ozymandias

3/4 oz Rittenhouse Rye
3/4 oz Copper & Kings Butchertown Brandy (Copper & Kings American Brandy)
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth (Lacuesta Rojo)
1/2 oz Bigallet China-China (Torani Amer)
1/2 oz Benedictine
1 dash Bittermens Tiki Bitters (Bittermens Burlesque)

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with a lemon twist.Two Tuesdays ago, I decided to make the Ozymandias that appeared in the most recent issue of Imbibe Magazine (March/April 2022). This tribute to either the Percy Bysshe Shelley poem or the poem's muse Pharaoh Ramesses II (Ozymandias was how the Greeks referred to him as) was crafted by Nickle Morris at Expo in Louisville, Kentucky, and it reminded me of a split spirits Creole Cocktail. In the glass, the Ozymandias proffered a lemon and brandy aroma. Next, grape and caramel notes mingled on the sip, and swallow conjured up rye, brandy, herbal, and caramel orange flavors.