1 oz brandy (Prince Arignac Armagnac V.S.)

1 oz kummel (Wolfschmidt)

½ oz Fernet Branca

5 dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

This would make a nice alternative to a liqueur after a meal. Or you could drink it any time you want a complex, contemplative, and rather medicinal drink. The Fernet Branca comes over heaviest, but the kummel makes its presence felt and the brandy provides the perfect mild but rich base for it all, with the bitters giving some extra complexity. Kummel mixes interestingly with strong herbal flavors, and it is a nice match for brandy too. Drinking this is like tasting a new herbal liqueur with a caraway base. I’d definitely drink this again – mind you I tend to like this sort of thing.

I got hold of a bottle of Fernet Branca the other day. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while but it can be a little hard to track down. At Tara in Shanghai, when Marcus was still working there, I used to drink a simple Fernet Branca cocktail (gin, Fernet Branca and Italian Vermouth) pretty much every time I went in. The bitter taste of Fernet Branca is very much my kind of thing.

Besides the simple Fernet Branca cocktail Marcus also used to make something called The Pharmacy. I think this drink was made from cognac, crème de menthe and Fernet Branca, though I’m not sure about the proportions. I’ll have to ask Marcus sometime. Anyway, the drink was rich, minty and bittersweet. It was the type of drink that could make a good introduction to Fernet Branca.

Searching through the Fernet Branca recipes on Cocktail DB I found two that stood out, mainly because they combined Fernet Branca with Dubonnet and gin. Dubonnet is another drink I have a lot of time for. I’d already been thinking that Dubonnet could be just the thing to smooth the edges off Fernet Branca, and of course both Dubonnet and Fernet mix well with gin.

The first of the two recipes was called Don’t Give up the Ship. This name must have meant something to somebody, but surely it would be a good idea to rename this drink? The second drink was called the Napoleon, which is a kind of an acceptable name I guess. The interesting thing is that each recipe uses identical ingredients (gin, Fernet, Dubonnet and orange curacao) but in different proportions.

I made Don’t Give up the Ship first. The recipe comprised 1 ½ oz gin (I used Tanqueray), ½ oz Dubonnet, ¼ oz Fernet Branaca, ¼ oz orange curacao (I had no straight curacao on hand so I used Cointreau, though I’m thinking Grand Marnier may be a better substitute). This turned out to be an exceptionally good drink. The flavors really blended together to produce something completely new and surprisingly smooth. Obviously there was lots of complexity, but the Dubonnet and Cointreau somehow smoothed things down to an amazing degree.

Next I made the Napoleon. The Cocktail DB gives two versions. I made the version with 1 ½ oz of gin and a dash each of Fernet Branca, Dubonnet, and Curacao (again I used Cointreau). I went slightly heavy handed and used a level teaspoon of each of the modifiers rather than a dash (which I guess strictly speaking would be more like ¼ teaspoon). The other version on Cocktail DB is much sweeter and less Fernet Branca oriented, with a full ounce of curacao, ¼ oz of Dubonnet and a dash of Fernet Branca. I guess I should try that version too some time. I finished the drink with a squeeze of lemon peel.

Though not my first choice, the Napoleon also turned out to be a good drink. Obviously it basically tasted of gin, and so I guess dry martini lovers would enjoy it. The combination of Fernet Branca and Dubonnet struck me as more interesting than vermouth though. With Fernet Branca a little certainly goes a long way. Meanwhile, the touch of curacao gave the drink an old school cocktail taste of raw spirit tamed with a little sugar.