Do you like savory cocktails? I don’t like Bloody Marys (tomato juice) and don’t like martini, but it seems like there should be something, somehow, that doesn’t taste like gazpacho or a cup of straight booze and brine.
I like sweet/salty, like salted chocolate or caramel, like sour/salty in foods so much. Salt on margarita rim I can take or leave, good either way.
Maybe what I am looking for is not a straight up savory cocktail but something with a salt element and not very sweet. Any recommendations?
Fernet Branca, absinthe, and most amaro will provide herbal dry qualities to a cocktail. Amaro Sfumato is particularly savory. I made a drink called a Mondragon which is 1.5oz 100 proof bourbon, .5 oz Amaro Sfumato, and .5 oz Anchor Reyes (red) with a healthy dash of Angostura bitters stirred in a mixing glass and strained into your glass of choice. It’s quite nice and just sweet enough.
Ooh this sounds right up my alley. I don’t have Sfumato but have: Tuaca, Aperol, Amaro Nonino and Heirloom Pineapple Amaro, and maybe still some Amaro Montenegro. Keep Ancho Reyes and Evan Williams bottled-in-bond overproof bourbon on hand always, they are some of my favorites. Will think about the Fernet, I don’t use it much but do have some.