The Cocktail Spirit with Robert Hess
Recipe
Income Tax
- 1 1/4 oz gin
- 3/4 oz orange juice
- 1/4 oz dry vermouth
- 1/4 oz sweet vermouth
- dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters
shake with ice
strain into a cocktail glass
Income Tax
It can often be said that paying your income tax is a bittered experience. As cocktails go, the Income Tax cocktail can be described as a "Bronx" cocktail with bitters, but it might be difficult to know if that is how it originally received its name.
Comments
Sounds fantastic, I will be making myself one of these tomorrow night. . .
And another great show by you, Robert.
Though rewatching I have to ask, is it 1/4 ounce of sweet vermouth as you say in the episode or 1/2 ounce as the recipe on the sidebar says?
Just a typo. That should read 1/4 oz sweet vermouth. I will make the change now.
Robert,
I just made this cocktail and I realized I had a question that I have never bothered to ask. When shaking a cocktail and then straining it into a cocktail glass, the drink contains many small shards of ice. Is this desirable, or should I be double straining through a tea strainer to catch these shards?
Nik, I don’t double strain very often. Typically it is done to help remove citrus pulp, but some folks are also doing it to remove the ice shards.
However, some customers like the ice shards, and use that as their excuse for ordering their Martini’s shaken hard.
I’m a big fan of the Bronx and plan to try this variation on it this weekend.
I really enjoy these videos, not only for the professionalism that they exhibit, but also for Robert’s thorough appreciation of history. I think that you can’t really understand anything without learning the history, and cocktails get no exemption. It does seem to be true that cocktail-making was treated as more of an art before prohibition than it has been since, and we should recognize that we can learn from what those “artists” of 100 years ago had to say. Too many bartenders fail to have a Burkean respect for the wisdom of past generations, and this negatively affects the tastes of people buying drinks.
With that in mind, I think it’s worth pointing out that the modern income tax came to us in 1913, when bartenders were on their game—and when income tax rates were pretty inconsequential, by current standards. Food for thought!
Robert, This cocktail is delicious.
Yesterday I prepare this cocktail in a party, in which we celebrate the DIA DEL BARMAN(bartender’s day), celebrated in my country, Argentina, April 15
Thanks for the recipe
I’ve been dabbling with this recipe quite a bit. Its a big hit with the newcomers introducing them to cocktails. Also, I’ve been using several different orange bitters in place of the Angostura aromatic. The orange juice already in the drink allow for you to maybe add a bit more bitters than you normally might. I really like it with Regan’s, I could see it being called an “Overdue Income Tax” maybe? This drink and the Satan’s Whiskers got me to like gin for the first time. well done.
Quick Q about juicing oranges,...
What “kind” of oranges are the best for juicing? Navel? Valencia? Maybe my options up here in Canada are a bit different. The ones that I’m using are on the bigger side, and are lacking a lot of the taste that the carton juice has.
Please help!