The Bitter Handshake
Recipe:
- 30ml rye whiskey syrup*
- 30ml fernet
- 30ml blood orange reduction*
Stir everything on ice until sufficiently chilled, strain into a prechilled rocks glass over one large ice cube. Garnish with a thick orange zest.
A very interesting and delicious drink from the "Bitters" book by Brad Thomas Parsons, which has already been discussed here on LiquidThoughts. I think it's a bit daring to call this a Fernet Old Fashioned, as PUNCH does. With the reduction method used, there is still quite a bit of acidity, even if it is nicely masked. As a result, I don't think of it as a "real" Old Fashioned. But nonetheless a fantastic Fernet drink, perfectly present and ideally integrated is the intense herbal liqueur. Fresh, minty, blood orange, lightly candied, with Christmas spice, etc.
If you make it exactly according to the PUNCH recipe, you get a very cloudy drink, the photo there is very misleading. To make it look like the one there (an almost clear, brown Old Fashioned-style drink), you would have to filter the blood orange quite a few times.
*Blood Orange Reduction:
In a small saucepan, bring the blood orange juice to a boil over medium-high heat.
Boil until reduced by a third.
Remove from heat and let cool.
*Rye Whiskey Syrup:
Make 1:1 simple syrup, subbing the water for rye.
Source: "Bitters" - Brad Thomas Parsons, originally by Andrew Bohrer
