I would say cut honey in half, using a syrup. Add lemon to taste. That adds a little bit of tartness to balance out all the sweet ingredients. Plus a lemom wheel is a really nice garnish to offset the pink aperol/bourbon color.

The grapefruit bitters really add something to this drink, and when I originally forgot them it definitely missed something. Nice and complex.

Agree with the comment of saline solution. I'm enjoying this beverage.

Definitely use Bittermans The Bitter Truth Xocolatl Mole bitters. I know I put it under the chocolate bitters category but I did attempt with Fee Brothers Chocolate bitters and while still good, the chocolate was too pronounced. The mole bitters are far more complex and really round out the flavors.

Recipe looks fantastic. How would you describe the result? Anything interesting to "listen" for with the palate (flavors that you notice when someone else tells you to look for them)?

Personally I am very pleased with the taste, but of course I created it so I am definitely biased. I find that the Jim Beam Black pairs very nicely with the honey, gentian and sage essence that I taste with Cynar (funny how you don't really taste artichoke) especially since there is a high amount of rye mashed and it's a fairly low alcohol bourbon. I love the Bittermans Mole Bitters and it is such a fantastic and complex blend of flavors that it doesn't really have a big "chocolate" profile but a little more spice, like nutmeg, cinnamon, cheyenne, etc. Fee Aztec Chocolate Bitters made the end result a bit too rich. Also, I now usually only put in about a tsp of simple syrup as apposed to the 1/2 oz I originally did. I have a bit of a sweet tooth when it comes to cocktails but the bourbon and Cynar are rich enough. Thanks again and I hope you like it.

The person I made this for keeps coming up to me and telling me how good this is. I love the generous use of the Xocolatl bitters.

I used Evan Williams Black for the bourbon.

Pretty good. For the unspecified bitters I used Angostura for one drink and Peychaud's for the other. Ango was better.

Boozy, bittersweet, delicious. A reminder that you don't need a dozen ingredients to make a great cocktail. 

I have yet to meet anyone, and I mean anyone, who I have made this drink for who did not like it. The chocolate bitters puts it over the top. I use Bullet Bourbon and it's great. I also find that using maple syrup instead of simple syrup, especially bourbon barrel maple syrup, takes it to another level. My favorite go to cocktail. Thank you!

I like the concept of this one, but it's quite a bit too sweet for my taste. Not a bad drink, but for me, I'd eliminate the simple and cut the chocolate bitters to one or maybe two dashes.

I'd leave the cream out: I shook the hell out of it, but the froth dissipated when I added the rest. Maybe some atholl brose instead of the cream?

This sounds good, but is nearly identical to Phil Ward's Oaxaca Old Fashioned from about 2009. I think the idea of grapefruit bitters is nice. Smoke and citrus go together very well.

Agree, and just saw the post on the Oaxaca Old Fashioned, thanks..I've seen additional variations of it (Paul McGee at Whistler in Chicago). Updated my post to reflect the history, def not trying to upstage or knock off somebody else's cocktail..thanks again-

Whoa! Upside surprise! used orange bitters with agave and squeezed orange peel instead of infusion but worked great!

Quick question - what's the 7.5 mean with the Laird's?

Thanks,

Zachary

Laird's makes a 7 and 1/2 year apple brandy (not applejack - though I believe their bonded is also technically an apple brandy?). I assume that's what they are referring to here.

OK, I figured this out, and curated this somewhat. Naming convention within KC is to simply have the numerical year after the product, so El Dorado 5, Lagavulin 16. I changed the Whistlepig to Whistlepig 10 to reflect that. 

Laird's makes an applejack (GNS + apple brandy) without an age statement. They also make a BIB apple brandy, a 7.5 year and a 12 year. So... either this is meant to be applejack without an age statement, or the ingredient should be changed to apple brandy. I chose to keep the applejack, and removed the age statement. By the way, Food Republic (the source) has it wrong, not the poster.

Quite thin and 'hot'. One bsp of simple syrup helps a lot.

Curated applejack to Laird's 7.5 yo apple brandy as per source reference.

Missing a big ice cube and a stir step in the instructions here. The source article includes the cube but no instructions (but that should be obvious).

Food Republic (website reference) must have giant barspoons. Recipe said, "1 barspoon (.8 ounces)". Not sure what they were going for, might have been half a barspoon which is 1/12 oz and rounds to 0.08 oz. However, the full barspoon/teaspoon makes more sense based on the heat level.

I assumed it was a reporter screwing up 1/8 oz.

I made this last night with 1 tsp (1/6 oz) orgeat (which is the way it appears in the Idlewild recipe set) and both bonded spirits, and it needed a little extra simple to get the heat down and put the bitters into balance more (a fat 1/8 oz/thin 1/4 oz).