One drink ingredient I can’t live without

And my new favorite cocktail to make with it

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Luckily, no one but my overpacked booze cabinet has asked me to cull the assortment of spirits and liqueurs that I keep handy. I know there are some things I could say goodbye to, but others I’d really mourn.

I haven’t, for example, been without a bottle of Cynar for at least a dozen years. And while it’s definitely not by any means the hot new thing, it’s one of the first amari I’d recommend you get if you are just starting to play with making cocktails at home.

Cynar is often described as vegetal in flavor; the bittersweet Italian liqueur is flavored in part with artichoke leaves, along with the type of secret list of herbs and botanicals that’s common in these concoctions. It’s a little more savory than the Campari you put in a Negroni, and more robust than, say, orangey Aperol. It’s a little more brooding, but it’s still pretty friendly stuff, and most importantly, it mixes well.

I love Cynar’s bitter pop in a spritz, and it’s a crucial part of the infinity bottle of Manhattans that I keep in the fridge. It’s perhaps surprisingly awesome mixed with fresh pineapple in a punch called the Bitter Ex that appears in Batch Cocktails. But the most I’ve loved it lately is in a drink from my friend Adam Robinson and his business partner Nick Flower.

The Right Now, at Portland’s Too Soon. Photo: Seth Márquez

The team’s newish Portland bar, Too Soon, is named for a simple gin drink that Sam Ross created at Milk & Honey. Adam and Nick serve a riff on that cocktail that I knew I’d love the moment I spotted it on the menu.

Like so many drinks of the late aughts and early teens, Ross’s original has just a few ingredients: Herby gin, our friend Cynar, fresh lemon, and simple syrup.

The twist is in the shake—literally. You add two orange slices to the tin, pop in an oversized ice cube like they used to do at Milk & Honey, and shake vigorously for both aeration and dilution. Back around 2008, when he learned the drink from Don Lee, Adam says he was still “a fairly inexperienced bartender and the technique of shaking a cocktail with something like orange slices was not something I had thought about before.” The aromatics burst from the glass.

The variation served at Too Soon—which they call the Right Now—is made with tequila instead of gin. “The vegetal notes of the tequila complement the bitter notes of the Cynar,” Adam says. Leaning into the refreshing, cooling side of things, he swaps out Ross’s orange slices for cucumber.

The result is juicy—almost like a delightfully odd apple—with a firm, bitter finish from the amaro. The bracing drink gets your mouth watering, like any good pre-dinner cocktail should. And the recipe is so simple that you probably memorize it after the first round.

Which you might as well get cracking on. “It's never too soon for a Right Now,” Adam tells me.

Right Now

Credit: Nick Flower and Adam Robinson, Too Soon (Portland)

Note from Maggie: At Too Soon, they honor the flavor of the Cynar by rimming half the glass with artichoke hearts that have been dehydrated and pulverized, then mixed with kosher salt (4 parts artichoke to 1 part salt.) But I’m here to tell you it’s delicious with just…salt, which has a way of dampening the bitterness of the drink.

Rim: Kosher salt (or artichoke salt if you’re fancy, see note)

1 oz. blanco tequila (at Too Soon, they use Batanga)
1 oz. Cynar
¾ oz. fresh lemon juice
¾ oz. simple syrup (1:1)
3 slices cucumber 

To prepare glass, add a squeeze of lemon or a few drops of water to a small plate, and a few teaspoons kosher salt (or artichoke salt) to another small plate. Roll exterior edge of Nick and Nora glass in liquid and salt to rim just half of the glass. Chill glass.

To make the cocktail, combine 1 oz. blanco tequila, 1 oz. Cynar, ¾ oz. fresh lemon juice, ¾ oz. simple syrup (1:1), and 3 slices cucumber in a cocktail shaker and fill with ice. (Or use a large cube.) Shake until well chilled. Strain into prepared glass.