Happy Friday and day 2 of the NCAA tournament. I’m willing to bet there wont be a lot of work going on today. Hopefully, your brackets aren’t complete trash yet. I just checked mine in the DFO pool, and I’m in the middle of the pack. Much better than I thought I would be at this point, but there is still plenty of time to free fall.

Coincidentally, It’s also the day after St. Patrick’s day. Unless you’re the Chicago Bears, I hope the majority of you had a proper celebration last night, which could be another reason for a below average work effort today.

In order to facilitate a proper celebration myself, I utilized the Irish whisky I had on hand and made myself a Dubliner which is a bit of a twist on a Manhattan:

2 ounces Irish whiskey
1/2 ounce Grand Marnier*
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
3 dashes orange bitters
1 green maraschino cherry

Add the whiskey, Grand Marnier, sweet vermouth and orange bitters into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a green maraschino cherry.

*I used Cointreau as my orange liqueur of choice.

The nose is very orange forward. The recipe called for a green maraschino cherry as a garnish, but I didn’t have one so I went with an orange peel that would compliment the orange liqueur and bitters in the drink

This drink pulls no punches, it is strong from the get go. Bushmills has a particularly noticeable flavor (but in a good way) and it shines very well here. The Cointreau is the next flavor that comes in. The orange flavors really do a good job complimenting the subtle sherry notes from the Bushmills. The orange steadily builds all the way through the end of the sip. The vermouth is slightly detectible, but I think it acts as more of a foundation and background player. It’s flavors add a touch of sweetness and color to the table, but it knows its place in the background and does its job well.

The finish is almost completely orange dominant. There is a slight bitterness to the orange after taste, and it lingers on the palate for longer than expected. I think that is the remnants of the whisky coming through and letting you know it is still there.

I enjoyed this Irish spin on a Manhattan very much, but I must confess something here: Because I ended up finishing the bottle of the Bushmills Distillery reserve, I needed to tweak the recipe and pare down the  ingredients to match the about an ounce of whiskey that I had on hand. Unfortunately, that meant I had to eyeball the quarter ounce pours of the Cointreau and the vermouth. I think I got them in relatively close ratios to what the original calls for, but I think I need to make this again…for science.

(Banner image found here)