Name: Mad March Days
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Bourbon whiskey; 30 ml Speyside single malt; 22.5 ml Meletti amaro; 7.5 ml Becherovka liqueur

Mad March Days
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Photographed in an UB Koto Old Fashioned 30cl

Ingredients:
1 oz	Bourbon whiskey
1 oz	Speyside single malt Scotch whisky
³⁄₄ oz	Amaro (e.g. Meletti)
¹⁄₄ oz	Becherovka liqueur

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill an Old-fashioned glass.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
STIR all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into ice-filled glass (preferably over a large cube or chunk of block ice).
EXPRESS lemon zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Delicately bittersweet herbal whisk(e)y served old-fashioned style.

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History:

Adapted from a recipe created late-2023/early 2024 by Ross Simmonds at the St. Edwards MCR, Oxford, England. Ross is known to recite the poetry of John Masefield with a cocktail in hand and this cocktail was inspired by a poem called Cargoes which the development of ships and their cargos over the centuries. Ross' original recipe is based on 60ml (2oz) Jura single malt Scotch whisky (Bourbon Cask).

Cargoes
Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.

Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack,
Butting through the Channel in the mad March days,
With a cargo of Tyne coal,
Road-rails, pig-lead,
Firewood, iron-ware, and cheap tin trays.
John Masefield, Ballads, 1903

More cocktails by Ross Simmonds

Nutrition:

One serving of Mad March Days contains 218 calories

Alcohol content:

2 standard drinks
31.1% alc./vol. (31.1° proof)
28 grams of pure alcohol

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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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Peter McCarthy

28th April at 06:26

I made this with Wild Turkey "91" bourbon (50/50 blend of 101 and 81), Speyburn 10 year, Meletti amaro, & Becherovka. A little sweet at the front of each sip, with a little bitterness (that doesn't linger for too long) on the back-end. While this is certainly boozy "on paper", it's surprisingly smooth. I suppose this could vary depending on the bourbon and Speyside, but with the ingredients that I used, I'd maybe drop the boozy rating down to an 8 or 7, and maybe drop the sweet/dry/sour scale all the way down to a 5?! Overall, a very nice drink, made with a unique combination of ingredients that are also not too "exotic"/hard-to-find.

Bill and Audrey Kopp

11th March at 19:30

Very tasty. Could be a nice introduction for amaro novitiates. We used blended Scotch because it was handy (and because -- for first try of this recipe -- we didn't want to "waste" single malt on a drink we might not like).

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