Remember that great song “My Sharona” by The Knack, big hit in the late 70’s.  Don’t ask me why but it came to mind while making this cocktail…

The Gin: Monopolowa Dry Gin from Vienna Austria

The Vermouth: Noilly Pratt Rouge

The Amaro: Cappelletti Aperitivo Americano Rosso

More:  Dutch’s Colonial Cocktail Bitters

I’ve been playing around with Noilly, a vermouth I used to shun as I believed it was of lesser quality. But, it works well in some mixes, it did beautifully here.

When making a new creation I like to allow one or two ingredients to take the leading role.  In this case it was the Cappelletti Aperitivo Americano Rosso and the Dutch’s Colonial Cocktail Bitters. The relatively laid back Monopolowa Gin and Noilly Vermouth were happy to play as back up singers.

The Cappelletti Aperitivo has lovely hard candy sweetness, with a bitter back end, it is tropical and orange, cherry, but none of them, it’s like a mixed fruit candy, but bitter.

The Dutch’s Colonial Cocktail Bitters is a complex concoction of ingredients such as Hungarian angelica seed, Pakistani red rose petals, Gabon sandalwood, French lavender, American bitter orange peel, and Egyptian chamomile. It also has dashes of juniper, Mexican allspice, and real Ceylon cinnamon, really crazy right?

But, somehow these two somehow come together in an unbelievable harmony. Really really good.

Meanwhile the gin and vermouth say, yes this is still a Negroni.

Recipe:

The usual 1-1-1  of each liquor and two drops of bitter.  In this case poured in to a little four inch cordial glass in this order vermouth, gin, amaro, bitters.

I tried the same mix as a Boulavardier, with Journeyman “Kissing Cousins” whiskey, also very good.

Did you know there is a real live Sharona…

Sharona Alperin. Now a real estate agent in Los Angeles. But over 30 years ago, The Knack’s lead singer Doug Fieger wrote a song for the then-teenager who would become his girlfriend. The Woman Behind My Sharona

 

Photo John Ganun