one hundred cocktails

drinking with a purpose

The Derby

11 Sep 2011

So, this is what happens when you peg the white balance on your camera and shoot in JPG by accident:

The Derby ingredients

Sorry about that. Anyhow, The Derby isn’t all that bad of a cocktail. A bit of bitterness, sweetness, and complexity from the vermouth. The lime provides some acidity and the orange curacao provides an excuse to have orange curacao, as always. The bourbon works as a carrier; with a milder vermouth, it might matter more, but with a bold sweet vermouth like Punt e Mes (Carpano Antica’s second label, if I understand correctly), most of the rest of the drink is lost. It’s a drinkable cocktail, if a little too sweet, acidic, and bitter – the balance is correct, but it’s a bit overblown. Also, it’s another brown cocktail, which is starting to get dull at this point.

A finished derby. White balance way off.

Progress from here is getting tough. I need to find a supplier of Swedish Punsch, and I have had no luck doing so so far. Anybody going to Stockholm soon?