Well, its Friday once again. That means we’re mixing drinks again. Usually, my cocktail selection process follows one of two paths. I either search the web with a pre selected base spirit in mind to find an obscure drink or recipe I’ve never had before. The other method is to look through my budding library of cocktail books, and look for what A) sounds good, or B) what I have the ingredients for. While doing the latter, Baby Sharkette decided that she was very  interested in the Waldorf Astoria cocktail book. Completely ignoring any of her other toys that were close at hand.  The girl has class already. Taking this as her choice of source material, I looked through and came across the Fanciulli. It certainly sounded interesting, especially since it calls for Fernet. I’ve been featuring that a little more recently as my other liqueur supplies are running a bit low.

Fanciulli

1.5 oz. Rittenhouse bonded rye whiskey

.75 oz. Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth

.75 oz. Fernet branca liqueur

Add all ingredients to a mixing glass. Add ice and stir for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with orange peel and brandied cherry.

Initial nose is a hint of orange from the oils I expressed over the top of the drink before dropping the peel in. Other than that, there is no other discernible odor to speak of.

As to the flavor? Wow. This is very heavy on the fernet flavor. It completely dominates the palate. You can taste the fernet all the way through the sip, though it is a bit muted initially. Keyword: a bit. The spiciness of the rye does a valiant job holding the bitter flavor back but it can’t hold it off forever. It eventually gives way, and the flavor picks up to a crescendo of a bitter finish. Aside from the scent, the orange peel garnish is completely lost. Even expressing the oils on top does not bring the citrus forward in any sort of meaningful way.

I ended up adding a couple more drops of the sweet vermouth to help offset the amaro bitterness. I think it worked a little bit, but not enough to change the overall flavor.

The Luxardo cherry garnish sits at the bottom, not able to do much in the sea of bitter. Sipping it down is when you reach the flavor comes in to play, but any sweetness added is still beaten back by the bitter amaro.

I’m wondering if maybe my proportions were off? Eyeballing a 1oz. jigger is no easy task, but still, 3/4 of an ounce of fernet is a lot of bitter. Maybe you could increase rye, keep vermouth amount the same and reduce the fernet to .5 oz or maybe even a single barspoon in order to improve it.

I mean…I don’t hate it. But I’m not sure I would order one if I saw one out in the wild, or make one at home if I have bitters on hand. I would just make a Manhattan instead.

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