Me and Him

Adapted from "Me and Her" recipe in the January/February edition of Imbibe magazine but with there being no Scotch* in the house and me doing the mixing on this one I changed the name slightly.

1.5 oz Highwest Whiskey Double Rye
1 oz Black Bush Irish Whiskey
.75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
.5 oz Crème de Cassis
.25 oz Campari
Club soda
Lemon twist

Combine all the ingredients except the club soda and shake with ice. Strain into ice filled glass and pour the club soda over it. Garnish with lemon.

* We spell our whiskey with an 'e' in this house!

Sour Cherry Old-Fashioned

It's cherry pickin' time! At least it was last weekend and we're already one pie down (yum!) but we like to drink our cherries too. Domestigeek sent us a link to Mark Bittman's post and we wasted no time making this from our sour cherry stash. As he says...

... sour cherries, those small, bright red spheres most often found at farmers’ markets and the best cherries for pies. They’re too tart to eat raw, but they mellow considerably when cooked — or muddled with sugar and bathed in whiskey.

2 sour cherries pitted
Lemon peel (we didn't have any oranges)
½ teaspoon sugar
2 or 3 dashes Angostura bitters
2 oz Sazerac rye whiskey

Muddle cherries, sugar and lemon peel in bottom of glass, fill with ice, add the whiskey and stir well.

Manhattan Bing

Himself loves a Manhattan and was one of the reasons we made cherry bitters to try it in one of these. It did not disappoint.

2oz James E. Pepper 1776 rye whiskey
1/2 - 1oz sweet vermouth
Bada Bing cherry to garnish (much preferred to the maraschino)
12-18 drops/2-3 dashes cherry bitters

Hicko-rye Cider

1 1/2 part Sazerac rye whiskey
1 part St. Germain
1/2 part lemon juice
1/2 part hickory syrup
1 part apple cider
After thought: 1 part cava (I wanted the bubbles so if you have a more effervescent apple cider it would do the trick I think)

We have this hickory syrup made from the bark of Virginia hickory trees that we are experimenting with in cooking (so far it's good with pork!) but we thought it might do something good in a cocktail too.

And yes, it does.

Grand Autumn

I've never been a fan of bourbon but was told I was drinking the wrong kind (i.e., the cheap stuff!) so I have been making amends. I'm pleased with what I'm tasting and this is a grand drink to taste it in.

2 parts rye whiskey
1 part St. Germain
3/4 part lime juice
Ginger beer
Optional: Dash of angostura bitters
(Copied directly from here)