This is the sixth drink in The Alchemist’s Notebook, a series of original drink recipes. I post a new recipe every full moon.
Ambrosia
.75 oz brandy
.75 oz beech leaf noyau
.75 oz black locust blossom liqueur
.5 oz dry curacao
.5 oz peach liqueur
.25 oz dried tupelo liqueur
garnish orange wheel
While I enjoy drinks in which I can easily pick out the flavor of each ingredient, I particularly like a drink in which a sort alchemy occurs and the ingredients vanish into the mixing vessel and emerge in the glass as something new, coherent, and unexpected. This is one of those drinks. There is a depth and breadth to the experience of this drink which is in my experience difficult to achieve.
As many of the ingredients of this drink are home made, here are a few proprietary substitutes you might try. For beech leaf noyau, try Becherovka. The beech leaf noyau is complex on account of its single botanical ingredient, whereas Becherovka is complex on account of a blend of "approximately 20 herbs" (according to their website). For black locust blossom liqueur, try a rose or other floral liqueur. For tupelo liqueur, try crême de cassis.
peach simple syrup recipe:
Combine one sliced fresh peach with equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Stir until the sugar is fully dissolved, let cool, strain.