I say it’s high time for a cocktail, to toast this crafty keep and creator. The drink can be found in the pages of Gary Regan’s Annual Manual for Bartenders, 2011. I think having an annual manual has a nice rhyme to it, don’t you? Gary was a legend of the spirits industry who held yearly educational seminars and famously stirred his creations with … his finger. His personal copies of his cocktail books were likely stained with boozy fingerprints and could get you tipsy just from reading. The drink was created by Pittsburgh’s Summer Voelker of Salt of the Earth.

This cocktail is hard to classify. The bourbon and vermouth would get you a Manhattan. The addition of the amaro, in this case the unusual Strega, has us heading into Negroni territory. Strega is an Italian herbal liqueur with a distinctive bright yellow color derived from saffron. It has been made in the town of Benevento, long known as the “City of Witches”, since 1860, which is how it got its name. Prominent flavors from the seventy botanicals and spices used to distill it include mint, juniper, cinnamon and saffron. Recipes for this cocktail allow the substitution of Strega for yellow Chartreuse, instead, which is how I made it, although each will produce a very different drink. If things had stopped there it would be interesting enough, but the addition of lemon changes it further into a fascinating sour that is ripe for autumn. I took the liberty of embellishing mine with some sapele wood bitters as well. I’m not keeping this one under lock and key – and neither should you. Cheers!

Lock and Key by Summer Voelker

1 ½ oz bourbon

½ oz Strega (or yellow Chartreuse)

½ oz Carpano Antica (sweet vermouth)

½ oz lemon

3 dashes Fee Bros Whiskey Barrel Bitters

Mint leaf

Shake ingredients together with ice and strain into a favorite glass. Garnish with bitters and a mint leaf, or a lock and key lime wheel.

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