Improved Japanese Cocktail

COCKTAIL INGREDIENTS:
- 60 ml Brandy
- 30 ml Orgeat
- 30 ml Fresh Lemon Juice
- 3 Dashes Peychaud’s bitters

GARNISH:
- Lemon Twist

INSTRUCTIONS:
• Combine all of the ingredients in a cocktail shaker.
• Add ice and shake until chilled.
• Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
• Garnish with a twist of lemon.

Cocktail author: Toby Cecchini.

Improved Japanese cocktail is a Toby Cecchini‘s riff on a Japanese Cocktail from Jerry Thomas’s Bar Tenders Guide dating back to 1862.

XIX century cocktail recipe consisted of brandy or cognac, orgeat and cardamom bitters, with lemon peel oil expressed over the cocktail. Toby Cecchini’s version adds lemon juice and replaces cardamom bitters with Peychaud’s, essentially transforming the cocktail into a sour. In order to balance the cocktail, amount of orgeat has been increased to fit with the revised specs. All these changes bring this cocktail out of the mid nineteenth century and into the twenty-first.

Even though I love boozy spirit forward cocktails, I cannot deny, that I like this version over the original. Addition of lemon juice adds a lot of freshness to the drink and pairs well with the nutty oak notes of the brandy. Increased amount of orgeat helps to balance the cocktail out, and makes sweet taste of almonds slightly more prominent than in the original. Last but not least, a few dashes of Peychaud’s bitters, binds the cocktail together and add some final aromatic notes finishing the cocktail.

Improved Japanese cocktail is a great example of how long forgotten recipes can be brought to life in a modern context.

Source material:
https://imbibemagazine.com/recipe/improved-japanese-cocktail/