char no. 8

1 1/2 oz Bourbon (Old Grand-Dad Bonded)
1/4 oz Compass Box Peat Monster Scotch (Laphroaig 10 Year)
1/4 oz Zucca Rabarbaro (Sfumato)
(1/8 oz Simple Syrup)
2 dash Bitter Truth Jerry Thomas Decanter Bitters

Build in an Old Fashioned glass, add a large ice cub, and stir. Note: I found this rather bitter and dry with the Sfumato as the only sweetener, so I added a barspoon of syrup as noted above.Two Wednesdays ago, I spotted an Old Fashioned riff in Sother Teague's I'm Just Here for the Drink, and it was a Bourbon-based one with smoky elements added from Scotch as was seen in the Base Camp and Sfumato such as was done in the Knife to a Gun Fight. Sother was inspired by Buffalo Trace's experiments where they went past the normal barrel char levels of no. 3 or 4 (35 and 55 seconds under flame, respectively) and took it all the way up to 7 (3 to 3.5 minutes under flame); here, Sother wanted to outdo that by calling this one Char No. 8. In the glass, Char No. 8 offered up an earthy and smoky bouquet from peat in the the Scotch and the Chinese rhubarb root in the Sfumato. Next, caramel and char notes on the sip rolled into Bourbon, peat smoke, dried fruit, and bitter finish on the swallow.