right hand

1 1/2 oz Aged Rum (1/2 oz Privateer Navy Yard + 1/2 oz Old Ipswich Tavern Style + 1/2 oz Ryan & Wood Folly Cove)
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth (Cocchi)
3/4 oz Campari
3 dash Bittermens Mole Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with a cherry.

Two Sundays ago, I was inspired by the Louisiana Purchase from A Spot at the Bar as a Cognac variant on a Gold Rush or Bee's Knees, and I looked to see if the Hand series was there. I ended up finding it in Sasha Petraske's Regarding Cocktails where it provided a little history of the drinks. Sam Ross described how, "We created a series of 'Hand' cocktails in the early days of Milk & Honey. The Right Hand was an aged-rum take; Tres Hands was its mezcal and tequila sister; and the Smoking Hand was her brother from Islay and the Highlands. Before the Boulevardier came back into prominence, this [the Left Hand] was a bourbon riff on the Negroni that we created using the newly released chocolate bitters from the Bittermens." Despite having referenced the Left and Right Hands in riffs like the Left Hand of Darkness and the Red Right Hook, I had never written about either, and I decided to start with the rum-based Right Hand. Taking the Donn the Beachcomber approach of "What one rum can't do, three rums can!", I made this a three Massachusetts rum Right Hand by sourcing two rums from Ipswich and one from Gloucester.
The Right Hand waved to the nose with an aged rum and bitter orange orange aroma. Next, caramel and grape on the sip grasped into rich rums and caramel orange flavors on the swallow with a bitter chocolate and orange finish.