Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: New Twists

Happy Friday! This post kind of snuck up on me to be honest. The family has done a lot of travel over the past few weeks. Hawaii and California a couple weeks ago and last week into this week was a trip to Maine and down to the Cape. All of a sudden it’s Thursday and now I need a cocktail. The good thing about being on the Cape this time of year is the plethora of fresh cranberries available. There are tons of little bogs that people have on their property and bag up their cranberries and sell them roadside. One of these places is near our place, and we made sure to get a giant bag of fresh berries before we left. With that, I wanted to make something with them and came up with a spin on an Old Fashioned that I think will work out:

2 oz. Rye whiskey

1 Orange Slice

4 fresh cranberries

1 tsp (or cube) sugar

Add the orange slice, cranberries and sugar to a shaker and muddle. Add the whiskey and ice. Shake until chilled and fine strain into a rocks glass with a giant ice cube. Garnish with an orange twist and more cranberries

Fairly faint aroma up front. The orange is the most prevalent, with a hint of whiskey underneath. Other than that, I don’t pick up much. But then again, it’s hard to compete with strong citrus and booze smells.

This is a strong drink that’s for sure. Which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone considering it’s essentially an old fashioned with cranberry. That being said, the rye is the star here. I opted for rye since that is what I always have on hand, and I was thinking the orange citrus combined with the slightly sour fresh cranberry would go better with the rye as opposed to bourbon. Though I don’t think bourbon would be a bad move if that’s what you prefer. The sugar mixes with the rye up front, giving the impression that this will be overly sweet. But the more the sip evolves, the more flavors come through and the sugar recedes into a background player, and a muted orange flavor comes in to take its place.

Initially, I didn’t get much of the cranberry. I thought when the orange took over that was that. But when I was finishing, I picked it up. The faint taste of the cranberry. Knowing what to look for, I was able to discern more of the flavor profile early. It’s very faint, but it’s there. That’s my fault though. I intentionally went light on the cranberries. I erred on the side of caution, not wanting their sour/tartness to take over, which can easily be done. Clearly 4 muddled berries was nowhere near enough, so I’ll be adding more next time to try and bring out the flavor.

I liked this old fashioned riff. It’s different and very festive. Plus, it’s a great use of any fresh cranberries which are now in season. I highly suggest picking some up if you can, and using them here.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)