Laurel Canyon is an herbally-driven drink offered at your fave neighborhood watering hole, Miles. To start with, the drink features the “Art In The Age Sage,” which is a spirit that recreates the garden gins produced in the post colonial, pre-industrial United States. “The Sage spirit is really interesting, in that it features many of the botanicals found in artisanal gins, but lacks juniper, without which a spirit cannot be called gin,” says Phoebe Waterson, creator of the Laurel Canyon. “When creating a cocktail with the Sage, we really wanted to showcase the Sage spirit without overpowering it,” Phoebe added in our email exchange. Therefore, Art In The Age Sage is mixed with just enough lemon and simple syrup. To top it all off, both literally and figuratively, comes a rosemary twig and a spray of mescal. Those two intense earthy tones complete the herbaceous background of the spirit. Like a good menage a trois, everything is moving along well together, creating according to Phoebe a “unique and balanced cocktail.”
The key spirit: Art in the Age Sage.
Shaking all the juices into a masterpiece.
The beautiful finished product.
And then magic happens. The Laurel Canyon becomes the drink that tastes and smells like the time Jacob drove through the Laurel Canyon after a heavy rainstorm. The namegiver and bartender Jacob that night told me that it was his favorite drink, and you can’t say no to the bartender’s favorite drink. Especially when it has already popped up for you. I expected to walk down memory lane with this drink, and indeed, I was upon first sip. The drink tasted like the time I was hiking in the hills of my village at Crete during the summer. A light breeze brings in the smell of salt of the sea, and then you are surrounded by bushes of sage, oregano, thyme, and the more you hit on the more smell they emit. The dirt is dry and the earth has a distinct smell. That’s how the Laurel Canyon brought me back. Simple yet evocative.
The Laurel Canyon in all its glory.
Memories are a precious artifact, and we cherish the moments that these memories are recreated. Tasting the Laurel Canyon, for me, was a fun airplane ride spanning from Crete to Los Angeles and all the way back to Bushwick. The Laurel Canyon satisfied me and brought me back to fond memories. Libation for the soul and for the memory.
The author, enjoying this week’s cocktail.
Bushwick Mixer is a weekly column somewhere at the crossroads of pop culture and mixology in the bars of Bushwick. Hashtag your photos of Bushwick cocktails with #BushwickMixer and let us know why they should be tasted by the author of the column.
The Laurel Canyon is served at Miles, 101 Wilson Ave for $12.