rabbit stick

2 oz Rittenhouse 100 Rye
1 oz Housemade Swedish Punsch
1/2 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth
2 dash Angostura Bitters
2 dash Angostura Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass; twist a lemon peel over the top.

Last Wednesday, Andrea and I ventured down to Central Square to get dinner at Rendezvous. For my pre-dinner cocktail, I asked bartender Scott Holliday to make me the Rabbit Stick which recently appeared on their cocktail menu. I was drawn to the drink for it contained Scott's new Swedish Punsch, and I was curious to see his version compared to Deep Ellum's, Clio's, and ours. When I asked about the drink name, Scott commented that it was a reworking of the Savoy Cocktail Book's Boomerang -- a drink we had made at home several months ago from the Café Royal Cocktail Book. The name stems from a type of non-returning boomerang that Aboriginals and Native Americans used to hunt small game.
The Rabbit Stick led off with the aroma of lemon oil and Swedish Punsch's aged rum. The sip was rather spicy from the Rittenhouse Rye, and a different sort of spiciness followed on the swallow from the Swedish Punsch. The bitters and dry vermouth's botanicals complemented each of these ingredients and helped to bridge the gap to smooth out the flavor transitions.