Volume II

The Bamboo

For the man who understands that strength and subtlety are not opposites

For the man who understands that strength and subtlety are not opposites

Historical context

The Bamboo was created by Louis Eppinger at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama, Japan, sometime in the 1890s — a low-ABV, vermouth-forward drink built for a city that sat at the intersection of Eastern restraint and Western appetite. It contains no base spirit. This sounds, to the uninitiated, like a drink that needs help. To the initiated, it sounds like a drink that has already helped itself and is waiting for you to catch up.

Secretary's note: It was served to a member on his first evening at a Club gathering, without explanation, by The Founder himself. The member drank half of it before he realized he had been expecting something more assertive. He finished it before he realized he did not miss what he had expected. This is considered a complete education in one evening.

Ingredients

  • 1½ oz

    Dry fino sherry

    From a solera in Jerez de la Frontera. Bone dry, saline, almost chalky minerality. It should taste like the floor of a cave that has been dry for a hundred years.

  • 1½ oz

    Dry vermouth

    French-style, pale, aromatic, with the herbal framework of alpine meadows.

  • 2 dashes

    Orange bitters

  • 1 dash

    Angostura bitters

Optional

A half-bar-spoon of aged Amontillado sherry, stirred in before the dry fino. Sourced from a single producer in Sanlúcar whose Amontillado is aged for no fewer than fifteen years. The Treasurer has the allocation. He shares it at his discretion.

Method

  1. Stir for forty-five rotations over ice — longer than most drinks, because the ingredients are delicate and the integration requires persuasion.

  2. Strain into a chilled coupe.

  3. Express a lemon peel over the surface and lay it inside the glass.

GlasswareChilled coupe
GarnishLemon peel, expressed and laid inside the glass.
VolumeVolume II of the Compendium
The Secretary's note

It was served to a member on his first evening at a Club gathering, without explanation, by The Founder himself. The member drank half of it before he realized he had been expecting something more assertive. He finished it before he realized he did not miss what he had expected. This is considered a complete education in one evening.