I recently wrote about the Bamboo, along with my favorite recipe for making a (mostly) classic version at home. But I didn’t tell the story of the very best version of the drink I’ve ever had. Or at least the best drink that’s ever been delivered to me after ordering a Bamboo.
This was a year or two ago, and I was staying in New York overnight for work, so I made my usual late-night trip to Death & Co. At the end of the evening, I ordered a Bamboo. As I said, it makes a great nightcap.
Typically, a Bamboo is made with dry sherry and dry vermouth. It’s austere and bracing, almost absurdly dry, and it’s served up, like a Martini.
When you order a classic at Death & Co., you can usually count on getting an exactingly perfect, historically correct version of a drink. But the cocktail I received a few minutes later was served low and neat, like a Sazerac. It was sweet and herbaceous, mellow and nutty, with a long, easy finish.
After a single sip, I looked up and told the bartender it was the best Bamboo I'd ever had. I asked how he made it. “The trick,” he said, “is not to use any of the ingredients in the original recipe."
Instead of dry sherry, he explained, he used the much-sweeter Oloroso. And instead of dry vermouth, he used Dolin Blanc, which is also much sweeter.
The drink was round and soft, almost dessert-like without coming across as saccharine. It had a much richer, more decadent flavor profile than a classic version, but without the sugary heaviness that comes from adding syrup. It was a Bamboo, but not quite a Bamboo — almost a light Adonis.
I don’t know exactly what brand of sherry he used, nor the exact combination of bitters. (Death & Co. has a bitters rack bigger than most backbars, and most of the bottles aren’t labeled.) To this day, I’ve never been able to perfectly replicate the astounding aromatic complexity of the drink. But the following recipe is the closest I’ve come. If you come up with something better, please report back!
Not Quite a Bamboo
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes Regan’s Orange bitters
1 ½ ounces Lustau Oloroso Sherry
1 ½ ounces Dolin Blanc Vermouth
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass.
Add ice and stir until thoroughly chilled.
Strain into a chilled single rocks glass.
Garnish with a lemon peel.
I think about this particular version of the drink a lot. There’s a lesson here for cocktail creation — and possibly for life as well: Sometimes the way to improve something classic, that has stood the test of time, is to make it totally new...while finding a way to respect the idea that made it great in the first place.
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