The most unlikely combinations of flavors can occasionally surprise your taste buds. This is one of those instances. To be completely honest, I'm not sure how I came up with it. Initially thinking I would sweeten the combination with simple syrup, I found that the bottle had turned stale, so I had to cast around for alternatives. Sweet vermouth and brandy are not strangers, but ginger is rarely combined with either. I had some German honey liqueur, but then I noticed the bottle of butterscotch liqueur. Hmmm.... At that point, I hadn't even decided to add citrus. But once I had, as I would realize later when I tasted it, I had chanced upon an odd mixture that really was a winner.
Silk stockings were supplanted by nylons. Nylons necessitated a seam down the back, which became a kind of signature of feminine elegance for several decades. But eventually, they improved the manufacturing method and seamless sheer stockings became the style. Women still wear stockings, but less than they used to. They're almost camp now, retro chic.
In any event, the quality that this drink exudes is suavity, smoothness, a meltingly seductive sweetness as tantalizing and mesmerizing as a luxurious kiss. What is it that Updike said about it?--"the mouth moves in the mind's court"? Ah, yes.
The mixture, as usual, by proportion--
3 parts sweet vermouth
3 parts brandy
1 part ginger liqueur
1 part lemon juice
1 part butterscotch liqueur
I remember watching my aunt Dorothy drawing seams on the backs of her bare legs with some kind of cosmetic made expressly for that purpose during WWII, when Nylon was unobtainable.
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