This drink first appears in Harry McElhone’s 1927 ‘Barflies and Cocktails’
and again a couple of years later in Harry Craddock's 'Savoy Cocktail Book'.
So the artist club in the Quartier Pigalle in Paris
was at the time the favorite hangout of jazz musicians, poets, Picasso
so a pretty cool place to be. So this bright pink riff on a whiskey sour was
credited with being the 'ink of inspiration' for them.
It would be interesting to know how many incredible artworks were created after a
couple of these. I make no promises as to its effects on
your artistic prowess but it is rich and fruity and refreshing
so an absolutely delicious combination. The original recipe calls for
red currant syrup and it does bring an amazing tartness to the drink
but red currants aren't always available so it definitely can be substituted with
a good quality or homemade grenadine, raspberry syrup or cranberry syrup.
I'll pop the recipe below. I like this cocktail with an edge of smoke to it so
I'm using Johnnie Walker Black Label but if peat isn't your thing then you
can absolutely use whichever whiskey you like,
just try and keep it on the lighter side of things so blends
do tend to work a little bit better than single malt so they don't overpower the
whole cocktail and oloroso sherry is the richest of the dry cherries as
it's aged entirely oxidatively meaning it develops lots of nut and
dried fruit and spice characters so it can easily hold its own against
the scotch even if it is a little bit smoky.
And it also works super well with the fresh fruit flavors from the syrup.
This is truly one of the most complex citrus forward drinks I've ever had
because of all of these layers of flavor so it's an absolute
winner in my eyes.
So to make the Artist's Special first you
want to prep yourself a lemon twist. So you want to just cut a nice long
strip of lemon peel by cutting away from yourself.
I usually just do it quite thick and then go back and cut the white pith off.
You can also do this with a vegetable peeler if you find that easier just hold
it and pull it down. And then trim down if you like to make
it a little bit prettier we are trying to impress artists here after all
although I kind of think most artists are happy to drink whatever
you give them. Next we're going to pop 30 mls of
Johnnie Walker Black Label into our shaking tin. Now really any blended scotch will work
for this and some single malts as long as
they're kind of lighter and a little bit fruitier and easier to mix
this does have a little bit of smoke to it and that carries through to the
finished cocktail really nicely and that's why I've gone for
Johnnie Walker Black Label.
And then 30 mils of your oloroso sherry
Again I'm using Aurora, that's just kind of what I had to hand at Bomba
but something like Gonzalez Byass, Lustau or Tio Pepe are all really good options.
15 ml of your red currant syrup or whatever berry syrup that you're
choosing to replace it with. Just bear in mind that obviously if it's
something like a homemade grenadine that's not quite as bright and pink then
your finished drink isn't going to be quite as
bright and pink either but it will still be delicious.
I know from experience.
15 mls of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Then we're just going to fill our shaker tin full with ice,
pop your tins together,
and you should get a nice long straight line here and then just shake as hard as you can.
Grab your nice frosty coupe out of the fridge or freezer,
and just use your hawthorne strainer to hold the ice back in the tin
and strain through the fine strainer.
So you're just going to grab your twist and give it a sharp fold
over the top of of the drink.
Just give it a little rub around the rim of the glass as well
attach it nicely to the side of the glass so it doesn't bob about in your face.
There you have it, a drink to make Picasso proud.
The Artist's Special, so now you know.
So let's dive in.
It is just so lovely and complex because you obviously start off you get that
like little bit of kind of smoke and malt
from the whisky and then it just goes straight through
into a lovely raisiny dried fruit but it never gets too sweet because obviously
you've got the citrus and your nice bright
um fresh berry syrup as well.
So yeah, I think whereas a lot of shaken drinks with lemon juice can be like just
really bright and fresh and zippy and you sort of drink them and then
you're almost reaching for the next sip before you've almost thought about it,
this one's definitely got a little bit more going on
takes a little bit of contemplation. So it's maybe why the intellectuals liked
it so much?