handcuffed lightning

3/4 oz Smith & Cross Rum
3/4 oz Cognac (Pierre Ferrand Ambre)
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Swedish Punsch (Kronan)
1/2 oz Apricot Liqueur (Rothman & Winter)
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.

Two Sundays ago, I thought about the Swedish punsch-apricot liqueur combination that I first discovered in the Havana Cocktail as well as the apricot-Punt e Mes duo found in the Slope. The other combination in the trio of Punt e Mes-Swedish Punsch occured in Tony Iamunno's Butterfly Sting, and I decided to riff on that Muhammed Ali tribute. For a spirit base, I split things up with a funky Jamaican rum and a rich Cognac, and for a name, I opted for the Handcuffed Lightning from Ali's quote, "I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick."The Handcuffed Lightning shot forth with an orange, apricot, and rum funk bouquet. Next, caramel and grape swirled on the sip, and the swallow thundered out with Cognac, funky rum, apricot, tea, and rounded bitterness on the swallow with a clove, smoke, and funk finish.