“I’ll let you be… macrobiotic… / if you let me have some pie.” – The Bobs

All things in their season?  Not when there are strawberries somewhere in the world and the remarkably carbon-footprint-indifferent Whole Foods to bring them to me.  Hooray for strawberries in late October!  And hooray for sparing just a few from the Great Berry Massacre of 25th October for a new cocktail.

Having Manhattan’ed myself out for the past week or two, I was in the mood for something a little lighter and fruity.  George Clooney was unavailable.

Strawberry Moon

One big-ass mutant strawberry, or two normal helpless strawberry victims, hulled
2 oz Tanqueray 10 gin
.5 oz Gran Classico bitters
.25 oz Amaretto
dash Bittercube Jamaican Bitters #1

Combine the gin and strawberry in a shaker.  Muddle the hell out of them.  Add everything else and shake mercilessly.  Double-strain into a cocktail glass or a coupe.  Further torture it by telling it you’ll give it a garnish.  Then serve it without one.  Sip and shake a tiny, angry fist at the rain and gloom.

It was way too easy to make and down the second one of these for the night.  But hey.  I had to take the picture.

Tanqueray 10 is really best for this drink, but you could go for any gin that’s not too junipery / herbal.  There’s really no getting around the Gran Classico.  Aperol or Campari will make a different (but probably pretty good) drink, but if you use Campari, I’d cut the amount in half.  The bitters are hard to find.  They have a touch of sweet, clovey spice to them, so if you had some Benedictine lying around, you could try that.  Or Becherovka.  If you go this way, you might try adding a dash of Regan’s Orange Bitters #6 as well to get that little bit of bitter finish on it.

Since I’m now just making shit up, I will stop.  Next up:  a runthrough of our fall menu.