Lately, I've seen a number of libations posted by Craig E, many which intrigued me. Yankee Skipper was one; so using top shelf ingredients, I put it together. I used Bulleit rye, Vya sweet vermouth, Smith & Cross rum, and Picon Amer. What I expected and what I tasted were two different animals.

What I expected was a somewhat smooth tasting cocktail with a predominant rum taste; what I tasted was a clash of rye and rum, with no taste of the Picon Amer. Specifying the rye and sweet vermouth may help; different brands of rye and sweet vermouth have their own characteristic tastes, and may or may not blend well with Smith and Cross rum.

That leads to my next suggestion: use a smoother rum, such as a Barbados or Haiti rum. I did use an orange twist, which helped reduce the sharp, unpleasant taste of the original recipe. Perhaps I missed the boat on this one; only others can say yea or nay. As is, I rate it as 2.5, and look at the Yankee Skipper as a work in progress.

I curated this - a little googling pegged it as an Embury drink so I removed the bitters and changed lemon (from the OP submission) to lime and jiggled the ratio a bit to conform to the book. Thanks,  Zachary

This drink is delicious! I've tried it both with Nikka Coffey Grain, and with the cheaper Suntory Toki, and it was fantastic both ways! It's definitely a crowd-pleaser, but it's still complex enough for more seasoned cocktail fans. Highly recommended if you've got the ingredients.

Love this drink and I, too, make it with "just" mapel syrup instead of the maple syrup concoction provided in the book.

I agree that it's basically a watered down whisky sour riff, but with less soda and a bit more Licor 43 it's a solid 3 and worth exploring.