After mixing up Lost Lake's Heaven is a Place/This is the Place I wanted to next try their titular cocktail, the Lost Lake. Frederic Yarm of Cocktail Virgin featured it a couple of weeks back and I finally got around to it this past weekend. Frederic's blog is a inspiring to me for a couple of reasons, not the lead of which is that he has the discipline to post daily and share a wide variety of recipes.

I think the Lost Lake was published in a recent Imbibe issue, which means I need to go back and re-read them and see what else I missed. In any case, I agree with Frederic's assessment that the Lost Lake shares some ancestry with the Jungle Bird (any rum drink with Campari risks that comparison). I found the drink challenging at first and then improving as it diluted. Including both maraschino and Campari really ups the bitter. And the technique listed - shake with crushed ice, strain into a tiki mug, and then fill with more crushed ice, means the dilution happens a bit differently than most recipes I make. Wondering out loud, maybe this gives it a couple of extra minutes of shelf life during service.

Overall I preferred Heaven is a Place/This is the Place, but I'm going to revisit the Lost Lake with a slightly more pungent dark rum and see how it reacts.

Grab the recipe over at Cocktail Virgin. And bookmark his site if you're not already a regular visitor there.