Cherry Bomb (Original Recipe)

 

I wanted a rich Manhattan that would strike you as a winter-into-spring type of drink. My idea was to mash up a perfect Manhattan with a brandy cocktail similar to the KGB but with black cherry as the dominant flavor. 

It works really well with 99 Black Cherries and my homemade cherry blossom bitters (Yes. Made with steeped cherry blossoms.) There's no trick to this drink. Make it like a perfect Manhattan and add the additional ingredients.

• 3 oz. rye whiskey (Founding Spirits Rye used)
• 1/2 oz. sweet vermouth (Punt E Mes used)
• 1/2 oz. dry vermouth (Dolin used)
• 1/2 oz. 99 Blackcherries
• 3 dashes of cherry blossom bitters
• Luxardo cherry garnish
  

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Drop the cherry and a little of the syrup into the drink.

Eagle Eye Cherry (Death & Co. Recipe)

I loved the taste of this cocktail. I was worried it would be too sweet, like a cordial, or too fruity as its name suggests. I was wrong. The flavor was more bitter and Manhattan-like than rum and sherry cocktail. This is because of many small touches in the recipe that keep the drinker's interest with their bitter notes holding down the sweetness of rum and cherry liqueur. 

These bitter elements were my homemade cherry blossom bitters--still going strong--and Suze gentian spirit (in addition to a hearty sweet vermouth like Cocchi Dopo Teatro). 

One note about the chocolate flavors in this cocktail: I was unsure what substitute to use for Alchemia chocolate vodka (1/4 oz. in the original recipe). I don't have it and I wasn't sure that coco whiskey or chocolate mole bitters would be the right substitute. I almost used Godiva dark chocolate liqueur, but reasoned that it would make the cocktail cloudy. I opted for creme de cacao, which in such small proportions was unlikely to add too much sugar.

• 2 oz. Flor de Cana 7-year rum (George Bowman used)
• 1/2 oz. Cherry Heering
• 1/2 oz. Alvear Festival Pale Cream Sherry (Alexandro Amontillado used)
• 1/2 oz. Lustau East India Solera Sherry
• 1/4 oz. Alchemia chocolate vodka (creme de cacao used)
• 1/2 tsp. Suze
  
• 1 tsp. Antica Formula vermouth (Cocchi Dopo Teatro used)
• dash cherry blossom bitters
• orange twist
• brandied cherry (Luxardo used)

Combine liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a port glass and twist the orange zest over it. Garnish with the cherry on a cocktail pick. 

 

Circe (Original Recipe)

 

It stands to reason that a Calypso cocktail needs a companion cocktail named Circe. These are the exotic demi-gods of Homer's Odyssey and the only women that delay Odysseus on his journey home from Troy. 

The Calypso cocktail is very Tiki and is loaded with pineapple juice, rum and spiced with falernum and nutmeg. I went in a different direction for Circe--not as sweet and a little challenging. Lime and grapefruit juice keep it tart while MurLarkey three tea whiskey and my homemade allspice dram shift the bitter and spice notes to other tropical islands.

The combination is seductive but a little bit tart, just like Circe. The half-submerged grapefruit twist garnish hints at things lurking beneath the dark sea.

• 1 oz. white rum (Mt. Defiance used)
• 1 oz. MurLarkey three tea whiskey
• .5 oz. allspice dram
• .5 oz. lime juice
• 1 oz. grapefruit juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• Cherry and grapefruit twist garnishes

 Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and double strain into a coupe glass and garnish with a grapefruit twist and cherry speared on a cocktail pick.