Author Notes
I'm more than a little embarrassed calling this cocktail The Breukelen. The explosion of "Brooklyn" combined with a penchant for nouveau Brooklynites like myself to dig into history to find names for the everyday mundane means that almost every cocktail bar in the borough has at one time or another had a cocktail called The Breukelen.
Nonetheless, The Brooklyn was already taken, and has been for the better part of a century (2 ounces rye plus 1 ounce dry vermouth plus 1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur plus 1/4 ounce Amer Picon). Keeping it rye based, introducing "history," and making its preparation unnecessarily complicated with a farm-to-glass component gave rise to contemporary Brooklyn's Breukelen.
The Byrrh, an aromatized wine-based apéritif made of red wine and quinine, gives the cocktail an incredible, autumnal red, which is perfect because after buying your cherries in the summer it takes several months before the infusion is ready. —Hi, I'm Brian
Ingredients
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1 ounce
cherry-cinnamon infused bourbon
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1 ounce
rye whiskey
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1 ounce
Byrrh
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1
orange peel
Directions
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For the cherry-cinnamon infused bourbon, buy a couple quarts of sweet cherries from the farmers market when they're in season (obviously), clean them, and pit them. Put the cherries into a large Mason jar (obviously) with three or four cinnamon sticks, pour in a bottle of bourbon until the cherries are fully covered, put the lid on, and store in the back of your refrigerator for a few months. After a few months, drain the bourbon and discard the cherries and cinnamon sticks. You might be tempted to use the cherries for another purpose, but I promise you they aren't good for anything.
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With ice, stir together the rye whiskey, cherry-cinnamon bourbon, and the Byrrh.
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Strain into a glass and garnish with orange twist.
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