David was an expert mixologist, employing his background in chemistry to categorize the world of cocktails and create delicious, original, and taste-tingling drinks. and taste-tingling drinks. This first post looks at David’s signature cocktail, The OC Negroni.
There are various definitions of a cocktail floating around. I take the simple view (as did David) that a cocktail is a drink combining two or more ingredients. So, a shot of gin? Not a cocktail. A gin and tonic? A cocktail. Join me on the Facebook page to share your thoughts!
David was a chemist by training and in his profession. He applied his love of mixing things together to craft new and interesting cocktails, often as variations on an existing drink. His signature OC Negroni is a riff on a classic negroni: a mixture of equal parts of three ingredients, gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. His OC Negroni is equal parts of Bombay Sapphire gin, Aperol, and Cocci Americano. This makes the drink less bitter and more orange. (The OC part of the name comes from the county we live in, Orange County, CA.) He also added a few shakes of Angostura orange bitters, which enhances the orange flavor of the Aperol, and garnishes the drink with an orange slice.
The result is a smooth, tasty, and sublime drink.
I’ve been aging the OC Negroni in oak barrels, which calms it down a bit and makes it even more sublime. Sometimes aging does round off a few rough edges…
Subsequent posts in this newsletter will share some of David’s other original drinks. I’ll also insert some cocktails that are not alcohol-based, especially for those of us who might give Dry January a try.
