Classic Recipe with a Twist: Meet Me in the Woods at Midnight (a take on the Scofflaw)

You could do a lot worse than spend a week or two or your summer in Maine.  I’ve spent some time with my family up on Mount Desert Island the last few summers, near Acadia National Park.  One favorite activity there is hiking on one of the many trails on the oceanside mountains; another is making cocktails at happy hour with made-in-Maine ingredients.  This year is no exception, and after one of these hikes I wanted to make a cocktail that captured the beautiful Maine woods on a foggy, misty day – a drink I called Meet Me in the Woods at Midnight, which is a slight variation of the classic Scofflaw:

I always feature the drink first in these posts so you can see what you’re getting into.  But that makes this post sort of backwards because you’re seeing the ultimate creation before its inspiration.  So without further ado, let me share a bit of what I saw earlier in the day.  The first part of the hike featured a long stretch of woods immersed in fog – with living trees standing comfortably next to the dead.  The forest floor was covered with almost glow-green moss that added to the eerie effect.  It was a beautiful, almost haunted scene:

The second half of the hike involved one descending branch of the trail that went by a long hill of rocks that had a thick blanket of the same kind of moss, under the same heavy mist:

I wanted to create something that captured the feeling of being in those woods.  So I went to Sawyer’s Market, a family owned store that has been serving Southwest Harbor and Mount Desert Island since 1946, to look for ingredients.  There I acquired a bottle of Gunpowder Rye by Portland-based New England Distilling and a Cardamom-Clove simple syrup by Newcastle-based Royal Rose Syrups.   I also grabbed some eggs and fresh thyme (local) and limes (not).  And I also had a bottle of dry vermouth (Dolin) already at hand.  The concept was simple:  I thought the rye and spiced simple syrup could lend an “in the woods” vibe to the drink; I could use egg white to create a foam that would stand in for mist, and the thyme garnish would supply a little green (not as vibrant as the moss, granted).  The lime juice and vermouth would balance the flavor a bit.

I realized as I put these ingredients together that I was basically making a Scofflaw – a prohibition-era recipe named after a misguided attempt to coin a word to shame lawbreaking prohibition-era drinkers – except that I was using a flavored syrup in lieu of grenadine and I was adding a foam and unusual garnish to the drink.  Nevertheless, these tweaks make it a different drink, thanks in no small part to the strong spices that come through in the Royal Rose syrup.  I was very happy with the final product, and I think you will be too.

Here’s the recipe:

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Meet Me in the Woods at Midnight (a variation of the Scofflaw)

Try Meet Me in the Woods at Midnight, a drink inspired by a hike through the misty woods of Maine and based on the classic Scofflaw cocktail

Course Drinks

Cuisine Sour

Keyword Scofflaw

Prep Time 7 minutes minutes

Total Time 7 minutes minutes

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 230kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

• 2 oz. Gunpowder Rye whiskey
• 1/2 oz. Royal Rose Cardamom-Clove simple syrup
• 1/2 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice
• 3/4 oz. dry vermouth I used Dolin
• 1 egg white
• fresh thyme

Instructions

• Combine the whiskey, simple syrup, lime juice and vermouth in a shaking tin with ice and shake vigorously.
• Strain the mixture into one of the tins and discard the ice.  Add the egg white and shake again with no ice.
• Pour into a rocks glass with a large ice cube.
• Add thyme as garnish.

Enjoy!