new nails

1 1/2 oz Scotch (Monkey Shoulder)
1/2 oz Smith & Cross Rum
1/2 oz Drambuie
1/2 oz Swedish Punsch (Kronan)
2 dash Angostura Bitters
2 dash Absinthe (20 drop Kübler)

Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with orange oil from a twist.Two Fridays ago at Drink, I had a guest in an after-work crowd that was ordering Rusty Nails, and like a week prior when I crafted the Big Spender, it got me thinking. Another cocktail that I had made that night was the Modernista, and I decided to take that Scotch-Jamaican rum combination and fuse it with the Rusty Nail. I dropped the citrus from the equation and ended up opting for Angostura Bitters which provided more structure than the orange bitters from the Modernista. For a name, I dubbed this one the New Nails after the 1982 song from Boston band Mission of Burma. Here, it welcomed the nose with orange, caramel, and rum funk aromas. Next, honey and caramel mingled on the sip, and the swallow rounded things off with Scotch, honey, tea, rum funk, anise, and clove flavors.