The first Mr Black Cocktail I had was Greg from How To Drink’s Cold Brew Shakerato. I loved the complex coffee notes in a bright and bitter context. It was a great fit for Mr Black. I wanted to create a similar equal parts cocktail. It’s well balanced and changes from a bright and fruity sour to a rich lingering bitterness due to the Mr Black and vermouth. This drink began life as a red hook variation, so it’s named after my favorite hook handed pirate Warlord, Crocodile.
*Pepper tincture is optional but highly recommended
Ingredients
Directions
Add all ingredients to to a shaker and vigorously shake with ice.
Spray toasted black pepper tincture twice to coat the inside of a chilled Nick and Nora glass or coupe.
Spray tincture once more over the drink and garnish with a dehydrated grapefruit wedge
If not using tincture, a flamed grapefruit peel works well too
1. This step allows grapefruit juice to be balanced as if it were lemon juice.
2. Adding 40 grams of citric acid per liter of juice is a frequently accepted method.
3. For a small batch of juice, 4g per 100mL works well.
4. If you don’t have a scale, an individual cocktail would need approximately a heaping 1/8 teaspoon citric acid.
-Using Dave Arnold’s infusion method:
1. Toast 20g of peppercorns in a dry pan, moving frequently, until they smell fragrant, are popping, and smoke slightly.
2. Coarsely grind the spices and put into a 0.5 L iSi whipper with 100 mL of vodka or neutral grain spirit.
3. Infuse by charging once, shaking for several seconds, then charging and shaking a second time and leaving for 5 minutes. Vent, wait for bubbling to cease, and pass infused liquid through a coffee filter.
