Our cocktail inspiration for today is The Cherry Tree Carol, a Child ballad based on an apocryphal story about Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem. While traveling through a cherry orchard, Mary asks Joseph to pick a cherry for her. He refuses saying "get your baby daddy to pick your cherries" (we paraphrase). The in utero Baby Jesus hears his mother's request and bends a cherry tree branch down so she can reach some damn cherries.
We started with a pretty straightforward idea - something cherry. But we didn't want to do just a simple cherry sour or similar. Kate got a butane torch for her birthday last month. This cocktail was calling out for some kind of fire or smoke. Let's burn some cherry wood!
The Cherry Tree Carol Cocktail
2 oz bourbon (we used Trace - so smooth)
1 oz cherry-infused Benedictine
1 dropper Apothecary Spirit Fire Bitters
Orange rind
Cherry wood chips
Cocktail glass
- Combine bourbon, Benedictine and bitters in shaker.
- Light a pile of cherry wood chips on fire.
- Blow out fire when it starts to smoke.
- Invert cocktail glass over smoke and capture in the glass.
- Add ice to shaker and shake to chill.
- Strain into smoke filled cocktail glass.
- Take a slice of orange peel, express the oil over the cocktail glass and light on fire.
- Note: this cocktail is a little easier to assemble if you have two people.
Cocktail Notes
To infuse the Benedictine, we added about 1/4 cup dried cherries into about 1/2 cup Benedictine and let it infuse overnight.
We also made a cherry infusion with Suze (same ratio). It was tasty, but not as good as the Benedictine.
Our cocktail is a variation of one created by the good folks at Apothecary Bitters - the Gedi Prime. They use a cherry-infused vermouth and then infuse the booze with the smoke, rather than fill the glass. We like the smoke-filled glass because of the effect when you serve it. And surprisingly, the smoke stays in the glass longer than you would expect. We refrigerated the cocktail for a few hours before drinking it, and the smoke could definitely still be tasted in the glass.
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