Bamboo

The Origin

Louis Eppinger arrived at the Grand Hotel in Yokohama in the 1880s and ran the bar there for the better part of two decades. The Grand Hotel was one of the principal gathering points for the expatriate community in Yokohama, a city that had become a significant international port following Japan's opening to foreign trade in 1859. The clientele Eppinger served were diplomats, merchants, travellers, and adventurers passing through on their way to or from destinations across Asia, and the bar he ran reflected the cosmopolitan character of that environment.

The Bamboo was the drink that carried his name beyond Yokohama. Travellers brought the recipe back to Europe and America, where it appeared in bar guides of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries credited to Eppinger and to Japan. It is one of very few drinks from that era to have originated outside the established cocktail capitals of New York, London, and New Orleans, and its survival into the present day is a testament to how well the original balance was conceived.

The Structure

Equal parts dry sherry and dry vermouth with orange bitters and a single supporting dash of Angostura. The format is a stirred, spirit-forward drink in the Martini tradition, but the use of two fortified wines rather than a distilled spirit base produces a result that is categorically different in weight and character from anything in that tradition built on gin or whiskey. The alcohol content of a properly built Bamboo sits between twelve and fifteen percent, comparable to a glass of wine rather than a short cocktail.

That lightness is not a weakness. It is the design. The Bamboo is a drink for situations that call for complexity and craft without the weight of a spirit-forward cocktail. Before a long meal. In the afternoon. In warm weather. The delicacy of the structure is what makes it suited to those contexts.

The Sherry Question

Fino and manzanilla are the driest and most delicate styles of sherry, produced under a biological ageing process in which a layer of yeast called flor forms on the surface of the wine and protects it from oxidation. The result is a pale, dry, saline, and distinctly nutty wine that behaves differently in a cocktail from the richer, more oxidative styles such as oloroso or amontillado. In the Bamboo, fino or manzanilla produces a lighter, more mineral drink that suits warm weather and aperitivo contexts. Amontillado, which sits between the biological and oxidative styles, produces a richer, nuttier result that works better in cold weather or as an after-dinner alternative.

Both are correct. They produce different drinks. The choice should be made in relation to when and how the Bamboo is being served.

The Freshness Requirement

The Bamboo is a drink with no distilled spirit base and no citrus acid to mask the degradation of its principal ingredients. Both fino sherry and dry vermouth are perishable products that oxidise after opening and lose their character within weeks if left at room temperature. A Bamboo built with fresh, refrigerated ingredients from recently opened bottles is a genuinely interesting drink. The same drink built with bottles that have been open for months is not. The single most effective improvement available to anyone who finds the Bamboo disappointing is to open a fresh bottle of each. The difference is immediate.

How to Serve It

Stirred, strained, and served cold in a coupe with expressed lemon peel over the surface. This is an aperitif in weight and purpose, suited to the period before a meal or as a considered afternoon drink for those who want something with genuine complexity at a lower alcohol level. Serve it cold and serve it fresh. The Bamboo does not hold well once built and should be consumed immediately.