Name: Hunter Cocktail
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 Cocktail
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Serve in an Old-fashioned glass

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

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill an Old-fashioned glass.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist and Luxardo Maraschino Cherry.
STIR all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into ice-filled glass (preferably over a large cube or chunk of block ice).
Express orange zest twist over cocktail and discard. Garnish with 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:

An after-dinner cocktail with spirituous bourbon, sweetened and mellowed by rich cherry. (We previously had this cocktail served straight-up but it's better on-the-rocks.)

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History:

The origins of this cocktail are unknown, but its popularity has been much helped by the famous bartender Hidetsugu Ueno San recommending it to guests at his High Five bar in Ginzo, Tokyo, Japan.

Nutrition:

One serving of Hunter Cocktail contains 188 calories

Alcohol content:

1.5 standard drinks
30.08% alc./vol. (30.08° 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 8 comments for Hunter Cocktail.
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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 ?

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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