the bon-vivant

1 1/2 oz Lustau East India Solera Sherry
1/2 oz Cruzan Black Strap Rum
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Cinnamon Syrup
2 big Blackberries

Muddle blackberries in a rocks glass. Add rest of ingredients and fill with crushed ice. Stir, garnish with 2 sprigs of mint and a blackberry, and add straws.

Monday after my DJ gig, we stopped into Eastern Standard for dinner. For a drink, I asked bartender Seth Freidus for the Bon-Vivant which was subtitled "in honor of the professor." That professor of course is Jerry Thomas, and this tribute was created by Kit Paschal in the style of a Sherry Cobbler.
The Bon-Vivant offered up a mint aroma that led into a sip containing sherry's grape and the muddle blackberry. Next, the sherry's nutty notes paired well with the rum's molasses flavor at the beginning of the swallow that ended with light cinnamon notes. Overall, the Lustau East India Sherry was a lot nuttier than I remember it being; Andrea surmised that it was the black strap rum that set the sherry in that direction.