Hi, Jacob,

I’m delighted that you find Cold Glass useful, and I’m inspired by your vision of featuring cocktails in your beer bar. (Hats off to your bar owner, too, for being willing to take the chance.)

It’s fun that Future Ghost caught some of your customers’ fancy. The drink’s originator, Johnny Michaels, definitely designed it to be a complex cocktail that could mostly be prepared ahead of time, and then finished quickly in a working bar environment. The Handsome Devil is another of his cocktails that uses the same Devil Mix, and is even quicker to prepare in a production setting.

I’m glad this worked out for you, thank you for sharing the story. Keep up the good work!

Anyway, this cocktail was perfect for last week’s featured cocktail, and caused a bit of a stir in my beer-loving restaurant, so thank you. The esoteric “Devil’s Mix” had that great exclusivity of taste that I’m trying to pursue in the drinks I choose, to draw a direct comparison between my drinks and the sometimes very complex beers we serve.

Just as an aside, I too used Shiraz, just the Inkberry that we had at the restaurant. I also substituted Grand Absente for the absinthe, and rather than order in pine smoke extract, we took a couple of hotel pans, filled them most of the way with water, then put them in the lit smoker that we use to make ribs and such. After about 3 hours, the water had a distinctly smoky taste, so we put it in the freezer, then sawed it into cubes and used them in the drink. It added the extra effect of having the drink become more and more smoky over time, though it did sacrifice a bit of the nose right at the start.

Thanks for the great recipe, and explanation of the thought process behind choosing each ingredient. I reference this blog frequently, especially when I’m trying to recall a classic. Keep it coming.