Recipe
- 1.5oz blended scotch (Famous Grouse)
- .75oz FRESH squeezed orange juice
- .5oz Cherry Heering
- .5oz sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica)
Shake all ingredients with ice, and strain into a coupe.
About
I’ve totally been on a Scotch kick lately and (finally) developing my palate for Scotch. Well, the Blood and Sand is a classic Scotch-based cocktail – a rarity in the classics world! Scotch is generally not too often used in cocktails since it’s not the easiest of flavors to mix with. This drink incorporates Scotch whisky with citrusy orange juice, cherry liqueur, and botanical-rich vermouth.
While it’s a delicious flavor combination, this cocktail is sometimes divisive for people, who either love it or hate it. In the hate camp, people often cite it as unbalanced and too sweet. Personally, I have a drier (less sweet) palate for cocktails and thus was apprehensive to try the original recipe, which calls for equal parts of each ingredient. With 3 of the 4 being sweet ingredients (orange juice, cherry liqueur, sweet vermouth), I hesitated and instead opted for the version published by the PDT app for iOS (get this!). I enjoyed an absolutely delicious delighter that was not in the least bit unbalanced. The combination of orange and cherry was reminiscent of the lovely functional garnish pairings for classic whiskey cocktails (Old Fashioned – orange peel; Manhattan – brandied cherry), and the orange juice (fresh squeezed is a necessity!) brought a lovely air of freshness to the drink to make it a bit less stuffy and boozy.
(ps, I totally recommend looking in the minis section in your liquor stores and pick up a travel-sized (usually 50ml/1.7oz) of Cherry Heering, unless you know you really love it. You don’t need very much at once, and a little bit goes a long way. My tiny bottle lasted me a good 3-4 drinks)