Join thousands of like-minded professionals and cocktail enthusiasts, receive our weekly newsletters and see pages produced by our community for fellow Discerning Drinkers.
Scotch malt whisky, and particularly peated malt, balance and work brilliantly with rich crème de cassis and full-bodied vermouth, helped by a generous...
Excellent cocktail and plenty of room for experimentation with this one. The bitters are big hitters, as someone said, but are actually okay - tho they did trigger my hayfever 🤣. I split between angostura and Bitter Truth aromatics. Think scotch- fruit Manhattan. I was cautious with the smokiness (Glenmorangie + talisker) but will be braver next time. The smoke will def balance with the bitters and intense sweetness of the cassis.
I made this with Speyburn 10, Laphroaig 10, DeKuyper (US) Creme de Cassis, & Carpano Antica. Given the high alcohol content, I opted to make it "on the rocks". Surprisingly not as boozy as I expected given the high alcohol content. Laphroaig 10 was well balanced; not too smokey imho. Angostura didn't seem too strong. Overall, a nice option if you're looking for a scotch-based whisky-forward drink with something atypical in the ingredients.
8 Dashes of Angostura was a step too far for me - 4 was just right.
A superb drink with a perfect balance of the two Whiskies and red fruit brought together with the bitters… Classy!
Definitely not light and easy cocktail. It has seriousness and gravity. In My case craigellachie 13 (50ml),octomore 13.2, giffard cassis noir de bourgogne, punt e mes and 3 generous dashes of angostura.
I made this with Laphroaig and ordinary sweet vermouth (Martini), halved the bitters to 4 dashes and it was absolutely amazing. New favourite. You do need to like the Smokey whiskey to appreciate this cocktail though. Even with 10mil this was dominating the drink.
Flavors are pleasant enough, but possesses a notable astringency that's a real turn-off for me. Probably a result of the heavy dose of angostura bitters, which in turn may be a necessary counterbalance to the cassis.
The only Speyside I have is Aberlour A'bunadh, so I scaled back from 60ml to 45ml. I used Ardbeg Uigeadial, La Copa vermouth, a pretty dry cassis, and Jerry Thomas bitters as I so prefer them to Angostura. It's a drink where all the players are heavy hitters, but they support each other well. The finish is honestly never ending.
I made this with a shitty blended scotch (Mash Cut), no peated scotch, and Dolin sweet and I swear to god the aftertaste was Kielbasa. I probably won't make this again unless I have much higher quality ingredients.
Nicely well rounded, boozy cocktail. Warming and richly flavored. Sweet, but we’ll balanced.
Anonymous
5th December 2021 at 15:06
So I gave this one a try… Did not have all at home. So I used Punt e Mes for Vermouth; Italian Mirto for Cassis. Perhaps quite different from this cocktail, I ended up with a delicate one that I, in any case, liked.