Name: Blackthorn No. 2 (Homeboy's)
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 40 ml Irish whiskey; 20 ml Tawny port; 10 ml Brown sugar syrup; 1 dash Absinthe; 1 dash Aromatic bitters

Blackthorn No. 2 (Homeboy's)
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Serve in a Nick & Nora glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₃ oz	Irish whiskey
²⁄₃ oz	Cockburn's Tawny Eyes Port
¹⁄₃ oz	Demerara/Muscovado/brown sugar syrup (2 sugar to 1 water)
1 dash	La Fée Parisienne absinthe
1 dash	Angostura Aromatic Bitters

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Nick & Nora glass.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
STIR all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Tawny port - Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Blackthorn No. 2 (Homeboy's) lifestyle image

Review:

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

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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.

More cocktails by Aaron Wall

Nutrition:

One serving of Blackthorn No. 2 (Homeboy's) contains 156 calories

Alcohol content:

1.1 standard drinks
22.47% alc./vol. (22.47° proof)
15.9 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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John CARR

12th June at 15:33

I really love the blackthorn English, the sugar + bitters makes this almost reminiscent of an old fashioned, but the Irish whisky, port and demerera take it in a completely different direction. I can see this becoming a new favourite. Excellent use of a nice but not amazing port. I nibbled a Danish butter biscuit alongside, added some nice sugar and vanilla characters.

G. M. Genovese

10th April at 23:06

Surprised how well this turned out with a cheap tawny port. Did use a solid Irish whiskey and some stellar Jamaican-brand demerara. But reading John and Marek's comments, oh yes, half the syrup is very much in order.