Turn Your Vieux Carré Into a Honey Syrup Old Fashioned

A few changes make for an entirely difference drink.

In last week’s newsletter, we looked at the Vieux Carré, which is basically a split base Manhattan riff with cognac subbing for some of the rye and the addition of Peychaud’s bitters and Benedictine. But just because it’s a second order drink doesn’t mean it can’t serve as a template for riffs and variations. Indeed, as modern cocktails derived from classics have piled up, it has become more common for new cocktails to be derived from derivations. 

Indeed, the new Death & Co. book, Welcome Home, has a term that captures this idea — “super Mr. Potato Head.” As we’ve discussed, The Mr. Potato Head method for inventing cocktails basically involves taking a classic and subbing in like ingredients (or split portions of like ingredients) to create new drinks. Super Mr. Potato Head is the term the Death & Co. folks have given to drinks derived not from classics but from previous Death & Co. drinks — nearly all of which are rooted in the ideas and structures of just a handful of core cocktail structures. 

This week’s cocktail isn’t quite a Super Mr. Potato Head drink, since it is not based on a Death & Co. drink, and since the Vieux Carré is a well-known classic in its own right. But the Super Mr. Potato Head formulation captures the general idea, since it refers to riffs on riffs, and this week’s cocktail is essentially two full hops away from the Manhattan.