This Grand Fashioned was the first-place winner of Grand Marnier and the New York Film Festival’s Independent Cocktail Festival in 1999, long before we ever opened Employees Only. The idea was to get two ounces of Grand Marnier into a cocktail without being cloyingly sweet. To balance this much Curaçao, we muddle fresh blood oranges with lime juice, sugar, and dashes of Angostura bitters. This cocktail looked so much like the contemporary recipe for an Old Fashioned that the name just took over. For the competition, we garnished the drink with a kumquat that had to be tediously scored and peeled to resemble a “blossom,” then stained inside with grenadine. You can imagine our surprise when, upon winning, we were told we would need to make five hundred of these cocktails at the premiere for All About My Mother by director Pedro Almodóvar. The Grand Fashioned is so rich and luscious that it can be consumed as an after-dinner drink.

　　

Ingredients

makes 1 drink

　　1 teaspoon superfine sugar

　　3 dashes Angostura bitters

　　3 blood orange wedges, peeled

　　2 ounces Grand Marnier

　　3/4 ounce freshly squeezed lime juice

　　

Step 1

Muddle the sugar, bitters, and oranges in the bottom of a mixing glass. Add the Grand Marnier and juice. Add enough large cold ice cubes to fit in a rocks glass and shake hard but briefly. Pour all the unstrained liquid into a rocks glass and serve.

　　

tasting notes

Step 2

Dominant Flavors: blood oranges

　　

Step 3

Body: full, rich-textured

　　

Step 4

Dryness: sweet

　　

Step 5

Complexity: medium to high

　　

Step 6

Accentuating or Contrasting Flavors: bitters add depth and richness

　　

Step 7

Finish: medium with blood orange overtones

　　

Step 8

Glass: rocks

　　Reprinted with permission from Speakeasy: The Employees Only Guide to Classic Cocktails Reimagined by Jason Kosmas and Dushan Zaric, © 2010 Ten Speed Press. Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.