Greetings, Wonketeers! I’m Hooper, your bartender. For some strange reason, I felt an urge to write a cat-themed cocktail this week. Weird, huh? After some searching, I found this winter treat that has a finish that goes on for days. Hang tight, folks, this one’s another “Hooper’s gone all mixologist on us” cocktail. Let’s make a Cheshire Cat. Here’s the recipe:
2 oz Johnnie Walker Red Blended Scotch
1 ½ oz Hennessy VS Cognac
½ oz Cherry Heering
1 rosemary sprig
¼-inch stick cinnamon bark
Crush the cinnamon stick into splinters and place on a wooden plank or other fire-safe surface. Ignite the cinnamon until it smolders. Upend a double old fashioned glass over the cinnamon to capture the smoke. When the interior of the glass is cloudy, turn it upright and add the scotch. Swirl the scotch in the glass until all the smoke has been captured. Add the smoked scotch, cognac, Cherry Heering, and rosemary to a stirring vessel. Gently muddle the rosemary. Add ice and stir until chilled. Strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with a lemon twist, rosemary sprig, and smoldering cinnamon stick.
When I went looking for a “Cheshire Cat” cocktail, the results were less than thrilling. Most of the drinks revolved around the idea of recreating the colors of the cat in the Disney cartoon or Burton movie. Vivid blues, pinks, and purples were in abundance. It should go without saying, but never, ever choose a drink based on how colorful it is. You’re in for a bad time. There were one or two hopelessly twee gin-based cocktails that looked nice for spring, but were uninspiring in the depths of winter. (An absinthe and lemon soda cocktail does sound nice, mind you.)
But this particular recipe grabbed me. Scotch doesn’t show up in cocktails often. Brandy and Cherry Heering are unlikely but welcome classic additions. The cinnamon and rosemary notes were the icing on the cake. Rosemary’s a powerful flavor that I almost never see in a cocktail. (Greg, of How to Drink, took one for the team and made a rosemary mojito for scientific purposes. The results were … iffy.) Pairing cinnamon, rosemary, and smoke was a new one on me.
This drink comes from a speakeasy in Shoreditch called The Looking Glass. In 2015, they wrote a storybook menu to celebrate 150 years of Lewis Carroll; this drink was a centerpiece. A glance at the current menu tells me that there are some serious heavy hitters behind the bar; I know what “beetroot and honey foam” is, but “redistilled amaro” and “pine mead” beat my pair of jacks. Obviously, in order to get close to the original Cheshire Cat, I’d have to crack my knuckles and make some choices.
Difford’s Guide published a Cheshire Cat analogue that uses some workarounds for the exotic cherry wine and house bitters from The Looking Glass. Most of the choices they made were logical, but the comments section made it clear that the end result was too sweet. Getting cinnamon and rosemary flavor into the drink without using a syrup was proving problematic. In the end, I decided to take a cue from the garnishes; I smoked the cinnamon and muddled in the rosemary. The end result is a drink that takes forever to finish, leaving a spicy, complex mouthfeel that warms you very nicely on a bitterly cold night.
Let’s talk ingredients:
Johnny Walker Red: There are so many excellent (and expensive) scotches on the market now that it’s hard to know where to begin. I decided to be extremely conservative and use this well-known blend. To my surprise, it’s very pleasant, with a balance of sweetness and peaty smoke that isn’t assertive, but is unmistakably scotch. I love a muscular peat bomb like Laphroig or Ardbeg, but those bottles would overwhelm this drink.
Hennessy VS Cognac: Good cognac is so expensive, and bad cognac is so cheap. I generally buy cognac in pints when I need a little of the good stuff in a glass. The cognac adds length and richness to the cocktail, and provides a superb vehicle for the muddled and smoked elements of the drink.
Cherry Heering: A little of this herbal cherry liqueur goes a long way. Tasted neat, it’s cherry cough syrup in a glass. With a little extra room to breathe, it becomes delightful. Never the star of the show, but always a welcome supporting character.
Rosemary: I’m conservative with this herb in a glass; a little goes a long way. Muddle the rosemary just enough to break the outside of the needles; don’t make a paste.
Cinnamon: This is the same technique I used to build a Cherry Tobacco Old Fashioned a while ago. Be patient and ignite the crushed cinnamon stick thoroughly; it doesn’t flame well.
Garnishes: There’s a lot of stuff sticking out of this glass, but it’s all useful. The lemon brightens the heavy drink, and the rosemary and cinnamon reinforce the core flavors. Make it pretty and play with it; it’s worth the effort.
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