Bamboo
Dry sherry and vermouth - the quietest cocktail there is.
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 6 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 270 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 270 ml line. Fino sherry - Manzanilla is even drier and saltier, and lovely here
- 270 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 270 ml line. Dry vermouth
- 12 dashes Bottle Twelve quick shakes of the bottle - each a few drops, about a millilitre. Orange bitters
- 15 ml Spoons A tablespoon. Maraschino liqueur - A barspoon, if you want the older, sweeter version (optional)
- 6 twists Lemon twist (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Stir everything over ice and strain into a chilled coupe.
Method
Pitcher (6 drinks)Pitcher (6 drinks) - about 558 ml of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Fill a mixing glass with ice and add the sherry, vermouth and bitters.
- Stir for 30 seconds.
- Strain into a chilled coupe.
- Twist a lemon peel over the top and drop it in.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Bamboo
The Bamboo was made at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama in the 1890s by Louis Eppinger, and it is low in alcohol, entirely dry, and has been almost entirely forgotten - which is a shame, because there is nothing else like it. It is the drink to make when somebody wants a cocktail and does not want a hangover.
Getting it right
Both of the main ingredients are wines, and both are fragile: fino sherry has to be cold, open no more than a couple of days, and smell of the sea rather than of old cupboards. Serve it very cold, in small quantities, and do not let it stand around - a Bamboo left on a table for twenty minutes is a warm, flat mouthful of nothing much.
Tasting notes
Salty, nutty and bone dry, with herbs from the vermouth and a soft citrus lift at the end. The most restrained drink in the book, and the one most likely to surprise you.