Carlton Banks
Recipe:
- 30ml cognac
- 30ml cherry liqueur
- 2 dashes orange bitters
- 2 drops Boker's bitters
- 45ml Brut Champagne
Stir the first 4 ingredients on ice until sufficiently chilled, strain into a prechilled cocktail glass, top up and slightls stir with the Champagne. Garnish with an orange zest.
In fact, like Simon Difford from Diffordsguide in his commentary on the drink, I was really surprised at how little - and also how little sweet - the cherry brandy/liqueur comes through here. The dry champagne seems to extract as much sweetness here as with just a few other partners in drinks I had to date. I really, really like this drink, even in its original ratio. If you still want it drier, you can switch to 50:25:25, but even less would destroy the character of the cocktail too much.
Despite only 45ml, the nose mainly has the familiar, beautiful sparkle of Champagne, with the orange zest, a hint of grape and cherry only subtly and elegantly behind it. In the mouth it is wonderful and round, initially fresh grapes and dried fruit with the perlage, plus orange oil. You can play around with it in the mouth for a really long time, until a beautiful, dark black cherry with a pit comes through in the last third. Very nice drink, has the makings of a modern classic for me.
Source: Seth Brammer at Filament, Dallas Texas, USA
