Wet Your Thistle

Big Trouble in Little Cynar

One of the great harvests of spring is the artichoke. Delightful as they are to eat, they’re notorious for pairing with wine.

That culinary conundrum is not something trumped up by somms and wine sellers, it’s science. Artichokes contain cynarin, a chemical compound that makes whatever you taste after ingesting it taste sweet. Your Chardonnay and your Pinot Noir do not appreciate the tricks cynarin plays, as it makes them taste like flabby sugar bombs.

But cynarin’s name suggests something other than wine to pair with artichokes—the Italian liqueur Cynar. Currently only produced by Campari, this sticky, dark brown concoction is in the bitters family. Drunk and extolled as a digestif, it even gets subbed in sometimes for Campari’s own best known cocktail, the Negroni. Meanwhile the Swiss love Cynar and OJ—think of that as a bent screwdriver.

Our cocktail this issue, the Wet Your Thistle, could be thought of as Negroni variation, so let’s hope you can imbibe a few in your backyard on a balmy spring evening and pretend you’re somewhere in Italia. Grill a couple of artichokes and enjoy.

To round out that Cynar, which I have to admit isn’t particularly artichoke-tasting (its mix includes a proprietary and nonpublicized array of 13 herbs and plants), it seems best to go with some citrus that can offer both slightly sweet and zestily sour notes. Since this is also a season for grapefruit, and perhaps you have some in your own yard, they seem like a fine choice. Grapefruit also plays well with the base liquor for this drink—gin—as the proper greyhound (cocktail, that is, not the bus or lovable too-fast dog) is just grapefruit juice, simple syrup and gin.

But the Wet Your Thistle is much more than that. That’s why you add some lemon juice, too, for even more lift, and if you use Meyer lemon, a bit more sweet, too. Since this isn’t a candy-edged drink in the slightest, that can’t hurt. Plus the lemons are the easiest components to harvest from your own yard.

As for the gin, one of the best ways to go organic is unfortunately to go far. Wisconsin’s Death’s Door (named after a perilous strait by Washington Island, where the wheat is grown) is hard to beat as classic, simple gin, with only three botanicals—juniper, coriander and fennel. That makes it clean and delicious and a wonderful base for this cocktail—if you can keep yourself from drinking it all in martinis.

Note this is also served in an old fashioned glass over ice. The particulars of ice could fill this whole issue—bartenders practically fetishize it right now—so if you want to head in that direction, go for the single big ice cube. The look is stunning, it prevents smaller bits of ice from suddenly thawing and dumping drink down a person’s shirt mid-sip. And a big cube also melts much more slowly, so you get the cooling effect you want without watering down the drink. That’s particularly important with one like the Wet Your Thistle, as its consistency, almost a tad sticky, is part of the effect. Stores even sell molds so you can make round “cubes” now, if you don’t mind the indulgence for a very specific kitchen tool.

Don’t skimp on the two garnishes, either. The mint brings yet more spring to the glass, another kind of not cloying sweet, and lovely aromatics. The same is true for the twist of grapefruit. Add it all up and you could simply smell this drink for five minutes. As if there weren’t enough herbs and infusions, the Carpano Antica brings a reported 30 more. All these scents are spring bursting out of the glass.