the drink of insignificance

1 1/2 oz Cynar
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1/2+ oz (5/8 oz) Punt e Mes (*)
1/2- oz (3/8 oz) Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur (*)
3 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with a cherry.
(*) This was too aggressively Maraschino at 1/2 oz each Punt e Mes and Maraschino and too light at 3/4 oz Punt e Mes and 1/4 oz Maraschino. So perhaps 5/8 oz Punt e Mes and 3/8 oz Maraschino is a solid midpoint.

Two Sundays ago, I was inspired by the Daiquiri-esque The Drink of Laughter and Forgetting to see if its 3 parts Cynar to 1 part Green Chartreuse base would work in a Manhattan. I had previously used the duo as the support to base spirits in the Up Jumped the Devil and the Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck, but here I wanted to use them as the base again. For the support, I focused on the Punt e Mes-Maraschino combination of the Red Hook. For a name, since there was already a Milan Kundera book title connection with The Drink of Laughter and Forgetting, I likewise dubbed this The Drink of Insignificance.I was a little overwhelmed with a full half ounce of Maraschino and did a 3/4 oz Punt e Mes to 1/4 oz Maraschino mix, and found it a bit on the lighter side, so perhaps somewhere in between. Even with a 1/2 oz each, one of my Instagram friends @Cocktails_Innit made this and wrote in their post, "Excellent stuff! Bittersweet, balanced, one of my new favorites!" Overall, the combination proffered a caramel and nutty cherry aroma. Next, grape and caramel on the sip swapped into herbal, bitter, cherry, and clove flavors on the swallow.