bloodhound cocktail

6 Raspberries
1/2 tsp Maraschino Liqueur
2/3 oz Dry Gin (North Shore No. 6)
2/3 oz Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat)
2/3 oz Sweet Vermouth (Carpano Antica)

Muddle raspberries, add ice and rest of ingredients, shake, and double strain (to remove pips) into a cocktail glass. Alternatively, letting the ice cubes muddle the raspberries during the shake is an option.
On Wednesday evening before dinner, it was time for an aperitif cocktail. I began flipping through Robert Vermeire's Cocktails and How to Mix Them, and there I found the Bloodhound Cocktail which seemed like it would be a good reason to open our new bottle of Carpano Antica vermouth. It seems that many Bloodhound Cocktail recipes use strawberries; however, we followed Vermeire's recommendation with rather good success. After shaking the drink, the aroma was full of gin notes, but once the drink was poured, sweet vermouth and raspberries dominated the nose. The drink was rather sweet and fruity on the sip with gin flavors on the swallow. There was also a rather pleasant lingering raspberry flavor which reminded Andrea of "a very tasty version of cough medicine." Not sure I would associate such an enjoyable beverage with medication, but it was definitely more colorful than my description of it. Or perhaps I was just given the wrong cough syrup growing up.