Brandy Crusta, a drink I’ve wanted to write about for a while
Posted on February 10, 2013
This drink is one I’ve had a few times, but none have been camera ready looking though they were tasty. If you do a google image search on this drink you will see a lot of variation on how to create and present the garnish. Mostly the drink itself is cognac or brandy where the other ingredients only slightly modify the flavor of the cognac.
I used the recipe from Imbibe magazine, and purchased Cointreau finally after trying to finish this cheap triple sec I bitterly repent buying two summers ago. I poured the last 1/2 inch in the bottle down the drain.
The main thing with this drink is preparing the garnish, which is done ahead of time, I got out the new really sharp peeling knife I bought and peeled a curl starting about 1/3 down the lemon. Denuding the center of the lemon till I got about to the same spot on the other half. Then I got out the glass and used a lemon half to wet the lip and dipped it in castor sugar by rolling, concentrating on the outside. Then I chilled the glass in the freezer.
So the rest of the drink is super easy its:
2 oz Pierre Ferrand Ambre cognac
1 bar spoon Cointreau
1/2 bar spoon lemon juice
dash of Angostura bitters
I put these in the shaker, removed the glass from the freezer and inserted the lemon peel in the coupe glass hugging the inside of the glass. It was maybe too big and the curly end hung down into the glass which I’m OK with. Many pics show this garnish sticking out of the glass, some pictures have it so far out that you obviously have to push it in to drink it. Sticking up I think it’s supposed to be around your nose so the lemon peel fragrance is there with each sip. I could try a smaller glass with more upward styling of the lemon peel. I’ve tried this drink with Myer lemon, and the peel is just too soft and mushy and does not really have the kind of body to hold it’s shape in the glass, it just kind of falls in the middle of the drink.
So all my ingredients are in the shaker and my garnish is ready. I put in ice and just stirred it with the bar spoon rather than shaking and then strained into the glass. This coupe has some space so the sugar rim isn’t in contact with the drink and with each sip I use a different part of my sugared rim. The lemon under the sugar is good too. This is like sipping cognac mostly, but it’s chilled and citrusy while being mostly the brandy. Yummy, a dessert drink for sure.
