Niccolò Murtas

this cocktail is extremely sweet. Not unpleasantly so. But you really, really, really need to have a sweet tooth for this.

I just sipped it for the first time; I made a sip and moved toward placing the glass on the table. Halfway toward that movement an explosion of iron in the "back-taste"... that maraschino of much more sweeeter fame. Majestic. Consider it a strange, mid-path in between a vieux carrè and a trident. You could sub possibly the maraschino for the akuavit (i don't have it) but i feel like somehow that explosion of iron in the aftertaste of the maraschino has something to do also with the sweet of the italian liquor, which in the aquavit would not exist at all (and thankfully).

It might be that my clove is of exceptional intensity (i doubt it), but if it's likely to be of more or less your intensity, and you happen to actually be as "silly" as me, breaking the cloves with a pestle before mixing the powder in the cocktail, please refrain from using the two cloves suggested because they are really strong, covering up everything; Basically these cloves are much less harmless than they look like in terms of intensity, and if you happen to think that "bruise" somehow entails using the pestle....well go for one clove, do believe me - if you want to taste anything apart from them.

Look, it's a great cocktail, but especially for those in Europe (or outside of NAFTA) who cannot source (good) tequila at "cheaper" prices as our fellow discerning american drinkers.....i suggest tailoring the amount of cinnnamon quite carefully. It is great, and well integrated - but you might easily hide a tequila you have spent 30 euros importing.... also, although this might have been more easily guessed by the community than it was by me, we are in a tiki-cocktail - the sweetness is tiki. So if you are up for something more mexican, don't be afraid of dropping the cinnamon to even 5 (mine is, perhaps too cinnamon forward - the sweetness (to "anglosaxon", rather than tiki) standards - is in the pineapple. But for those who can pay a reposado 20 bucks, and want a tiki cocktail with a slightly-hidden tequila, then the ingredients are there and I am happy to have tried it. Surprisingly well "integrated".