Forbidden Monkey

There's a lot of exotic things going on in this cocktail. For one, Monkey 47 brings together a German Schwartswald recipe with a British dry gin style using botanicals from all over the world. There's something legendary about monkey-picked herbs and spices from the tropics. Whether true or not, trained monkeys are said to gather precious ingredients from the higher branches of jungle trees. This is the image I am conjuring.

The other bit is my very exotic Forbidden Fruit recipe, an attempt to piece together the original French recipe of pomelo and honey liqueur that dates back to the 1950s. This was spot on, so do it if you want to recreate this masterpiece, I'll have a post up in a few days explaining the nearly month-long process and all the difficulty of procuring the ingredients. As yet, there is no mass-marketed equivalent, but that didn't stop me.

The best thing about this drink is that it lets two very complex ingredients speak for themselves. Monkey 47 and Forbidden Fruit are made for each other: they are so densely flavored and yet light. The orange blossom honey of Forbidden Fruit negates the use of sugar, so an ounce of lemon juice goes right in without the need for simple syrup.

• 1 1/2 oz. Monkey 47 gin
• 1 oz. Forbidden Fruit liqueur (recipe forthcoming)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• lemon twist

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Pour into a stemless wine glass and garnish with a lemon twist.