Campari Punch

2 oz London Dry Gin (Plymouth)
1 oz Campari
1 oz St. Germain
1 oz Grapefruit Juice

Shake with ice, strain into a rocks glass.  Garnish with a grapefruit twist.

Campari Punch has a special place in my heart because it was one of the first craft cocktails I tasted.  Before I was interested in cocktails I ended up a tasting at K.J. Baarons where Corey Bunnewith was showing off summer punches.  Tasting them I was floored.  Not by flavor (though they were very good) I was more surprised by the number of bottles of liquor that would be necessary to make each one.  The thought of having a home bar with all of the required ingredients seemed expensive and impossible.  I decided that the Campari Punch was the most doable on my limited budget, even though I refused to buy St. Germain for months afterwards (I used elderflower juice from IKEA for a few weeks).

This drink ended up changing my thinking in two ways.  It made me realize that I may have to start purchasing a few pricy ingredients if I wanted to make interesting drinks.  It also opened a new realm of flavors by introducing me to my first bitter liqueur.  I made these drinks religiously with my first bottle of Campari till I couldn't even stand to look at that lurid red liqueur let alone restock it.  When I finally forced myself to stomach the thought of drinking Campari again, I fell in love with it all over. 

For this version I used a combination of Plymouth and Rogue Pink Spruce gin and fresh pink grapefruit zest and juice.  The drink starts off with a huge grapefruit nose from the zest.  Overtime the nose changes a bit to include a bit of almost clove like bitterness from the Campari and an almost bubblegum St. Germain smell.  The taste bounces between two spectrums, sweet and bitter.  For the sweet flavors it starts with the pink grapefruit and ends with an almost passion fruit sugar note from the St. Germain.  As for bitterness, the grapefruit to Campari transition is seamless.

A few notes on this, I feel that the grapefruit juice quality and the gin play a huge role in the end result (maybe why I ended up going off of them for months).  Recently I made it with Bombay and an older grapefruit in my fridge and I could barely stomach it.  The gin was too offensive and the drink didn't hold together, which is why this time I selected milder gins for this version.