orchard street

2 oz Aged Apple Brandy (Laird's Bonded)
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Amaro Nardini
1/4 oz Amontillado or Oloroso Sherry (Lustau Oloroso)

Stir with ice, strain into a coupe glass, and garnish with a lemon twist.While writing up the Five Points, I began to think about its similarities to the Carroll Gardens -- both maintained the combination of Punt e Mes and Amaro Nardini but had different base spirits and nutty accents. To make my own riff, I swapped the spirit to aged apple brandy, and for a nutty ingredient instead of Maraschino or walnut liqueur, I opted for an oxidized dry sherry. As I learned from the It's a Long, Long Way at Wit's End, a little bit of that sort of sherry goes quite a ways. The apple element made me think of Orchard Street in the Lower East Side in Manhattan that is less than a mile away from the Five Points neighborhood. In the glass, the Orchard Street proffered a lemon, apple, and grape aroma. Next, caramel and grape on the sip gave way to apple, herbal, and nutty flavors on the swallow.