Name: Hunter
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Bourbon whiskey; 20 ml Cherry brandy; 2.5 ml Maraschino liqueur; 2 dash Orange bitters

Hunter
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Glass:

Serve in an Old-fashioned glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Bourbon whiskey
²⁄₃ oz	Heering Cherry Liqueur
¹⁄₁₂ oz	Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
2 dash	Orange Bitters by Angostura

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill an OLD-FASHIONED GLASS.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist and Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.

How to make:

STIR all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into ice-filled glass (preferably over a large cube or chunk of block ice).

Garnish:

EXPRESS orange zest twist over cocktail and discard.
Garnish with skewered maraschino cherry.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

18th July 2025 is Hunter S. Thompson's birthday

Review:

A spirit-forward, bourbon-laced, late-night sipper with rich cherry. (Traditionally served straight-up in a coupe, but it's better served over ice.)

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History:

The Hunter cocktail first appears in Jack A. Grohusko's 1908 book Jack's Manual: Recipes for Fancy Mixed Drinks and When and How to Serve. This original recipe simply comprises three-parts rye whiskey stirred over ice with one-part cherry brandy.

The Hunter cocktail was reincarnated and reimagined by the famous Japanese bartender Hidetsugu Ueno San at his High Five bar in Ginzo, Tokyo.

HUNTER COCKTAIL.
75% rye whiskey
25% cherry brandy.
Fill glass with ice, stir, strain and serve.
Jack. A. Grohusko, Jack's Manual, 1908

Nutrition:

One serving of Hunter contains 188 calories

Alcohol content:

1.5 standard drinks
30.08% alc./vol. (60.16° proof)
20.5 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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Showing 10 comments for Hunter.
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James M

23rd August at 17:46

Much improved by a dash of campari and a dash of syrup from the maraschino cherries, at least to my tastes.

John CARR

18th July at 15:45

Pleasant without being amazing. I was concerned it would be excessive with 20ml Cherry Heering but it is in fact balanced. Maker’s 46. Other bourbons or cherry liqueur could potentially work better. My favourite part was the aroma actually!

Stig Hansen

15th June 2024 at 08:02

Ive tried the recipe and its very good, but why is it that in the video, and all the videos ive seen about this cocktail, they only use the bourbon or Rye and the cherry Heering ?

CL Potts

24th November at 11:28

As far as I am aware, just the Rye & Cherry Heering is the "original" version from circa 1908 and this bourbon version is a take on the "modern" 2010 version

1 reply

G. M. Genovese

10th June 2024 at 01:15

I'm in a stretch of trying to use up (just for the sake of freeing up shelf space) a Portuguese cherry liqueur a friend gave a couple years back, Mariquinhas. Great on its own, but not necessarily a sub for Heering. But I didn't have any Heering on hand either, just Sangue Morlacco... Vastly different drink going from the former to the latter. I prefer it with the Luxardo. But the big takeaway is how interesting this simple cocktail is (or could be), depending on the brands.

Amarette Speights

14th April 2024 at 05:51

Three years later, I agree with Nathalie. This is going on my list of favorite after dinner drinks. I’ve seen a few Americans push back on Heering because the cherry flavor reminds us of a common childhood medicine. It’s not that I disagree, but that Cherry flavor is more of a candy like cherry flavor that is pervasive here. I taste the same flavor is old school cherry soda and homemade cherry candies. It’s one of my favorite flavors.

Chris Brislawn

23rd July 2023 at 02:23

Made 2 changes. Didn’t understand the tiny amount of maraschino so just went with 3/4 oz (22.5 ml) of cherry liqueur. This was, surprisingly, not too desperately sweet with 1.5 oz Stranahan’s cask strength Rocky Mountain single malt whiskey, but it needed something else. That turned out to be 1 tsp (5 ml) of Italian red bitter liqueur; tried both Campari and Martini & Rossi Speciale Bitter with good results. Was unable to find any other whiskey-cherry liqueur drinks in Difford’s database!

Marek Vranka

3rd April 2024 at 21:11

great suggestion, thank you!

Simon Difford

24th July 2023 at 03:28

I've renamed categories of cherry liqueur to hopefully make it easier to find but all the recipes I've added are under "Cherry (brandy) liqueur"

Miguel Perales

9th July 2023 at 21:06

A nice, Bourbon-forward cocktail. It pushed my envelope for sweetness but, as mentioned, would be a very nice after-dinner cocktail.

Leon Camfield

23rd November 2021 at 20:06

Tasty, but dear god it’s strong!

John Hinojos

19th July 2021 at 00:09

I agree with Nathalie, this is excellent. Perfect for an aperitif or after dinner. On my list also.

Nathalie O'Flynn

13th May 2021 at 10:06

Although apparently not well known and not top rated, this one belongs to my little book of "recurring" cocktails, those that I make several times a year (3-4), in fact one of our favourites from the stirring cocktails sub-genre.

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