laughing boy

1/2 tsp Sugar
1 dash Angostura Bitters
1 tsp Sweet Vermouth (1/4 oz Cocchi Sweet Vermouth)
Fill with Puerto Rican Rum (2 oz Rhum Barbancourt)

Dissolve the sugar in the bitters (I added 1 tsp water) in an old fashioned glass. Add vermouth, fill with chipped ice, and fill with rum (add rum and vermouth and fill with crushed ice). Garnish with a lemon peel and orange slices (lemon and orange twists).
Two Tuesdays ago, I selected my 1965 edition of the Esquire Party Guide and spotted the Laughing Boy drink recipe mixed in between all of the food ones. I then recalled Max Toste's 2014 riff that he still called the Laughing Boy at Deep Ellum; Max took the Rum Old Fashioned-Pirate's Cocktail hybrid and added a pair of amari to make it more of a modern Rum Manhattan riff. The original was very simple, so I increased the complexity by swapping in Haitian rum for the call of Puerto Rican. Once built, the Laughing Boy began with an orange and lemon oil nose that preceded a grape and caramel sip. Next, the swallow donated aged rum, herbal, clove, and allspice flavors.