Balanced sweet and sour with bourbon to the fore. Some, including my hero David Embury, stipulate making this cocktail with a straight rye whiskey. However...
Mine too! Also dependend on whether the Triple-Sec used is colored or clear. I used presumably heavy colored grenadine and (clear) Cointreau. Not complaining about the color though, looks pretty sweet imo
Grenadine made with freshly squeezed pomegranate juice is by far my preference for flavour, but as you say, it's a faff to make and doesn't impart much colour to the cocktail.
That's interesting that homemade grenadine gives a more subtle colour. How do you find that it affects the flavour?
Looking at the recipes for homemade grenadine it's difficult to justify the effort of homemade versus the low price and availability of commercial products.
However mine turned out bright pink using the directed 5ml of Monin Grenadine.