Meyer Lemon Gimlet

I have done a lot of traveling and booze explorations over the past few years and one of the greatest places I have had the pleasure to visit was the Monkey 47 Distillery in the Black Forest. Meeting the amazing team behind the product was one thing but getting to work alongside them was phenomenal; I mean how many people can say they have made their own batch of the world’s best gin?

I wanted to preserve the flavor of this elegant dry gin, so I first made a delicious dry martini and sipped on that while I created this simple Gimlet with a Beautiful Booze twist. The Meyer lemons and syrup worked so beautifully with the refined flavor profile of the Monkey 47 Distiller’s Cut 2017.

Not only do Monkey 47 produce famous, top-quality gin, but each year they step it up a lever and release a distillers cut and this year they used a special flower called Achillea moschata is known as “Iva”. Made exclusively with plant cultures to preserve this rare plant which is under conservation atop “Munt da la Bêscha” ranges this distillate has a wonderful aroma of resin and balsamic.

In the ranges of “Munt da la Bêscha” (literally: “mountain of the beast”), way above the Oberengadin lake plateau, the myth-enshrouded musk yarrow (Achillea moschata) grows and thrives. The local speakers of Romansh simply call it “Iva”. Legend has it that the yarrow family, to which Iva belongs, came into being as a result of rusty shavings getting chipped off Achilles’ spear in the Trojan War, which were then to be used to heal soldiers’ wounds. German writer Goethe also alluded to this in his drama “Götz von Berlichingen”, in which the injuries of wounded knights are treated using yarrow. – The Monkey Drum

Recipe: