cocktail no.5 | peridot
Peridot cocktail chilled and ready to enjoy.
Satisfaction out of reach,
Where you want to be is where you aren’t,
And where you are is incomplete.
An opening, so brief as to be missed.
The impact, swift.
You are inebriated by its clarity.
You see now what was drowning in the morass
And simply beckon it towards you with subtle nod.
The answer was always near,
It wasn’t yours until it was time.
. . . . . . .
Creativity is inherent in all that we do. I don’t care about who you are, what you do, or who you know. We all have opportunities to tap the well of creativity. Unfortunately, sometimes that well runs dry. We’ve all been there. That feeling, the frustration, is a necessary struggle. Its yang is the sweet release of inspiration.
A rare joy is being a bystander to someone else’s creative journey, being present for the moment inspiration moves through their body and metamorphosizes into a creative gem. The opportunity to see, for a moment, the nonsensical magic of someone’s brain is a gift.
. . . . . . .
Six months of creating new cocktails is a lot a pressure when it’s not your day job (or maybe even when it is your day job). As he was thinking about March, Joshua wanted to feature Chartreuse, but hadn’t created a cocktail of his own. So, he planned to resurrect a classic cocktail that isn’t as well known, the Bijou. I could sense that this wasn’t necessarily what he wanted to do, but I also knew that that April’s barrel-aged cocktail loomed large, so I didn’t press.
Being unfamiliar with the Bijou (to be fair, I could have had it before and totally forgotten!), I turned to the Google. I stumbled onto a little article that mentioned that the original cocktail was garnished with a cherry or an olive and that “history has come down on the correct side of this debate: today’s version uses a cherry.” I stopped short, confused by the fact that olives and cherries could be interchangeable for the same cocktail. I shared that with Joshua and that kicked off the most ridiculously enjoyable hour of cocktailing I’ve had the pleasure to participate in.
Joshua made a Bijou (using Jamie Gordon’s recipe). I tasted it and immediately understood the olive vibes, so we tested the olive as a garnish. To me, it is perfect. The savory/briny olive finish was the perfect counterpoint to the bittersweet Bijou notes. Joshua took a sip, ate an olive, paused and then . . .
BAM! I don’t fully understand what happened next. In the 30 minutes that followed, Joshua created five different riffs on the Bijou. Morphing and tweaking each cocktail in subtle ways. Each one better than the one before until we were down to two differing only by the choice of bitters or cocktail brine (subtle, indeed). Recalling the moment that launched the cocktail frenzy, the answer was instantly clear; Joshua had found it. A Mountain Dew colored concoction that owed its origin to the Bijou but was clearly its own thing.
Now, all it needed was a name. As I looked at the glistening bottles ready to share, this tasty tipple’s name revealed itself . . . Peridot.
Ingredients
1 ounce Du Nord Fitzgerald Gin
1 ounce Martini & Rossi extra dry vermouth
1/2 ounce Green Chartreuse
1/2 ounce Yellow Chartreuse
1/2 teaspoon cocktail brine (see Untold Narrative recipe for brine directions)
Steps
Put a cocktail or coupe glass in the freezer to chill
Add the ingredients to the mixing glass over ice
Stir until well chilled, approximately 30 seconds
Take the chilled glass out of the freezer.
Strain the cocktail from the mixing glass into the chilled glass