lost lake's fog cutter v2.0

1 oz Neisson Eleve Sous Bois Rhum Agricole (Depaz)
1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac (Camus VS)
1/2 oz Ford's Gin (Beefeater)
1 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
3/4 oz Orgeat
1/2 oz Lustau Amontillado Sherry

Flash blend with 1 cup crushed ice, pour into a Tiki mug, and garnish with a mint bouquet, orange floret, orchid, and swizzle stick.

Two Wednesdays ago, I decided to make the Fog Cutter variation from Lost Lake in Chicago recently posted on Punch Drinks. I labeled this one version 2.0 for bartender Paul McGee had published an earlier version in Imbibe Magazine back in July 2016 that I made that month. In the first revision, McGee switched lemon to lime juice, the sherry float to mixed in, and orange juice to curaçao. McGee explained the removal of the orange as juice as, "I hate orange juice in cocktails -- it's not tart, it's not bright; it usually just adds a lot of water content without having that orange flavor." After learning that trick, I utilized it in my Three Dots and a Dash/Bee's Knees mashup with solid results.
From the 2016 to the 2018 recipe, McGee moved the rum more forward relative to the two other spirits and dialed back the citrus; moreover, he made that the light rum in his original a more flavorful aged rhum agricole to gain complexity. Once prepared, this Fog Cutter proffered orange and mint aromas from the garnish that gave way to a lemon, orange, and grape sip. Next, the swallow began with grassy rum, rich Cognac, and nutty flavors and ended with an orange note from the Curaçao.