Chris Brislawn

Fee Bros. Old-Fashioned Aromatic Bitters has a strong cinnamon note and is probably closer to Morgenthaler's cinnamon tincture than Angostura. We enjoyed it, at any rate. I also used Santa Fe Spirits Apple Brandy (New Mexico's finest).

"this is the first published use of rum in a "East India" I know of, and, tellingly, this version doesn't feature in the first 1947 edition of Bergeron's guide, which only has East India numbers one and two."
Nor is it in Vic's 1946 "Book of Food & Drink," which has no East India drinks.
And if you're only putting 1 tsp of Jamaican rum in it, you might as well do it right, which is why I went with Smith & Cross.

Lustau says their East India solera is a blend of PX and oloroso so you're in the ballpark but a bit on the dry side, which is fine; I upped the anejo (El Tesoro since I didn't have Patron) to 1.75 oz to dry it out a bit. A very good, complex cocktail with strong cocoa notes and a bit of bite from the chile liqueur that differs markedly from most tequila drinks. I gotta admit, though, that the last thing it reminded me of was a Manhattan.

Excellent. I agree with R. Spain and like it with Amaro Lucano, which makes it a distinctive Brooklyn variant rather than just a re-proportioned version of Grohusko's original recipe, which I make with Golden Moon's Amer Picon reconstruction. I also like serving it in an old-fashioned glass with a Luxardo cherry for garnish.