The Kerouac

Another nod to a famous alcoholic writer

Everyone knows the famous daiquiri riff called The Hemingway, which is a recipe the author himself developed while in Cuba. I already posted the recipe awhile ago and it's a classic that many prefer over a regular daiquiri (myself included). So I was thinking to myself what kind of cocktail would Jack Kerouac drink? My less than reliable memory made me think that in his famous book "On the Road" he frequently mentioned drinking lots of rye and port wine, so those were the two main ingredients. I made this several years ago and have recently revisited it to see if it still holds up. It does, and in fact I played around a bit with the third ingredient which was originally Amaro Nonino. I also looked up what cocktails Kerouac actually drank and although it was a long list, the consensus was that the margarita was his fave. Apparently he got a taste for them from his time in Mexico (probably just as much in California as well). That led me to swap out the Nonino for an orange liqueur. I tried it with Cointreau but it just didn't have the same peppery oomph or bitter finish as the amaro so let's stick with my original recipe....

The basic recipe is a simple 3 part stirred drink which is a riff on the Boulevardier, which itself is a riff on a Negroni which simply replaces the gin with bourbon. Confused? The Boulevardier recipe is a simple 1:1:1 ratio of bourbon/Campari/sweet vermouth and it's yet another classic. Side note: if you're making yourself a Boulevardier or a Negroni, it's only as good as the sweet vermouth so don't be a cheapskate and buy a quality one like my fave Carpano Antica.

But I digress... this cocktail swaps the primary spirit from bourbon to rye for a dryer body and a bit more spice. Then I replaced the sweetness of the vermouth with a nice sweet tawny port wine. The third ingredient is the all important bitter to balance it out. Instead of the very bold flavor of Campari, I played around and settled on Amaro Nonino because it has some bitterness but also orange and spice which complements the rye. Of course there is no way Kerouac could had ever tasted this amaro since it wasn't created until the 21st century and it's way too expensive and bourgeois for his style, but I took some "poetic license". You see what I did there?

I also played around a bit with proportions of the simple 3 equal parts to make it slightly boozier. Some versions of the Boulevardier use 1 ½ or even 2 ounces of bourbon, so I opted for a solid 1 ½ ounces and stuck with the 1 ounce for the port. I felt like the bitter/spice component was better as an accent so I reduced that to only a ½ ounce of Amaro Nonino. So there you go! Enjoy! And read a book while you're at it. It's that rectangular thing that has lots of paper in it and you use to decorate your shelves. It's kind of like if you printed out your texts and put them in a thick folder.

The Kerouac

• 1½ oz rye

• 1 oz tawny port wine

• ½ oz Amaro Nonino

Stir, strain into ice filled rocks glass and sit back and relax.