1 1/2 oz gin

3/4 oz ramazzotti amaro

1/4 oz cynar

2 dashes angostura bitters

2 dashes orange bitters

combine over ice in a mixing glass.  stir and strain into a chilled martini shell.  orange zest garnish.

a bartender challenge from an italian who saw our amaro collection and wanted something with ramazzotti.  both the other bartender and i liked it, and i think it will undergo some further tweaking before a final recipe is settled on (i added a dash of fernet to one version that i quite liked but am still thinking on).  it took me a while to think up a name for it.  in fact i had to make myself one and sip it awhile before it came to me (naming drinks, for those of you who don’t know, is one of my favorite things to do).  i think it fits, especially with all the new school speakeasy-style bars that seem to be popping up everywhere these days:  it’s gin-based, it has two different amaros in it, there are dashes of bitters involved, and the flavor is complex and herbal and weird-good in the way that new-style old-school drinks often are.