Santa Fe Cocktail

While searching for a cocktail to use my Sirop de Citron in I came across the Santa Fe Cocktail at 12 Bottle Bar.  There I learned that they had done a variation on this cocktail substituting Sirop de Citron for lemon juice which is in the original recipe.  For reference, here is the original recipe from the Playboy Bartender's Guide.

• 1.5 oz brandy
• .5 oz grapefruit juice
• .5 oz dry vermouth
• 1 tsp lemon juice

Shake well with ice.  Strain into a prechilled sugar-rimmed cocktail glass.

Note the sugared rim (which I also found a reference to in Jones' Complete Barguide).  I suspect the sugar is on the rim to counter the lemon juice which is not paired with a sweetener in the drink.  This original recipe sounds very interesting and I will have to try it sometime.  But I tried the 12 Bottle Bar variation with the following results.

At first I thought it was a little flat.  Maybe it was my Sirop?  It is homemade and seems to have plenty of zip to it.  Or maybe my grapefruit juice?

I have found bitters almost always make cocktails better for me - especially when I can make grapefruit juice more interesting with it's namesake bitters from the Bitter Truth.  This is a neat trick with a cocktail if you have a complementary bitters available.

Juice in a drink works in tropical or Tiki drinks, rocks or Boat drinks.  Orange and grapefruit juice in a cocktail can flatten them out for me - it's just a personal thing.  So a dash or two of orange or grapefruit bitters (respectively) snaps up these types of cocktails for me nicely.  This is especially helpful in cocktails which consist of 3-5 oz of liquid that will warm rather quickly (warm juice - yuck).

So I have added grapefruit bitters to my variation of the Santa Fe Cocktail.  Let me know what you think.