The cocktails from the 1970s often get a bad rap, lambasted for being overly cloying and unbalanced. While that may be true for some libations from the disco era, writing them off altogether is shortsighted. The entire category of drinks provides fertile ground for taking modern cocktail techniques and applying them to drinks that are otherwise, for lack of a better word, terrible.
Today, we’re tapping into the overlooked world of dessert cocktails on “Cocktail College” with The Godfather. While Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather” continues to enjoy critical acclaim more than 50 years after its release, the same can’t be said for its namesake cocktail. Up there with the likes of the Stinger and the Rusty Nail, this equal-parts blend of Scotch and amaretto is not widely embraced by cocktail bars, but it sees a fair amount of love at restaurants as a post-meal digestif — acting like icing on the cake after a savory meal, if you will.
To teach us how to whip up an upgraded, 21st-century-ready Godfather is John Ware, bar director of New York City’s Forsythia. It’s a conversation about discontinued Italian Scotch, a deep dive on amaretto and nutty liqueurs, and some words of praise in regard to pre-batching cocktails. Leave the gun, take the cannoli, and tune in for more.
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John Ware’s Forsythia Godfather Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ ounces blended Scotch, such as Speyburn
- ¼ ounce smoky whisky, such as Puni Alba Malt
- ⅔ ounce amaretto, such as Disaronno or Luxardo Amaretto di Saschira
- ¼ ounce Ostinato Secco Dry Marsala
- ½ teaspoon honey syrup (2:1)
- 1 teaspoon Reisetbauer Hazelnut eau de vie
- 4 drops of saline solution (5:1)
Directions
- Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice.
- Stir until cold and strain into a chilled rocks glass with a large rock of ice.
- Garnish with a brioche pastry (filled with Chantilly pastry cream, topped with powdered sugar) and cantucci (almond biscotti) on the side plate.
