The Income Tax Cocktail

In honor of April 15th, The Income Tax Cocktail:

• 1.50 ounces gin
• 0.75 ounce dry vermouth
• 0.75 ounce sweet vermouth
• Juice of 1/4 orange (squeezed right in the shaker)
• 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange wheel.

The Income Tax cocktail is also known as the “Bronx with Bitters”. Every borough in New York City, except Stanton Island, has a cocktail named after it. The most famous, the Manhattan, is popular even today so it can’t be considered “forgotten”. I quite liked the Brooklyn and so I was looking forward to trying this one (the [Queens Cocktail][2] isn’t in the book but it looks like the Bronx with pineapple juice instead of orange juice).

The key to this drink is to make sure to use fresh orange juice. I always try to use fresh squeezed juices in my drinks, and I happened to have several small but really juicy and sweet navel oranges on hand.

This one was wonderful. Due to a trip out of town we got our taxes done a few days early, but I did have to drive four hours in heavy rain today so I was looking forward to relaxing with a cocktail when I got home. This did nicely. I might have even preferred a straight up Bronx as I thought the bitters were a little distracting in this drink, but only slightly and as a very mild aftertaste, so if you don’t have bitters on hand you are probably all right to experiment without them.

Rating: 4/5

Notes: I used Bombay London Dry gin, Dolin dry vermouth and Carpano Antica sweet vermouth.