Orleans in 1851. So much for historical romance. But no matter, we have a love affair with this drink because of its soft balance of bitter herbs, caramelized sugar, and fresh orange.
1½ ounces (45 ml) sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica)
1 ounce (30 ml) dry vermouth (Dolin)
2 to 3 dashes orange bitters
Dash of Peychaud’s bitters
Lemon peel, for garnish
Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with lemon peel on the rim of the glass.