Daytrip Strawberry Amaro
Strawberry Amaro with nettle, quassia, jasmine, rose, and nutmeg fruit
North Fork Strawberry Wine & North Fork Strawberry Wine Eau de Vie
750mL
19% ABV
Suggested Serve
Our House Favorite
The Daytripper
1.5 oz Matchbook Day Trip Strawberry Amaro
0.25 oz Espadin Mezcal
0.75 oz Fresh Grapefruit Juice (In a rush? Sub fresh grapefruit juice and simple syrup for 0.75 oz Ocean Spray Grapefruit Juice.)
0.25 oz Simple Syrup
Garnish: Grapefruit Twist
Glass: Cocktail Coupe
(Fresh Grapefruit Version):
In a cocktail tin, add Matchbook Day Trip Strawberry Amaro, Espadin Mezcal, grapefruit juice, and simple syrup.
Shake with ice until well-chilled.
Strain into a chilled cocktail coupe.
Garnish with an expressed grapefruit peel.
(Ocean Spray Grapefruit Version):
Build the cocktail directly in a glass over ice.
Stir gently to combine.
Garnish with an expressed grapefruit peel.
Into the Bottle
The story of Daytrip begins with the Mattituck Lions Strawberry Festival - a local carnival devoted to all things strawberry. One year, some 2 tons of strawberries were somehow leftover and, it seemed, destined for the compost pile. Our friend Joey, a Mattituck Lion and the manager of his family’s vineyard, rescued the strawberries and brought us a big tote of strawberry wine. We distilled 100 gallons into a strawberry eau de vie and added it back into the wine with a whole mess of vibrant botanicals. Nettle, quassia, jasmine, rose, nutmeg fruit… leaving that to macerate for a few months before filtering, sweetening and bottling. We thought we were making a Strawberry Vermouth -- the first in a whole series of fruit vermouths we'd release -- that is before the government insisted any vermouth be made from wine grapes. With that, a quick pivot, a detour, a Daytrip Strawberry Amaro was born.
Some aperitifs come together in this holistic way where its hard to pick out the various ingredients -- others allow their constituent parts to shine. Daytrip is the latter for me -- strawberry is front and center stage, with the woody and bitter flavors of the quassia quickly following up. Some green notes from the nettle, perfume notes from the florals. it represents, to me, a drive through the North Fork, past the vineyards and the fields of flowers and the peaceful waters punctuated with dramatic rock formations. Daytrip is ushering in the warmer months and the summer celebrations that will soon crown the seasons Strawberry Queen.