Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Emotional Support Drinking

Happy Friday, hopefully not many of you are affected by Crowdstrike nuking the internet overnight. If you are, I hope the fallout is limited to not being able to work versus not being able to get on a plane and travel. Either way, at least I know if I have a bad day, the engineers at Crowdstrike are having a much worse one.

Today’s drink is appropriately named for a situation like this: The Emotional Rescue. Don’t we all need an emotional support cocktail every now and then? I was inspired to make this as somewhat of a challenge. I wanted another whiskey and cherry heering cocktail that wasn’t a remember the Maine. This one involved some Dubonnet as well. I’m always looking for a new way to use that ingredient to, so that sealed the deal to make this one for today:

1.5 oz. rye, preferably Wild Turkey
.75 oz. quinquina, preferably Kina L’Avion d’Or (in my case Doubonnet Rouge)
.75 oz. dry vermouth, preferably Dolin
.5 tsp Cherry Heering
.5 tsp maraschino liqueur, preferably Luxardo

Stir all ingredients with ice. Strain into a Nick & Nora glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Very muted nose. I get some cherry coming through, but not a whole lot. I would expect more from the heering and the luxardo. Though I will say I am glad they are as subtle as they are. I think an overabundance of sweetened cherry aromas could turn you off of this before even having a sip. Sadly I couldn’t add the garnish as when I went to grab an orange they had all gone bad.

Having a taste, you can absolutely tell this is a Manhattan base. The rye provides a nice familiar base here, however it’s intensity is limited. The twin cherry combination of the luxardo and the heering see to that. Of which, I’m pleased to say that their flavor, much like their aromas, aren’t overbearing, which is a very welcome observation. They definitely impart cherry flavor, but it doesn’t hang around or really dominate the palate. As it would with their aromas, too much flavor would ruin this.

The finish skews back towards the rye. It leaves a little bit of aftertaste on the palate, but it doesn’t hang around for long. It does leave a lingering mouth feel that lasts longer than any of the flavors do, but it doesn’t take away from the overall experience.

I liked this. I wish I could have added an orange garnish because I can see how some fresh citrus could really bring this up another notch. As an experiment, I added two drops of orange bitters to see what that does. The bitters masks some of the cherry flavors and adds a little orange-y depth to the drink. I think it might go slightly too far away from what an orange peel would add, but in a pinch and without an orange, I’d add one drop of bitters to see where that gets you.

(Banner image courtesy Matthew Tetrault Photography)