runaway horses

1 oz Apple Brandy (Laird's Bonded)
1 oz Cardamaro
1 oz Zucca or Sfumato Rabarbaro (Sfumato)

Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with ice, and garnish with a grapefruit twist.
Two Saturdays ago, I was inspired by the Lafayette from the Laird's book to play around with apple brandy. I recalled the apple brandy-Rabarbaro combination in the Two Words as well as the apple brandy-Cardamaro one in the Rusty Soul, and I combined all three elements into an Apple Negroni-style equal parts cocktail. For a name, I decided to dub this one after a Yukio Mishima novel called Runaway Horses. In the glass, the Runaway Horses galloped up to the nose with a grapefruit aroma over fruity-bitter herbal notes. Next, grape and caramel on the sip was chased by apple, bitter, and smoky flavors on the swallow.