Altering Cocktails

I came across a very old drink called “the Chancellor” when browsing about the interwebs. I like all the ingredients separately, so obviously, they would go well together, right?

Well, not so much. I didn’t find it to be particularly well balanced – all three ingredients stood out individually and not in a very good way.  It was harsh and unforgiving, and I wasn’t inclined to take a second sip.

At this point, you have two options.  First, you can dump the cocktail – and I’ve had a few that I’ve just poured out.  Second, you can try to rescue it.  In this case, I added a measure of simple syrup to try and round out the flavours – sometimes you have to add a bit to compensate for the variations in the spirits you’re using.  In this case, I’m guessing my port wasn’t as sweet as some, and so didn’t have the profile needed to try and bring harmony to the drink. I also added a dash of chocolate bitters – not so much for the flavours, but I thought the chocolate aroma would help bring out the port.  This brought the cocktail together and allowed the smokiness from the blended scotch to play well with the port and the vermouth helped to balance the sweetness, instead of all three competing with each other.