I have something of a habit when it comes to books, especially books with recipes in them. I tend to get into a rut, and find myself only fixing recipes from one or two books at one time. Try as I might to mix things up, if I’m into Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails or Intoxica!, I’m not likely to pull my head out of the sand and look around.

That’s a habit I’ve been trying to break so, I’m trying not to break it by doing the same thing with another book. I feel as though I’ve been neglecting Raising the Bar for a while now and I’m out to make up for it. Not such a bad thing, really, but here I go again.

This drink is one of Mautone’s original creations. The recipe in the book makes two drinks, but I’ve halved it here for the audience playing along at home.

¼ teaspoon caster sugar
2 oz grapefruit juice
2 oz gin
¾ oz dry vermouth
dash orange bitters

Using grapefruit, rim cocktail glass with regular sugar.
Fill shaker with ice and add caster sugar and grapefruit juice; stir until sugar is dissolved. Add gin, vermouth and bitters and stir briskly until shaker is frosty. Strain into cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

This was good, but it lacked a certain something. It wasn’t off balance per se, it just didn’t sing quite the way it could have. The sugared rim helped counter the bitterness but I felt like it needed another, milder aromatic element to marry the grapefruit juice with the gin and vermouth. Ah well, they can’t all be winners right out of the gate. Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to tinker I go!