Here's a true tribute to Poseidon, with a little water of life. I almost made a drink called “Neptune’s Wrath”, created circa 2007 by Toby Maloney for The Violet Hour. That drink, which features absinthe, is a variant of the classic Last Word. But I didn’t want to actually incur Poseidon’s wrath by invoking it with using his Roman name. Instead I went true Trident, and revisited that old classic with a slightly new twist.

The Trident cocktail was invented by spirits writer Robert Hess in the Nineties, one evening while experimenting with a new bottle of peach bitters he had acquired. He built a nautical themed Negroni, using ingredients from each category that had ties or roots to a port of call city. In place of gin, for example, he used the Scandinavian spirit aquavit, which is perfectly apropos for this particular toast. Aquavit derives from the original phrase meaning “water of life” (as does a few other well known spirits, like whiskey). What better way to toast Poseidon than with some water of life. The original Trident cocktail features dry sherry, and for this version I used another similar coastal spirit, madeira. Like sherry, there are many styles of madeira, and in this case I chose a dry madeira to mirror the original drink profile best. It turned out to be a truly inspired choice. Cheers!

True Trident (adapted from Robert Hess)

1 oz dry madeira

1 oz Cynar

1 oz aquavit

1 dash orange bitters

peach liqueur rinse

Stir initial ingredients together with ice and strain into a glass which has bene rinsed in the peach liqueur. Lemon twist.

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