Stephanie Klose

Last night, I had a birthday drink at one of my favorite swanky cocktail places, Clover Club. I had spent some time looking at the menu online before heading over and had one picked out (The Wanderer), but when I got there, they’d swapped out a new menu for the one on their site. I ultimately chose the Royal Tannenbaum and [spoiler alert] I chose well.

It’s a very interesting mix of rye whiskey, Cynar (a bitter Italian liqueur that’s made with artichokes), grapefruit juice, honey syrup, lemon juice, and pine tincture. (I thought pine tincture was fairly exotic, but it’s easily purchased online or you can use these directions to make your own, though for a product you’ll be consuming I’d suggest venturing out for clean, unsprayed pine rather than using your Christmas tree.) The drink itself was complicated and balanced and changed flavor as it moved across the palate, starting with the rye and fruit and ending with a lingering, difficult-to-pin-down bitter loveliness. I’m crossing my fingers that my favorite cocktail enthusiasts will be willing to take a crack at recreating it one of these days…