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This has lovely balance. We imagine that the creator had in mind a gentle and elegant late night drink. Which it is. And perhaps one for the ladies, if that isn't an outrageously politically incorrect thing to say. In our experience, the ladies and the gentlemen do have different preferences. But we digress. To make it a gentleman's drink, a wee bit more assertive, we used Cognac and added just a gentlemanly dash of Bitter Truth aromatic bitters. We also thought that Averna was too stolid here and substituted Nardini Amaro for its bright but subtle notes. The great thing about recipes that fit in a Nick and Nora glass is that one can experiment with them of an evening, over an hour or so, without getting legless.

I used Esperanza XO and the Santoni red amaro. Extraordinarily fine cocktail.

This was beautifully balanced but a bit on the wee side. Will make it a double next time.

Excellent. Used Averna and Luxardo Maraschino.
After tasting, topped up with an extra 10 ml of the Bas Armagnac I used, as Averna turned out to be quite an assertive component at the specified amount.

I can't believe it was ever a balanced cocktail at even parts because even when the Maraschino is at 1cl it's certainly front and center. It is tamed, though, by the Averna and becomes a very pleasant late night sipper. The Armagnac is surprisingly subdued but provides a strong backbone for the other components.

Having tried this a few tunes in different permutations, have reverted to Simon’s specs - although there were 20ml of Averna left in the bottle… Had been using a tenareze Armagnac which didn’t balance well here. A Bas Armagnac worked much better.

Brilliant flavours, but way too strong on the Luxardo. Knocked it back to 5ml.

I really like the flavors: cola, almond, mint, citrus (the lemon peel is an absolute must). Echoing the other review, it's a little too cloying. I could up the brandy, but I'm worried that would throw the balance of flavors off. I'll either do that next time or try adding some bitters. But the combination of ingredients has potential.

I see potential here, but in this configuration it's definitely too sweet. So, more armagnac and less amaro and maraschino. Made with lauvia hors d'age, ramazzotti amaro, stock maraschino.