wigglesworth

2 3/4 oz Makers Mark 46 Bourbon
3/4 oz Apple-Cinnamon Syrup (*)
1/2 oz Fernet Branca
2 dash Urban Moonshine Maple Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass.

(*) The syrup was made as a two-fold reduction of apple juice which was heated with cinnamon sticks (15 per gallon). Remove the cinnamon sticks and add an equal part of sugar.
On Saturday afternoon, I was off running errands and found myself with an hour or so to kill before meeting Andrea for dinner after she got off from work. Since I was heading toward that end of the Red Line, I got off the subway at Harvard Square and paid a visit to Russell House Tavern. The drink I requested from head bartender Aaron Butler was the Wigglesworth. The drink was modeled after the Toronto, and Aaron added a great autumnal touch with a spiced apple syrup. Wigglesworth is a freshman dormitory on the Harvard Campus not too far from the tavern. Unfortunately, I did not ask which of the Wigglesworth clan (many of whom went to school at Harvard from the seventeenth century onward) he named it after, but I sure hoped it was the day-of-doom Michael who greatly influenced the Puritanical population. Even from an early age, the man thought he was damned after suffering the depravity of a few nocturnal emissions. Michael, however, did not find it damning that he married his own cousin; he suffered from a great inferiority complex and felt that she was the best he could do. Okay, so this has nothing to do with the drink, but this bit of 1600's Puritanical perversion has to make up for the fact that I neglected to ask Aaron about the etymology of his cocktail.

The Wigglesworth's nose was a pleasing apple and cinnamon aroma, and the syrup surprisingly overpowered the Fernet and whiskey in this arena. The sip was a sweet whiskey flavor followed by cinnamon and Fernet's menthol note on the swallow. Lastly, there was an interesting lingering honey-like note at the end; when I mentioned this to Aaron, he attributed it to the honey-thick apple syrup.