Blackthorn No. 2 (Homeboy's)

Difford's Guide
Discerning Drinkers (25 ratings)

Serve in a

Nick & Nora glass
Ingredients:
1 1/3 fl oz Irish whiskey
2/3 fl oz Tawny port
1/3 fl oz Demerara/Muscovado/brown sugar syrup (2 sugar:1 water)
1 dash La Fée Parisienne absinthe
1 dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters
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Read about cocktail measures and measuring.

How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Nick & Nora glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
  3. STIR all ingredients with ice.
  4. FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
  5. EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.
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Strength & taste guide:


Review:

Just as Aaron, its creator, describes it, whiskey-laced boozy blackcurrant fruit pastille.

Variant:

There are numerous blackthorn recipes, but they fall into two camps: one based on Irish whisky with vermouth and absinthe and the other with gin/sloe gin and vermouth. The numbering of the various Blackthorn variations starts in the 1930 Swallows edition of Boothby's World's Drinks And How To Mix Them and continues in his posthumously published 1934 edition, where he adds the Blackthorn No. 5.
Blackthorn No. 1 - sloe gin, rosso vermouth, dry vermouth, aromatic bitters, orange bitters.
Blackthorn No. 2 - sloe gin, rosso vermouth, sugar syrup, lemon juice, aromatic bitters, orange bitters.
Blackthorn No. 3 (AKA Blackthorn Irish) - Irish whiskey, dry vermouth, absinthe, Bokers bitters.
Blackthorn No. 4 - gin, Dubonnet, kirshwasser, orange bitters.
Blackthorn No. 5 - gin, sloe gin, dry vermouth, lemon juice, sugar syrup, aromatic bitters.
Blackthorn (English) - gin, sloe gin, rosso vermouth, dry vermouth, orange bitters, aromatic bitters.

History:

Adapted from a recipe created by Aaron Wall at his Homeboy bar in Islington, London, England where it's one of the signature cocktails. Aaron says, "The Blackthorn cocktail appears in The Savoy Cocktail Book with a gin and an Irish whiskey version, using fortified wine as a modifier. The idea for us was to amplify the berry flavours that you would get from the fortified wine and use a port instead and rounding it off with a little demerara sugar to make this drink finish with a distinct taste of boozy blackcurrant fruit pastille."

While this may be a variation of The Savoy Cocktail Book's Blackthorn it is more properly a riff on Harry Johnson's "Black Thorn" from his 1900 Bartender's Manual which, thanks to William "Cocktail Bill" Boothby's 1930 World's Drinks And How To Mix Them is now known as a Blackthorn No. 3.

Nutrition:

One serving of Blackthorn No. 2 (Homeboy's) contains 164 calories.

Alcohol content:

  • 1.1 standard drinks
  • 22.69% alc./vol. (45.38° proof)
  • 16 grams of pure alcohol
Difford's Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Bacardi's birthday image

Bacardi's birthday

The founder of Bacardi was a Catalan wine merchant called Facundo Bacardi Massó, who left Spain for Cuba in 1830.

Valentine's Day image

Valentine's Day

You can't have failed to notice that 14 February is St. Valentine's Day, a time of year when a sum equivalent to the GDP of a small country is spent on

Fernand Petiot's birthday image

Fernand Petiot's birthday

On this day in 1900, Fernand Pete Petiot was born in Paris, to parents who owned a guesthouse - he would come to fame, correctly or otherwise, as the inventor

Margarita Day image

Margarita Day

There are days for most things in the US, but Margarita Day is a subject very close to our hearts. Because, no matter who invented this classic cocktail,

World Bartender Day image

World Bartender Day

We're celebrating what the Oxford English dictionary defines as a person serving drinks at a bar, but we know as creative, hard-working folk who satisfy

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