quarter deck cocktail #2

1 oz Jamaican Rum (Appleton 12 Year)
1/2 oz Sherry (Lustau East India Sherry)
1/2 oz Scotch (Caol Ila 12 Year)
1 tsp Simple Syrup
1 dash Orange Bitters (Angostura Orange)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I added an orange twist to the recipe.

On my way home from the Boston Shaker store on Saturday, I passed by a box of kitchenware on the sidewalk and spied a piece of vintage glassware which I adopted and took home. While looking for a cocktail to fill it (after a run through the dishwasher, that is) on Sunday night, I flipped through our copy of Trader Vic's 1947 Bartender's Guide and found the Quarter Deck Cocktail #2 which attracted me as it teamed up rum, sherry, and orange flavors which have worked rather well in the past such as in the Balmy Night. In addition, the presence of Scotch in the recipe to donate some smoky notes sealed the deal.
The nose of the Quarter Deck #2 contained orange and smoke notes with a hint of aged rum aromas. First on the sip was a fruitiness from the sherry followed by the rich rum paired with the whiskey. At the end of the swallow were the Scotch's smoke and the bitter's orange flavors. The sweet grapiness of the East India Solera Sherry functioned well to balance the roughness of the Scotch's smoke notes. Throughout the drink, I kept wondering what the cocktail would be like had we used Smith & Cross as the Jamaican rum in this recipe; such an unruly and surly rum would undoubtedly shift the Quarter Deck #2 in a very different direction. The idea did cross my mind early on, but it was not the cocktail we were searching for that night -- perhaps at a later date.