[heather in the rye]

1 1/2 oz Rittenhouse 100 Rye
3/4 oz Clement Creole Shrub
1/3 oz Fernet Branca
1 dash Regan's Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a glass pre-rinsed with Lagavulin 16 Year Old Scotch. Garnish with an orange twist.

On Monday after my DJ gig, Andrea and I went up the street to Eastern Standard and found seats at the bar near bartender Kevin Martin. When I told Kevin that it had been a while since I had any rye, he immediately knew what to mix for me. The drink he returned with was his submission for the east coast version of Left Coast Libations' book. While he did not have a name for the drink, the concept reminded me of a whiskey Heather in Queue.
The drink started with an orange and smoke nose, and malt notes appeared in the beginning of the sip. On the swallow, orange and Fernet flavors added a nice finish to the drink, and the Scotch rinse came through as a lingering smoke note at the end. Surprisingly, the Fernet Branca was kept in check in this recipe, and it did not seem very mentholly until the cocktail warmed up. Instead, some of Fernet's other botanicals played a more dominant role.