A Muddled Thought

From the far southeast region of Scotland, known as the Speyside Region comes Ardmore Traditional Cask. Released in 2008, Ardmore Traditional Cask is the first bottling from the Ardmore Distillery, after several years without any new offerings coming out of the distillery.

Ardmore Traditional Cask is a fully peated malt, which means that all barley used to create the whisky is dried using heated peat fires. This creates a spirit that begins with the lure of seductive peat, touches of cinnamon and dough. These flavors lead into notes of smoked Apples, hints of bacon. and barely there touches of cocoa, that play second fiddle to orange zest and honey.
In an odd yet pleasant surprise the Ardmore Traditional cask finishes with the presence of a smoky sarsaparilla on your palate.

Ardmore Traditional Cask retails for between $45-$50 per 750 Ml Bottle.

Final Score: 9/10

After an interesting conversation with a friend about the joys of the Corpse Reviver #2*, I was inspired to create a loose interpretation playing off the notes in the Ardmore traditional cask. I replaced the gin component with the Ardmore traditional cask, the Cointreau with Solerno Blood Orange Liquor, the Lillet with Cynar to add a bit of a bitter kick and finished it off with Herbsaint to replace the absinthe component.

Burning Alarm Clock. A combination of Ardmore Traditional Cask, Solerno, Cynar, Herbsaint, Aromatic Bitters and Lemon Juice.

Burning Alarm Clock

1 ¾ oz Ardmore Traditional Cask
½ oz Solerno Blood Orange Liquor
½ Cynar
1 oz Lemon Juice
2 Dashes Herbsaint(90 Proof) New Recipe
2 Dashes Aromatic Bitters

Shake with Ice. Serve up

*Corpse Reviver #2
1 oz Gin
½ oz Cointreau
½ oz Lillet Blond
¾ oz Lemon Juice
Dash of Absinthe

This past May a rare occurrence in the spirit world took place at New York’s Campbell Apartments when extremely rare vintages of Cherry Heering, the cherry liqueur made famous being a component of the Blood and Sand and Singapore Sling Cocktails were opened and tasted. These vintages included a bottle remaining from 1890 and 1950. And were opened and compared to a modern day offering.

Including in the individuals selected to taste these vintages were, Jackson Cannon, of Boston’s Eastern Standard; Jörgen Tilander, owner of the Cherry Heering® liqueur ,Akiko Katayama, an established international writer and former Iron Chef judge and Tony Abu Ganim, The Modern Mixologist.

After comparing the two vintages along side the the present day offering of Cherry Heering, the tasting panel’s favorite was the 1890 vintage. Tony Abu Ganim, noted that the additional time the spirit spent in the bottle allowed new flavors of cigar and cocoa to develop.

Will Cherry Heering have another one of these vintage tasting events? Only time will..

A Blood and Sand Cocktail made with the Vintage Cherry Heering. The other ingredients include equal parts of scotch, orange juice and vermouth.