Inspired by the Nine Americas
Flash Flood
The American dream is dead
- 3/4 oz barrel proof bourbon
- 3/4 oz cachaca
- 3/4 oz cacao-nib-infused Campari*
- 3/4 oz Cynar 70
- Barspoon blood orange bitters
- Fresh pineapple (charred)
*Cacao-nib-infused Campari: in a mason jar, combine one cup of Campari with one tablespoon of cacao nibs, shake to combine, let infuse for two hours, then strain off cacao nibs.
Using a kitchen torch, char a ring of fresh cut pineapple. Place charred pineapple into a mixing glass and muddle. Add remaining ingredients, fill with ice, and stir for thirty seconds. Strain into a chilled glass over a large ice cube, using a Hawthorne strainer to allow bits of char into the drink (but no pineapple chunks). Garnish with pineapple frond and a pickled cherry.
This drink is a sort of Brazilian Boulevardier, which is fun to say out loud. (It’s also fun to drink.) It comes from my first novel The Mess, in which one of the characters, a lawyer working for the wrong people, uses the art of developing and preparing cocktails as a way to escape from the avalanche of corporate greed and negligence that threatens his morals while paying his bills.
One can relate.