This is a very modern classic, if it can even be called that yet
it was only invented in 2019 by Jeremy Oertel at Donna Bar in New York (Brooklyn).
I love the Artichoke Hold because it shows bartenders moving away from only using amari
in very serious stirred down drinks and using them to give a surprising edge to fun drinks.
Without the addition of Cynar this drink would be absolutely fine but with it it's a stunner.
Oertel actually used Smith & Cross Rum in his version but
it's quite difficult to get a hold of here in Australia.
You really just want something with lots of body and funk,
so most Jamaican rums or pot still rums will work, so I'm using Pusser's because I love its
dank and savoury notes, which I know doesn't sound particularly appetising but trust me.
A lot of recipes call for the extra punch of an overproof rum,
I like plantation OFTD but it does come in at a rather whopping 69 percent so
I'm only going to use a little five mils of it for extra spice.
You can absolutely just leave that out though and
stick to the regular rum and just do 25 mils of that and it's still delicious.
Cynar is part of the carciofo or artichoke family of amaro
and it's distinctive vegetal bitterness really makes this drink. It is the most well known of
that family so you're more likely to be able to find that over anything else similar.
You could certainly try it with something like Montenegro or Averna but it would be a
little bit more sweet and citrus driven and just not have that like much of a kind of dry edge.
I'm using Marie Brizard elderflower liqueur,
honestly because it's what we happen to have in the cupboard at Bomba.
Saint Germain is the most well-known brand in that category, but honestly you can just use
an elderflower cordial for that kind of floral sweetness given that it's quite a small amount.
And Orgeat is an almond syrup which is used a lot in tiki drinks and it
gives a really lovely nutty depth here. Try and find a good quality
one which actually tastes like nuts rather than just general sugariness.
Mint is our garnish here so not too much to prepare,
but we do need to squeeze some lime juice.
So many ingredients it actually feels like a proper tiki drink I don't know where to start,
so we'll go with the Orgeat.
I've just gone with Crawley's, it's kind of what we tend to just have in the bar,
you can of course make your own if you're feeling a little bit more proactive.
15ml of that.
15 mils of elderflower liqueur, it's interesting like how those kind of floral notes just meld
really nicely with amari as well and we saw it with the Chartreuse in the Naked and Famous,
just working to kind of bring out the more floral notes in the mezcal too.
Um, I mean, there is a bit of a joke that elderflower liqueur or elderflower cordial
is kind of like bartender's sticking plaster, like if you're not really sure what's wrong with
the drink just stick some elderflower in there and it'll probably be better
but I do think it really works nicely here.
And then just a little five mils of your old-fashioned traditional dark Plantation.
Then 20 mils of Pussers.
And finally our hero of the day 25 mils of Cynar.
Not finally finally, we still need the lime juice. Penultimately the Cynar.
And finally the lime juice. 20 ml of that.
In terms of balance, obviously maybe seems like not enough lime juice for the fact that you've
used sort of 30 mls of your sweetener, but the Cynar is quite dry and spicy and bitter,
so it's not you know the only one doing the balancing job there.
So it does actually, I did have a bit of a play with it and I reckon this is actually
like the nicest balance that you can get. It's definitely like rich and you know got
some sweetness going on there but does dry out and and has a really nice sort of fresh finish.
Fill your shaker tin with ice.
Pop your tins together and shake as hard as you can.
So this is quite often just done in a rocks glass, I just happen to have these lovely little,
I don't even know what you would call them, came with a big jug though, like
little pitcher glasses. Again, because this is not the nicest
color in the world I'm pretty happy to have it in a little colored glass cup.
So just pour that straight in.
Then just grab the nicest mint sprigs you can find
give them a little smack across the back your hand.
I just like to shorten them a little bit, make it easier to handle and we're going
to pop that in alongside a little straw which matches my glass which I'm pretty happy about.
You just want the mint in right beside the straw so that you're getting all of those
nice fresh flavors in your nose as you're drinking.
And there we have the Artichoke Hold, so now you know.
See how this one goes down...
I mean, first of all, like I do just really love that shake and dump technique for really
easy crushed ice, it kind of instantly makes you feel like you should be on a
beach somewhere and obviously that lovely fresh mint smell does the same thing.
The combination of the rums is like is really pretty punchy,
but it's really nicely integrated with all of the other ones too,
all of the other flavors there um yeah I feel like it kind of almost links in so you get like
you know that little nutty whack from the Orgeat and then it kind of gets into your more floral
flavors from the elderflower and then just finishes off really nice and bitter,
which you're not expecting after all of those quite,
you know, juicy and kind of nutty and just basically more tropical flavors.
And obviously a lot of the time those drinks can be
a little bit sweet and I guess at this point almost fairly predictable, so it's really yeah
pretty fun having that real kind of just whack of quite like savory vegetable notes coming through
at the end and it just completely dries it out and makes it kind of makes you thirsty again,
which is obviously, yeah I don't think this cocktail would last too long if I actually wasn't,
er, if I was actually kind of sitting and drinking it. Very very moorish and delicious.