Categories: Cocktails

Crocodile Slipper

If you’re American and you know three things about Amer Picon they’re probably:

Amer Picon is probably French (looks like a French name).
It’s used in the Brooklyn cocktail, which is a Manhattan spinoff.
You can’t fucking find Amer Picon anywhere in the US, so who needs to know anything else about Amer Picon.

Well, that’s about all I knew about Amer Picon for a while. I was introduced to the ingredient through the Brooklyn cocktail, a Manhattan variant that uses a small amount of the liqueur. Recently a few new Amer Picons have started popping up on the American market. Torani Amer is from a local Northern California distillery. It’ shockingly cheap at $8 to $10 for a 750 ML bottle. That said, it tastes like it should cost $4 for a 750 ML bottle. Has the mid palate of collegiate vodka and artificial caramel.

We were pleasantly surprised with Golden Moon, who sent us a sample bottle. Their Amer Picon is very bitter: It’s very bitter, would put it around Cyanr bitterness, and it’s orangey, maybe a bit shy of Grand Mariner orangyness. It’s also very dry.

We found it went well with rum as well. Jamaican rum and Banana are a classic combination, and floral and bitter notes from Amer Picon and Chartreuse made for a balanced and tasty cocktail. Would recommend going with about 1/2 an egg white to get the right consistency. I went with the Crocodile Slipper name because I received an awesome gift of Crocodile Slippers and I now wear them around the house constantly.