Livorno & Padua's Love-Child

Aperol is one of my favourite ingredients in the last year or so. It's so wonderfully complex, just bitter enough yet retaining tons of elegant fruit/herbs/spice. It really is a brilliant substitute for Campari if you want to introduce less developed palates to classics like the Negroni.

However, it's also excellent for experimenting with (as I'm doing here), or subverting old classics (e.g. introducing it into a daiquiri, with passion fruit or the like). On this occasion, I wanted to bring in one of the world's criminally under-used liqueurs - Galliano. They appear to have been doing lots of fiddling about, reformulating and changing product lines. For this particular one we are using Galliano Vanilla. I suspect Autentico (the more herbal and anisey variant) may work too ... I'll update whenever I give it a try.

This cocktail, as with many things I will post on this blog, is in development. This is the first iteration, but new ones may arise as time goes on. It's a bitter-sweet and complex drink, with distinct notes of vanilla from the Galliano.

The name alludes to the two regions behind the interesting ingredients in here - Livorno, Tuscany (Galliano) and Padua, Veneto (Aperol).

25ml Havana Club Anejo Especial (Golden Rum)
35ml Aperol
15ml Galliano Vanilla
3 dashes Bitter Tears - Lucille Blood Orange Ginger Bitters

1. Add bitters to tumbler glass
2. Add other ingredients
3. Add 4-5 large cubes of ice
4. Stir with a bar-spoon for 20-30 seconds
5. Garnish with citrus peel

I must beg forgiveness for neglecting to take a photo. I'll upload one as soon as I make a new one. It should look much like a negroni, though slightly more orange than red - a hue remniscent of Irn Bru (yum)!