101 replies to this topic

[raxelita]

Sure, fine on it's own or with a splash of soda on the rocks, but is there anything booze/ juice/bitters-wise that pairs with the flavor of Cynar?
Any hits with amaro in general (besides fernet) as a cocktail ingredient?

[Sneakeater]

Pegu Club makes a Manhattan with Cynar instead of vermouth, and it's fantastic.

[donbert]

Cynar makes an interesting substitute for Campari as well in drinks like a Negroni.

Edited by donbert, 20 July 2006 - 10:06 AM.

[slkinsey]

Babbo has the "Cin Cyn," made with Junipero gin, Cinzano sweet vermouth, Cynar, orange bitters and a splash of orange juice. Very nice.

[raxelita]

Babbo has the "Cin Cyn," made with Junipero gin, Cinzano sweet vermouth, Cynar, orange bitters and a splash of orange juice.  Very nice.

Aye, that's what I'm after! Will experiment with that at the bar tomorrow. Assuming it uses negroni-like proportions 2 parts Gin, equal parts SV and Cynar?
Thanks, R

[slkinsey]

Not quite sure of the formula off the top of my head. I know it's in Anthony Giglio's "Cocktails in New York" (eG Forums thread here), and might be in the Babbo cookbook as well.

[raxelita]

Made a couple Cin Cyns at work last night. What a lovely cocktail. It tastes like a summered-up negroni.

[slkinsey]

The Cin-Cyn, for those who may be interested, has 2 ounces Junìpero gin, a half-ounce each of Cinzano sweet vermouth and Cynar, a splash of fresh orange juice and a dash of orange bitters. Shake, strain, garnish with orange twist.

[eje]

This week's Cocktailian column by Gary Regan includes a Cynar cocktail from Restaurant Eugene is Atlanta. Sounds tasty!

Order a Scorched Earth cocktail and watch sparks fly

Ingredients are: 1 1/2 oz Cognac, 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth, 1/2 oz Cynar. Stir, garnish with flamed lemon twist.

[Friend of the Farmer]

Ted & Linda up at Hemingway's, near Killington Vermont, had a wonderful cocktail that was in one of Gary's books many years ago. Sorry I don't have the book or recipe!

[birder53]

This week's Cocktailian column by Gary Regan includes a Cynar cocktail from Restaurant Eugene is Atlanta.  Sounds tasty!

Order a Scorched Earth cocktail and watch sparks fly

Ingredients are: 1 1/2 oz Cognac, 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth, 1/2 oz Cynar.  Stir, garnish with flamed lemon twist.

We made one of these last night. I'll admit we had a bit of trouble flaming the lemon twist. The glass seemed to be very smoky so we decanted to fresh glasses. It wasn't bad but not as interesting as the gin combos.

[Gary Regan]

Here's the recipe from Hemingways.

Burnt Orange Kir
Created by Ted and Linda Fondulas, Hemingway’s, Killington, VT.
4 ounces chilled Lillet
1/4 - 1/2 ounce Cynar
1 piece orange peel, about 3-inches long.
1. Pour the Lillet and Cynar into a chilled cocktail glass.
2. Light a match and hold it about three inches from the surface of the drink. Take the orange peel and carefully twist it between the thumb and forefinger of your other hand. The oils from the orange peel will ignite and rest on the surface of the drink. (This is a somewhat complicated procedure for one person, if need be, ask a friend to hold the match while you twist the orange peel.)

[bostonapothecary]

i've been drinking more cynar lately...

next to my favorite cynar cocktail of last summer with kola nut tonic and lemonheart 151... so far this summer i've been drinking it with chamberyzette

2 oz. real serious apple brandy (guy davis apple-ation)
1 oz. chamberyzette (replica)
1 oz. cynar
2 dashes peychaud's bitter
don't obscure the aromatics with a garnish...

i liked the strawberry / cynar combo so much that i started fermenting a small gallon of wine with artichokes, strawberries, and a 2 liter of coca cola... hopefully it will be intense enough to fortify and make a rustic aromatized wine... drinkable by january...

my "must" tastes rather phenomenal but there is definitely no strong bitter. the way cynar is made is pretty mysterious... distilled artichokes and very low alcohol... no perishable wine base... what else is going on in there? a whole lot of quinine and some some kola nut? citrus peels? any ideas?

any other new cynar cocktail recipes for the summer?

if anyone else has surplus artichokes and wants to gamble on a gallon of wine with me, the wine recipe will appear shortly on my blog...

Edited by bostonapothecary, 09 June 2008 - 06:19 PM.

[Alchemist]

Here is a cocktail on the spring list at The Violet Hour. It is the work of a very talented bartender there who goes by Kyle.

The Art of Choke
1 oz Appleton White
1 oz Cynar
.25 oz Green Chartreuse
.25 oz Fresh Lime Juice
.25 oz Simple Syrup
3 Mint Sprig

Glass: Rocks
Garnish: 2 Mint Sprigs
Ice: Chunk

Muddle 1 mint sprig dry. Add rest of the ingredients. Stir. Strain. Serve over fresh ice.

Not for the faint of heart. But if you like Cynar already this cocktail is mindblowing.

Toby

[Nathan]

Absinthe in San Francisco does the lovely Choke Artist as well....utilizing Cynar, sherry and tequila...

[TallDrinkOfWater]

Robert Hess created a drink called the Trident that's on the menu at Seattle's Zig Zag Café, using Cynar, aquavit, sherry, and peach bitters. It's pretty good.

[Nathan]

Robert Hess created a drink called the Trident that's on the menu at Seattle's Zig Zag Café, using Cynar, aquavit, sherry, and peach bitters. It's pretty good.

it's fantastic. if memory serves, they were also serving it last fall at PDT.

[bostonapothecary]

Absinthe in San Francisco does the lovely Choke Artist as well....utilizing Cynar, sherry and tequila...

i did something like that last year called "the apple of eden"

i used manzanilla for the sherry and apple brandy instead of the tequila... 2:1:1
sherry and cynar are a great duo...

i think i have the stuff to try the trident tonight...

[Chris Amirault]

Here is a cocktail on the spring list at The Violet Hour.  It is the work of a very talented bartender there who goes by Kyle. 

The Art of Choke
1 oz Appleton White
1 oz Cynar
.25 oz Green Chartreuse
.25 oz Fresh Lime Juice
.25 oz Simple Syrup
3  Mint Sprig

Glass:       Rocks
Garnish: 2 Mint Sprigs
Ice:  Chunk

Muddle 1 mint sprig dry.  Add rest of the ingredients.  Stir.  Strain.  Serve over fresh ice.

Not for the faint of heart.  But if you like Cynar already this cocktail is mindblowing.

Toby

This cocktail is indeed mindblowing. In a cocktails course I taught today, this was the final drink we made (with Montecristo white instead of Appleton), and it left the students literally speechless. I prefer it up, but that's a quibble: this is one of the best drinks I've ever made.

[birder53]

Well, we tried The Art of Choke tonight. Unfortunately, for us, all we could taste was Cynar. The white rum couldn't stand up to the Cynar and the other ingredients were lost to the Cynar. I had such high hopes after Chris's rave review! Maybe we should have stepped up the lime juice, chartreuse and simple syrup.

[Dave the Cook]

What rum did you use, Kathy? I was about to try the Art of Choke, but I don't want to waste ingredients.

[Chris Amirault]

Well, we tried The Art of Choke tonight.  Unfortunately, for us, all we could taste was Cynar.

Are you sure that all you could taste was the Cynar? I ask because we all agreed that the drink tasted like the most spectacular artichoke we'd ever had.

ETA: I will note that we used more mint than Toby specifies, and it had been picked moments before the drink was made.

Edited by chrisamirault, 14 August 2008 - 06:45 PM.

[birder53]

The mint was fresh from the garden. Couldn't taste it at all. Not sure what went wrong here but it didn't live up to the raves for us. Not to worry - too many great drinks out there to get hung up on one that just didn't work for us.

[Chris Amirault]

But I saw heaven in that drink. I want you to see it too!

Ah, well.

[birder53]

But I saw heaven in that drink. I want you to see it too!

Ah, well.

Okay - one more try to see heaven! I'll have to go it alone since my husband is not a fan of bitter drinks. The addition of green chartreuse suckered him in! Maybe we'll try the Appleton Estate and extra mint this time. The white rum was so overpowered it might as well have been vodka. I'll report back. Boy - you sure know how to twist a drinker's arm!

[Chris Amirault]

I picked up the rum in the perfume and roundness of the drink. It's not a rum drink, per se, in the sense that rum isn't the dominant liquor in the drink (like a Daiquiri, say); it's meant to showcase the Cynar's qualities. Which it does, alchemically.

[lostmyshape]

yeah... i think this is a great drink, too, but i love cynar. the cynar is definitely dominant, although i don't quite agree with chris's assessment that it tastes like artichoke. i know it's an artichoke liqueur, but i just can't associate it in my mind with artichokes. no matter, i love the stuff.

i used bacardi (it was the only white rum in the PA liquor store -- one of 4 non-spiced rums) and it most assuredly does not stand up to the chartruese, cynar, and mint. gets lost actually, but i think that bacardi is bland anyway. wish i had more assertive rums to try this with as i think it would make it even better. like i said, the cynar is dominant, but the chartruese and mint are very present. great drink!

[slkinsey]

Definitely an interesting drink. I didn't happen to have any white industrial rum around, so I had to choose between Flor de Caña gold and La Favorite. I decided to try the rhum agricole, as I figured it would have an easier time cutting through the Cynar. I was right, it worked very well.

I agree that Cynar doesn't have much of an artichoke flavor -- or rather doesn't have much of the flavor we associate with the parts of the artichoke we eat and (usually) cook. Nevertheless, is cocktail did seem to have a distinct background flavor that was quite evocative of artichoke.

[Chris Amirault]

That's a good way to put what I was trying to say, Sam: it evokes Artichoke, in a cocktail-y, Platonic sense.

I think I'll stop trying to describe this now. Cynar fans should give it a go.

[tikibars]

Here is a cocktail on the spring list at The Violet Hour.  It is the work of a very talented bartender there who goes by Kyle. 

The Art of Choke

Sampled this one on Thursday, as well as a second Cynar cocktail on the VH menu.

Good stuff!