“People consider me someone who knows a lot about spirits, but I have to admit that my experience had not included a true introduction to three-penis wine,” Michael Rubel (Henry’s Swing Club) says of the ingredient with which Violet Hour bartender Patrick Smith challenged him to create a cocktail. Smith—”someone I thought was my friend,” Rubel says—found a bottle of the Chinese rice wine at a store in Chinatown and personally delivered it to Rubel.
He made a swizzle—a drink originating in the West Indies that’s not shaken or stirred but “swizzled” using a swizzle stick. The cocktail involves lots of crushed ice, Rubel says, and should be as cold as possible, which makes it appropriate for his assigned ingredient. “Penis wines are best consumed chilled.”
Combine the first four ingredients in a glass, fill with crushed ice, and swizzle to mix. Add a few drops of grapefruit bitters and float the three-penis wine on top.
