My favorite cocktails, part 3: the Improved gin cocktail

This time, we'll move to gin. I don't like gin straight, but I'll admit it's good for mixing drinks because it's very versatile. There was a point in my life when I was ready to give up on gin altogether and dedicate myself entirely to whiskey. I told Kirk Estopinal at Cure of my resolution, but I gave him (and gin) one last chance to convince me otherwise. Kirk brought his best and changed my mind with an Improved gin cocktail:

1.5 oz gin (Aviation)
1 tsp simple syrup
1 tsp Luxardo maraschino liqueur
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
2 dashes Regans' orange bitters
1 dash absinthe (I use 3 drops)
Stir on ice; orange twist.

This exquisite cocktail is the best gin cocktail I've ever had and could ever hope to have.


If you substitute genever (London dry's dutch ancestor), the drink is much maltier and more complex.  That would be an Improved genever cocktail or an Improved Holland cocktail which, incidentally, is the second drink Maks Pazuniak ever made me.  (The first was his Creole julep.)

The "improved" in the title is a jargon term for a class of cocktails with the below theoretical progression:

sling: spirit + sugar
bittered sling: spirit + sugar + bitters
fancy cocktail: spirit + sugar + bitters + liqueur (usually curaçao)
improved cocktail: spirit + sugar + bitters + liqueur (usually maraschino) + absinthe