When I said this drink — or rather, these drinks — would be fitting for Valentine’s Day, I wasn’t talking about love. I was talking about chocolate, the real reason for the season. You probably can’t make these drinks tonight by now, but if you can’t find any half-price candy tomorrow, one of these will make a fine substitute of a treat.
A single product can change cocktail history, and few have more in the past few decades than Bittermen’s Xocolatl Mole Bitters. As the cocktail revival took off in the mid-2000s, we were in a bitters drought. We had Angostura and Peychaud’s, but even orange bitters was hard to find until Gaz Regan rolled out his orange bitters in 2005.1 Chocolate was out of the question.
Since the 1990s, chocolate cocktails meant sickly Chocolate Martinis and Mudslides, not refined stirred drinks. Bittermen’s changed that with their mole bitters, inspired by the Mexican spiced chocolate sauce, which they rolled out in 2007. The bitters were originally intended for tequila drinks, and are great in a Oaxacan Old Fashioned. Soon, though, bartenders began experimenting with them. At Milk & Honey (the center of the cocktail revival and a bar I’m surprised I’ve never mentioned) bartender Sam Ross (one of the central bartenders of the cocktail revival, who might have made more modern classics than anyone else) was trying to develop a riff between a Negroni and a Manhattan when he picked up the new bitters. Many bartenders didn’t know about the Boulevardier, a whiskey-based Negroni, at the time, so unbeknownst to Ross, he’d just invented a riff on the drink. He called it the Left Hand, and it’s one of the first modern classics to call for Bittermen’s Mole Bitters (which themselves are called for in seven drinks from Beta Cocktails).
That history is all important for the Beta drink I’m writing about, the Arbitrary Nature of Time. It’s another one from Maks Pazuniak, one of the Cure bartenders who co-edited the book. And it’s a very clear riff on a Left Hand. The difference? Maks swaps Cherry Heering liqueur for the sweet vermouth. At the time, Heering was used in two drinks: the Blood and Sand and the Singapore Sling. Neither are particularly well-respected. Many bartenders and cocktail nerds hate the Blood and Sand because the inclusion of orange juice makes it hard to balance, and the Singapore Sling is just a hodgepodge of ingredients that no one can quite agree on. Safe to say if this bottle was sitting on a back bar or in someone’s liquor cabinet, it probably wasn’t getting much mileage.
Heering is Danish, and doesn’t taste too pleasant on its own because of how sweet and cough-syrupy it is. But that makes it a fine substitute for sweet vermouth, especially against some powerful bitter flavors like Campari and mole bitters. On a similar note: This recipe is an instance where the type of whiskey does matter a bit. Wild Turkey is big and bold — made with a high portion of rye, aged in extra-charred barrels, and bottled at 50.5 percent ABV. If you’re not using Wild Turkey, make sure you’re using another high-rye bourbon that’s at least 100-proof. (But really, use the Wild Turkey. It’s my favorite.)
Arbitrary Nature of Time2
1 1/4 ounces Wild Turkey 101
1 ounce Campari
3/4 ounce Cherry Heering
1 dash Regan’s Orange bitters
2 dashes Bittermens Mole bitters
Stir and strain over a large rock. Garnish with an orange twist.
By Maks Pazuniak
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
3/4 ounce Campari
3/4 ounce sweet vermouth (preferably Carpano Antica)
3 dashes chocolate bitters (such as Bittermen’s)
Garnish: brandied cherry
Add all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled.
Strain into a chilled coupe glass.
Garnish with a brandied cherry.
I’ve made Left Hands before with other chocolate bitters, but never specifically, and the spice really ties it all together. If you’ve had a Boulevardier, the drink has all the caramel, cherry, and bubblegum notes you remember, but is tied together with that chocolate in the background and on the finish. It’s an extremely well-rounded drink, decadent but bold.
Now that I’ve had an Arbitrary Nature of Time, though, I don’t know if I’m ever making a Left Hand again. This drink tastes like a cherry-chocolate truffle in cocktail form. The Heering and Wild Turkey balance each other out nicely (I find cherry notes in Wild Turkey too, so that it makes sense), making for a drink that tastes sweet yet balanced. The orange bitters is also a nice touch against the Campari, which mostly come through on the finish. That bitter end of the sip is nice, and brings you back in for another sip of the chocolate-cherry sweetness, and so on. Compare to the Left Hand, this is definitely one of those drinks where every sip tastes a little different, or evolves into something new. It’s a fun cocktail, and a real treat.
Up next, I’ll have three more uses for those mole bitters.
Fee’s had been making theirs since the 1800s, but as most bartenders will tell you, they’re too sweet on their own in most drinks.
From Beta Cocktails by Maksym Pazuniak and Kirk Estopinal, 2011.