Cipher

Sam Johnson

Jun 14

To toast the cryptic Cipher Box I found an apropos cocktail by bartender Sam Johnson which can be found in the pages of Death & Co Welcome Home, 2021, although he originally created the drink for the bar in 2019. Deconstructed, it is at heart an Old Fashioned, but with so much complexity you might be forgiven for misinterpreting the code here. Rather than sticking to a single base spirit as with most OF’s, the drink relies on a 3:1 split of whiskey to cachaca, the South American cane sugar spirit. Right off the bat this introduces something very interesting to the drink.

The modifers here are also highly unusual. Rather than the typical sweetener in an OF, such as brown sugar, Johnson uses coffee liqueur, and then further alters the flavors with yellow Chartreuse, a potent and unusual choice. The overall effects and flavors are strong and interesting. A dash of absinthe is a classic trick to breath an herbal note into the sensory experience, but the Redeye bitters (a small batch craft bitters from Miracle Mile) is a very unique creation made with fat-washing and espresso ground filtering. It’s unlikely to find any substitute for that but the subtleties may also be lost in this drink. I used something more convenient. Don’t ever let one missing clue stop you from decoding an interesting drink! Cheers!