34) The Tiberius Cocktail

2 oz. Hendrick's Gin
1 oz. Square One Cucumber Vodka
.5 oz. Lillet Blanc
Two dashes Regan's Orange Bitters

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice. Stir until well chilled, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a cucumber wheel.

Upon my fresh arrival at the bar, Ed was quick to call my attention to a newly acquired bottle of Square One Cucumber Vodka which he proclaimed surprisingly tasty. Now, I'm pretty wary of flavored Vodkas as I am generally of the opinion that it's always a better idea to muddle the flavor into your drink rather than use infusions (exceptions, of course, abound). Also, having been the victim of curiosity once, and just having to try some Seagrams Wild Grape Vodka, I can tell you that almost always what these "people" think of as "flavor" is clearly an attempt by the Mole-People to soften us up in advance of their impending invasion.

There are, however, some exceptions -- Most notably the infused Vodkas being made by Hanger One, and, as it turns out, the Cucumber Vodka being made by Square One. Having had house infused cucumber Vodka before, I knew that if they did it right they would have a nice product on their hands as I've always found cucumber to be a particularly refreshing note. Thankfully it turned out to be pretty damn tasty.

My immediate thought was that it would be interesting to try it in a version of the Vesper. One of the things that has always irked me about that drink is that there are two delicious ingredients, and one thing that doesn't have anything to offer. As we turned our attention to which Gin we would use, Ed came up with an idea that you've probably already figured out. Why not go all cucumber and use the delicious Hendrick's?

The end result was somewhat middle of the road -- It wasn't so bad that it fell into the category of being dumped down the sink never to be spoken of (or blogged about) again and had its tasty merits, yet at the same time it really wasn't that great. The addition of the bitters definitely helped to lift the drink (thank you bitters!), and it wasn't the cucumber overload that I had worried about, however it still had problems. The Lillet was pretty much lost in the explosion of flavors, and the overall drink just felt kind of fussy, and missing that certain something.

So -- Not terrible, but needs that magical little nudge that we just weren't able to pin down. If any of y'all have any ideas for a tweak by all means sock it to us.

Comments always welcome or feel free to e-mail us at drinkaweek [at] gmail [dot] com.