Public Service Announcement

If you ever happen to find yourself at Flora in Oakland, and you have a hankering for a cocktail, you might see the Filibuster on the menu:

* 1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey
* 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
* 1/4 ounce pure maple syrup
* Dash of Angostura bitters
* 1 large egg white
* Ice
* 1 lemon twist

Fill a cocktail shaker with the rye, lemon juice, maple syrup, Angostura bitters and egg white and shake well. Add ice and shake again. Strain the drink into a chilled coupe and garnish with the lemon twist.

You might think to yourself, as I did when I read about this cocktail in Food & Wine, "hmmm. That sounds unusual. It might suck, but it might turn out to be an excellent heretofore-unexplored flavor combination."

Well, I mixed one up last night and I'm here to tell you it sucked. Unsurprisingly, the combination of rye and maple was not aesthetically pleasing, and the lemon juice didn't help things. I had one sip, tossed it, and poured myself 2 fingers of rye on the rocks (with a dash of Peychaud's bitters) to erase the Filibuster from my mouth and my memory.

So there's your PSA: don't drink cocktails with maple syrup in them.