Sfumato Cocktail

I went through a heavy amaro phase (but never learned to love Fernet, unfortunately). As a result, we have three rows of amari – some excellent, some good, and some downright unpotable. They make excellent cocktail ingredients and I tend to lean heavily on them when we run out of sweet vermouth (for black manhattans) or to balance an over-citrus or over-sweet cocktail.

Sfumato is one of my favorite ingredients. It’s a Chinese rhubarb-based liqueur (its name “sfumato rabarbaro” is “smoky rhubarb”). One of my favorite cocktails is a riff on a Food & Wine cocktail named, un-originally enough: “Sfumato & Rye”. I made some more booze-forward substitutions: yellow chartreuse for the simple syrup and left the soda water out.

The drink goes down swimmingly.

As an aside, my edible flowers from Aerogarden have finally sprouted! Be prepared for a lot of flower garnishes. They’re very pretty. Not very tasty though, but I might try to fry one at one point.

Ingredients

• 2 oz Pikesville Rye
• .75 oz Sfumato
• .25 oz Lemon Juice
• .25 oz Yellow Chartreuse
• Dashes of Hibiscus Bitters

Glass

Cocktail Glass

Instructions

• Add all ingredients to cocktail shaker with ice.
• Shake and strain into cocktail glass, garnish with edible flowers.