fernet cocktail

2 oz Michter's Rye (Old Overholt 86°)
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Fernet Branca
1 dash Fee's Orange Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with an orange twist.When I was speaking with Jackson Cannon before the Calvados event two Mondays ago at Eastern Standard, we began to talk about strange drink requests and strange cocktails. After I mentioned the Sputnik that I made twice for folks at Drink which elongated Fernet Branca with vodka in a Sour format, he countered with the Fernet Cocktail created at Eastern Standard a few years ago. The earliest Fernet Cocktail that I had tried was the one in Louis' Mixed Drinks from 1906 with sweet vermouth and curaçao. The drink with the best connection in my head is the Fernet Cocktail in Robert Vermeire's 1922 book before it later got renamed the Toronto, and many have spotted the one in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book of gin, sweet vermouth, and Fernet Branca (more Fernet and less vermouth than a Hanky Panky from that same tome). The Eastern Standard one that I was able to get the exact proportions from my recipe collection that I was sent was more akin to a Red Hook or Green Point with Fernet as the liqueur instead of Maraschino or Yellow Chartreuse, respectively. Once mixed, this modern Fernet Cocktail showcased an orange, grape, and menthol aroma. Next, caramel and grape on the sip progressed into rye, herbal, and minty menthol flavors on the swallow.