Has anyone actually made this? It looks like a heck of a lot of simple syrup, given the piddly amount of lemon and the other two sweet ingredients. Seems like it would be toothache sweet.

Give it a try. I love Fernet Branca and this was one of my favorite drinks on my last visit to Dram.

Dan,

The muddled lemon ought to give the 1/4 oz lemon juice a bit of lift, I'd think.

Zachary

2 wedges of lemon is often 1/3 of a lemon or around 1/2 oz juice (sometimes lemons are cut into 1/8th). 1/2 + 1/4 = 3/4 oz which will balance the simple syrup. Fernet is low sugar and does need sweetness to make it more palatable and that can come from the sweet vermouth. It is a rather balanced drink. Also, my Mint Julep recipe uses a 1/2 oz of simple syrup only balanced by Bourbon and dilution.

Thanks for the citrus math, yarm. It was enough to get me to try this. The ingredients play nice although dilution is your friend here. I might try again with 1/2oz simple for kicks.

I'm also surprised there's no elaboration on the note: "If no Carpano use Punt y mes or a full oz of Angostura." A full oz Ango?!

Those notes are Sandy's not Nick's. If you don't have Carpano, just use the sweet vermouth that you have. Worked for me -- won't be as robustly flavored but it will be more in the ball park than those two suggestions.

I never thought Ramazzotti would be able to stand up to an Islay single malt. Used Ardbeg, and it was delicious, would definitely make this again.

'They've got more *** ***** **** *** **** than the likes o' me!' Love the name. ^_^

I used Johnny Walker Red (I had a big bottle!) and Bittercube Bolivar Bitters. This is definitely a drink that lives up to its name. After a few, I could only see out of one eye!

I too used johnnie red and through lack of the fees barrel aged I used 3dsh of Fees Old Fashioned and one of Bittermans Xocolatl Mole. It was all too much for the scotch, rolled right over it. I need to get some Laphroaig and do this for real.

In addition to a straight-up peaty Islay (like Lagavulin, Laphroiag, or Ardbeg), I have found that Talisker 10 year works very well in this cocktail. Other, less powerful, whiskys would just be overpowered (in part because 4 dashes of Fee Whiskey Barrel bitters is very intense).

This might seem a dumb question, but with 4 dashes called for, is this 4 dashes from a Fee Brothers bottle, or 4 normal dashes? The volumes are an order of magnitude different because the Fee Brothers glycerine base does not dispense well from their dasher tops. A dash from a Fee Brothers bottle is typically 1 to 2 drops (if anything comes out at all.) They tend to be larger drops so I could see some adjustment for that. I use 8 drops as a "generous dash" estimate for other bitters, and 6 for a lean dash, but with various Fee bitters I most often remove the dispenser cap and use a dropper. For this cocktail I used 16 drops shaken from the dispenser...sort of dead reckoning, splitting the difference between 4 real dashes and what a Fee bottle will yield in dash mode. This is a good cocktail with the proportions I used, but I am uncertain as to whether this volume is what was intended.

What a great idea, thanks for posting this. I like this flavor combination quite a bit. I ended up going a little higher on the Punt e Mes.

Christina,

I was literally staring at a 9/10 empty bottle of Angostura, a 9/10 empty bottle of Fernet, and a half full bottle of Punt e Mes and thinking.... I've got to clean out the liquor cabinet! This is the result. I think there's just enough sweetness in the Vermouth to balance the Fernet, though if I had it lying around..... Antica would be really nice here, and play up the Christmas spicy thing.

Thanks,

Zachary

Found this looking for Christmas / winter cocktails, and it's spicy and bracing with that strong fernet menthol taste. Used Carpano for the vermouth. Tempted to make it again with Angostura Amaro instead of bitters and up the dosage. 

Sounds interesting. It's a bit of a big drink by current standards. It could be easily scaled back with 2oz : 2 tsp : 1 tsp : 1 tsp, for the so inclined.

Nice. Maybe less Maraschino and scale to a more manageable size? I split one, so it either makes one huge or two tiny drinks.

Very nice. Used Rebel Yell bourbon (my go-to cheapie). Split it into two small drinks for me and the missus on a Friday night. Sweet, subtle flavors on a long finish.

very cool. I substituted a few drops of dry amontillado for the bitters

Surprisingly, all those accent flavors still let the rye show through. Good balance though it may be a bit sweeter than some would prefer.

Pretty good. Next time (there will be one) I might try Campari in place of Aperol to take the sweetness down a smidgin.

Since I'm not a big Aperol fan, I made this with Bigallet China-China in lieu of that. I also added 2 ds of El Guapo Chicory-Pecan bitters instead of the Black Walnut. I liked the resulting drink, but found it a bit too sweet for my taste. I added something approaching 1/4 oz of Eda Rhyne Rustic Black Walnut Nocino (which is fairly bitter) and this brought the sweetness into perfect balance for my taste.

Thanks for posting. Curated to conform to our style guidelines -- mostly putting the right info into the right place, making instructions concise, adding garnish to ingredients, etc. The long description had to be removed for copyright reasons. If you make the drink and would like the describe it, I suggest you put your feedback in Notes (where tasting notes belong).

Thanks for the tips, Dan.

This is a winner! I used unmeasured agave since I didn't have simple on hand - hopefully I can replicate this, because it's tasty.

I didn't have any port, so I subbed Bonal Gentiane-Quina for now. This made a nice drink, lots of dried fruit flavors, some sweetness but not too much. I'll try it again with port as soon as I have some. The Cora strikes me as somewhere between Becherovka (without the dominant allspice flavor) and Averna...

I wish I could get both Cora and Meletti in Texas!

So thanks to the kindness of a stranger ;) I now have a bottle of Cora. This is definitely in the fall-and-winter set of cocktails. The ruby Port does get a bit lost up front, but contributes dried fruit tones to the midpalate. This shines on the finish, with lots of cream-coconut flavors and allspice that lingers. Maybe half Port and half Clear Creek cranberry liqueur next time? 

Thanks,

Zachary

Just as fair warning -- tobacco is incredibly dangerous to use in an alcohol extraction, especially without being able to tell how much nicotine you're extracting, and the LD 50 for nicotine is very low. Giving tobacco infused alcohol to non-smokers can cause all sorts of problems, as people unaccustomed to nicotine can react very badly to the stuff.

You're absolutely right, zach. You need proper guidance when experimenting with tobacco infusions. Snake oil makes a great tobacco bitters that is approved as food grade. Also extracting the flavor by actually distilling your own spirit is safe. Here is a great article I read that you might appreciate:

http://www.artofdrink.com/blog/nicotini-tobacco-infusions/

Sandy, I've heard of that, but don't have access to it. I really want to try the Ted Breaux "Perique", which again.... heard of, don't know if it exists. 

The article about tobacco references that AoD article, which is a great summation of the what people know about tobacco infusions. 

Thanks,

Zachary

There is a lot going on, the pepper is nice as complexity. Used buffalo trace bourbon which is already a little peppery, so that add to it.

Curated to tweak ingredient list to correspond to instructions and notes.