2 weeks Ago
The Figs of Adonis cocktail is garnished with an orange twist and served in a Nick and Nora or coupe glass. Photo by Scott Suchman/food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post There’s a trope that happens again and again in action movie fight sequences: Our hero, having bested a series of Lesser Henchpersons, enters the ring to face the next-to-last challenger. This is not the Final Boss – who as the mastermind of fiendish plots is usually both an intellectual and physical threat – but the Lunk Supreme, the big brutish muscle, rippling with “Mama Didn’t Love Me” tats and baring his gold-capped teeth in a grimace conveying overwhelming power.
Every time I’m making a drink that calls for sweet vermouth – be it a Negroni, a Manhattan or a Vieux Carré – I think fondly of the Lunk Supreme. Or, more accurately, I think of his vermouth equivalent, Carpano Antica Formula – a big Italian bruiser who entered the craft cocktail combat ring more than 20 years ago, pounding an enormous vanilla bean threateningly into his palm. In those days, he was every craft bartender’s favorite henchman; his signature move (call it the Vanilla Piledriver?), heralded throughout the land for the smack it laid down on drinks, especially rye whiskey cocktails.
Then, as the modern cocktail renaissance matured, as the range of available fortified and aromatized wines expanded, he began to get less ring time. Cocktailers began to tire of him, finding him a little one-note, a little overbearing. Maybe not every vermouth-based drink called for his particular brutish set of skills.
Fair enough. There are so many other wine choices for cocktailers to dabble in, so many spicy or herbal or nutty options to enhance the flowing punch bowl during holiday festivities. Wines that have been aromatized (infused with herbs, flowers, fruits and spices) and fortified (beefed up with a spirit, typically brandy) are a hugely diverse bunch.
Vermouth is both aromatized and fortified, and, in fact, most aromatized wines are also fortified; fortified wines without added aromatics include sherry, port and madeira. Across France, Italy and Spain, where the most well-known brands of aromatized wine are made, a common feature in both dry and sweet versions is a bittering botanical element such as gentian, quinine or wormwood, the latter herb the likely source of the name “vermouth” and a required ingredient in vermouths produced in European Union nations. These are commonly served before meals as appetite-stimulating aperitifs or afterward as digestifs.
Aromatized wines stem from a drink tradition that goes back well B.C. (that’s before both Christ and Carpano), to the earliest alcoholic fermentations.
Archaeologists have found evidence that aromatized wines, some with ingredients common to today’s vermouths, were being made in China and India three thousand years ago, in the ancient Greek and Roman empires, and in other places as well. As with many cocktail traditions, many of these early concoctions were used for health purposes, the alcohol extracting the chemicals and compounds of the botanicals soaked in them. No sensible person could wish to be a patient during the earliest days of medicine – hard pass on the medieval cure made of ground-up human mummies! – but I do sometimes fantasize about tasting the vermouth-adjacent curatives of ancient times.
How easily would the aromatized wine developed by the Greek physician Hippocrates, approximately 2,400 years ago, work in a modern Manhattan? We’ll never know, at least until future Secretary of Ugly Trucks Elon Musk invents a boxy time machine (and honestly, if that happens, I’ll probably have some other priorities to address first). But console yourselves: We’re living in a golden age of these wines, of rich ports and nutty, saline sherries, of sherry wines aromatized in the style of vermouth, of vermouths with hints of thyme or cinnamon or elderflower, of americanos in shades of gold and rose (the flowery, berry notes of Cocchi Rosa have enlivened my summer martini for years). And yet .
.. When considering what drink I wanted to batch for holiday hangouts, I found myself wistfully remembering the Lunk Supreme.
The specific niche vermouth alla vaniglia of Carpano Antica was just the muscle I wanted for a holiday large-format version of the Adonis, a classic wine cocktail that, every time I revisit, I wonder why I don’t drink more regularly. The original Adonis cocktail is a split of dry sherry and sweet vermouth, dosed with a dash of bitters. Being wine-based, it’s somewhat lower in alcohol than many cocktails, and the botanical complexity of vermouth paired with the briny nuttiness of sherry makes for a complex, elegant sip.
For years I’ve been pondering a cocktail that might answer the Christmas carolers’ cry to “bring us some figgy pudding.” Not all versions of that classic holiday dessert – which dates back to at least the 17th century, a sort of a proto-fruitcake – contain figs, but I wanted this drink to have them, and given the inclusion of sherry as a soaking liquid in many recipes for the dessert, the Adonis seemed like a great starting template for the Figs of Adonis. For my spin on the classic, I adjusted the ratio to lean more heavily on the sherry component – to counter the richness of the fig preserves and vermouth and avoid a cloying drink (you may want to adjust it, depending on your sweet tooth) and added more spice and complexity via bitters.
It’s an easy drink to make ahead of a party, with two mildly tricky components. One is the preserves. Liber & Co.
makes a terrific caramelized fig syrup that can be used in this drink, but it’s an ingredient most folks will have to order online, so for the sake of those scrambling to put together a festive holiday drink quickly, this recipe is centered around a much more easily accessed product – Bonne Maman fig preserves. But make sure you shake the drink thoroughly enough to really break up and dissolve the syrup of the preserves, and thoroughly strain out those solids. (“Chunky” is not a pleasing cocktail description.
) The second trick is chilling: Unlike most cocktails, where dilution is key to the drink tasting as it should, this lower-ABV tipple should not have ice added during the mixing process – you don’t want to water this one down. But it does need to be kept cold, so my advice is to chill the wines before you mix them, then keep the bottle or pitcher in the fridge (or ice bucket if you want to leave it out for self-service). You’ll see many recipes for the Adonis that call for fino sherry, and it makes for a fine drink, but I’ve come to prefer the cocktail with a sherry that’s gone through a little oxidative aging, and this is especially true for this variation.
Go for an amontillado or oloroso: Their nutty, sometimes almost tobacco-like notes will stand up better to Bruiser Carpano, making for a more balanced drink. Mama still loves you, Lunk Supreme. We just need to channel your power for good.
Figs of Adonis Batch Cocktail. MUST CREDIT: Scott Suchman for The Washington Post Photo by Scott Suchman/food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post Figs of Adonis Batch Cocktail Serves 10-12 (makes about 4 3/4 cups) This pitcher drink, a richer, spiced version of the Adonis, a classic cocktail made of a split base of sherry and vermouth, needs a few adornments for holiday festivities. You can raise the proportion of sherry to vermouth if you prefer a drier drink.
Any good Amontillado or Oloroso sherry will work, but look for Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, which has a strong note of vanilla that serves the drink well. Make ahead: The wines need to be thoroughly chilled before making the drink. The cocktail can be prepared a few hours in advance and refrigerated until ready to serve.
Storage: Refrigerate any leftover vermouth for up to 1 month. Where to buy: Fig preserve from brands such as Bonne Maman can be found at well-stocked supermarkets, specialty stores and online. 3 medium oranges 2 1/2 cups chilled Amontillado or Oloroso sherry 2 cups chilled Carpano Antica vermouth (see Substitutions) 1/4 cup fig preserves (see Where to buy) 1/4 teaspoon Angostura bitters 1/4 teaspoon orange bitters 2 to 3 whole star anise 10 allspice berries Place 10 to 12 Nick and Nora glasses or cocktail coupes in the freezer to chill, at least 5 minutes before serving.
Slice 1 orange into 1/4-inch-thick wheels. Use a vegetable peeler to remove 2-inch-long strips of peel from the remaining 2 oranges. (You’ll need one peel for each serving; reserve the fruit for another use.
) In a large (2-quart) jar with a lid, combine the sherry, vermouth, fig preserves, and Angostura and orange bitters. Seal the jar and shake vigorously to break up the solids in the fig preserves, 30 to 45 seconds. Strain the cocktail through a fine mesh strainer into the pitcher.
Discard the solids in the strainer. Add the orange wheels, star anise and allspice berries to the pitcher and stir gently. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
When ready to serve, set out a bowl of ice large enough to hold a 6-cup pitcher. Add a strip of orange peel to each chilled glass and pour in the drink. Nestle the pitcher into the ice bowl between pours to keep the drink cold.
Nutritional Facts per serving (scant 1/2 cup), based on 12 | Calories: 138; Fat: 0 g; Saturated Fat: 0 g; Carbohydrates: 12 g; Sodium: 4 mg; Cholesterol: 0 mg; Protein: 0 g; Fiber: 0 g; Sugar: 10 g We invite you to add your comments. We encourage a thoughtful exchange of ideas and information on this website. By joining the conversation, you are agreeing to our commenting policy and terms of use .
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