drones club

1 1/2 oz Cognac (Courvoisier VS)
1/2 oz Dark Rum (Plantation Original Dark)
1 oz Cocchi Vermouth di Torino Sweet Vermouth
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass with a large ice cube.

Two Saturdays ago, I made one of the recipes that British bartender Jason Clapham had forwarded on to me that had been published in Difford's Guide. Jason is the Cocktail Member of the St. Edward's MCR in Oxford, and he explained that "basically means I'm responsible for making cocktails for knackered teaching colleagues late at night." The recipe I selected was the Drones Club named after a fictional location in P.G. Wodhouse's comics, and one source described how, "A drone being a male bee that does no work, living off the labor of others, it aptly describes the contemporary Edwardian stereotype of rich, idle young club members, though some of the members have careers and even jobs." For this split based Manhattan riff, he recommended a heavier dark rum with some pot still aspect to it to work well with the Cognac.
The Drones Club welcomed the senses with a dark rum, Cognac, and allspice aroma. Next, grape and caramel on the sip developed into funky rum, Cognac, and allspice on the swallow. Overall, the drink had a very classic feel akin to the early 20th century rye-rum Manhattan, the Pals of Old, as well as more modern ones like the Night Shift.