Wednesday, February 17, 2016

East Wing

I'm not sure if this drink refers to the East Wing of the White House or some other use of the word wing, physical or metaphorical. I was surprised how full-bodied it was and complex with lots of brandy and cherry sugary goodness. I would ordinarily have made it with cherry brandy as the recipe calls for, but it is a little hard to come by in Virginia. I didn't have time to shop in D.C. and I wanted to make this drink soon. So I had already come up with my own recipe to turn brandy into cherry brandy that I found worked very well. It changed the grape brandy roundness to a slightly bitter and deep cherry flavor that a quality cherry brandy might have--without being overly sweet like a cherry liqueur.

Here's how I made cherry brandy substitute with 1 ounce of Catoctin Creek 1757 Reserve brandy. Add 1/2 tsp. Luxardo maraschino liqueur and 1/2 tsp. Bada Bing cherry juice (or other black cherry juice--not maraschino cherry--) to an ounce of brandy. This creates an ounce and a teaspoon of brandy that tastes very close to Cherry Heering, with the same dark red color. Use this same recipe to make a Singapore Sling taste sweet, rather than bitter, which you can't do with Luxardo maraschino alone.
  • 3 oz. vodka
  • 1 oz. cherry brandy (1 oz. Catoctin Creek 1757 Reserve, 1/2 tsp. bing cherry juice, 1/2 tsp. Luxardo maraschino liqueur used)
  • 1/2 oz Campari
  • lemon twist 
Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

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