The Carte Blanche cocktail comes from the new James Bond book by Jeffery Deaver (also called Carte Blanche) that was released today and I am throughly enjoying it so far. I’ve just got to the introduction of “the new cocktail of the book”; I will detail the cocktail after the picture below, so be aware there may be a spoiler or two, I will try to keep these to a minimum.
Carte Blanche Recipe
Rock Glass
Add Double measure of Crown Royal Canadian Whisky
Add Ice
Add Half a Measure of Triple Sec (I used Cointreau)
Add Two Dashes of Angostura Bitter
Twist of Orange Peel
Bond does not mention shaking or stirring this drink
but I might suggest a quick stir or at least swirl the ice cubes round.
This is, effectively, a variation on the Old Fashioned and it tastes like it. We already know that Bond is a fan of Bourbon and the Old Fashioned, most notably in Live and Let Die; for more details click here.
I like this new drink and it has quite a good balance, but I can’t help but think that the triple sec seems a bit out of place. As the ice melts, the drink opens up more and does improve, it also get a bit lighter.
However Mrs. B thought it was excellent and described it as: “the equivalent of adult jaffa cakes”.
It’s a nice deviation from the Martinis (those are in Carte Blanche, too; Stolichnaya, of course) and will hopefully get more people to appreciate the complexity and sophistication of American Whisk(e)y cocktails; after all, bourbon is Bond’s favourite spirit.
Fan of James Bond Cocktails? Why not try The Vesper.
UPDATE
I was recently writing this article on Van Wee’s Angostura Bitters and tried it out in a Carte Blanche (rather then the variety made with the over-sized label by the angostura company) and I thought the different was rather surprising. The bitters brought a lot more depth and life to the drink. If you can use these bitters than the Carte Blanche starts to look like a decent rival to the Vesper.
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thanks, I’m listening to the audio version of the book so getting back to the recipe was going to be hard.
Thanks for the comment Frank, I hope you enjoy the drink.
please. What is a “half measure”. I have looked everywhere and found nothing. any response appreciated.
Thanks for the question. Essentially it just means that you use 4 time as much Crown royal Whisky as you do Triple Sec.
It could be written as 4 parts Crown Royal Whisky to 1 part Triple Sec
OR 40ml Crown Royal Whisky and 10ml Triple Sec.
So happy to have found you — and to be reminded of this recipe…We are now sitting here in Canada enjoying one! Thank-you!