bronco buster

1 jigger Applejack (1 oz Laird's)
1 jigger Rye (1 oz Redemption)
1/2 jigger Curaçao (1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand)
Juice of 1/2 Lemon (1/2 oz)
(1/4 oz Simple Syrup)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.

Two Saturdays ago for the cocktail hour, I searched through Ted Saucier's Bottoms Up and spotted the Bronco Buster from from the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix. Despite the book having been published in the 1950s, I was surprised to discover that the resort-hotel is still in existence. The last time the hotel was in the news was when John McCain conceded defeat in the 2008 election on the its lawn. Saucier's book also contains another more famous rye-applejack cocktail, namely the potent Diamondback, which is on both Green Street and Brick & Mortar's menus.
The orange twist on the Bronco Buster added to the fruitier aromas I detected and to the rye whiskey ones Andrea smelled. The lemon-orange sip led into a rye and apple swallow that finished with the lemon's tartness. Both Andrea and I found the recipe a bit on the tart side, so I added a dash of simple syrup and stirred it in; perhaps the Pierre Ferrand's drier-than-average Curaçao caused me to err in my initial recipe balance assumptions.