Smoking Habit

A misleading title perhaps, because "habit" is a strong word and it's provided without context. Although I like the occasional cigar, I'm not talking about tobacco, I'm talking about woodsmoke used the flavor things. For this particular week, before I've got to grind back at work, I'm experimenting with a portable smoker provided by my good friend, Chris Brook, to see if I can make any cocktail magic.

Yesterday's attempt was to mesquite smoke the glass the drink was made in:

Then, I built a blood-orange old fashioned using Makers 46, Sugar cubes, my own Number 11 Holiday Bitters, and orange peel.

The result was only a slight hint of smokiness in the drink. It might be necessary to smoke the glass multiple times, or let the smoke rest in the glass for a longer duration in order to impart more flavor.

And a note to all my regular cocktail readers: yes, I know I can probably research these techniques on the internet, but seriously, it's a lot more fun to experiment with this stuff than to just have everything answered for you.

Tomorrow: smoked vermouth.