Cherry Heering Cocktails

[Chris Amirault]

Found a bottle of Cherry Heering the other day and grabbed it. First thing I made: Tarleton's Resurrection from The Hersch:

1 1/2 oz gin (Plymouth)

3/4 oz Cherry Heering

3/4 oz lemon

2 dashes Maraschino

2 dashes orange bitters (Fee's and Regan's)

A tart, refreshing start to the evening, we both thought. Got me wondering about other possibilities. Yeah, I know, Blood & Sand. What else?

[JAZ]

I made a Communist from Dr. Cocktail's book a while back. It's gin, orange juice, Cherry Heering and lemon juice (Here's a picture of it) -- a little sweet, but it bears tinkering with.

[eje]

If you're in the mood for a summer drink, try this tasty sling from Charles H. Baker Jr.'s "South American Gentleman's Companion":

The Paramaribo Park Club Gin Sling from the Dutch Guiana Capital City of Suriname

Actually this sling was something of an improvement over the sweetish Raffles job, to your Pastor's present-day taste.  It was a trifle dryer, had a bit more lime juice than average here in the United States; and, finally the inclusion of the crushed--seeded--lime hulls in the finished drink lent added aroma and flavor as they do in Gin Rickeys.

2 oz Best Dry Gin

1 Pony Cherry Brandy

Juice & Hulls 2 small limes

1 tsp each Cognac & Benedictine

Shake with fine ice till quite cold, strain into short highball glass, letting some of the ice go in also.  Cap with chilled club soda; garnish with ripe pineapple stick &/or cherry.  Personally we float-on the Benedictine-Cognac after finished drink's poured.

Edited June 3, 2007 by eje (log)

[thirtyoneknots]

I don't drink Heering often, but I do really enjoy the drinks that use it:

High Hat

1.5 oz Rye

.5 oz Heering

.5 oz lemon

shake/strain/up

Move Over (aka "cherry martini" )

1.5 oz gin

.5 oz dry vermouth

.25 oz sweet vermouth

.25 oz Heering

dash Angostura

stir/strain/up, twist

Perhaps the most fascinating use of it I've found so far though:

McKinley's Delight (aka Remember the Maine)

2 oz Rye

.75 oz sweet vermouth

.25 oz Heering

tsp Absinthe

stir/strain/up, twist

The McKinleys Delight is really a marvel, it's obviously a spin on your basic Rye Manhattan formula, but it ends up tasting only vaguely like it. It doesn't particularly taste like any of the component ingredients, and it's not nearly as sweet as it sounds, though I imagine it would get appreciably sweeter if pastis were used in lieu of absinthe. It's a pretty precarious balance as is.

Seems like I had more than three when I started writing this, but those are probably the best ones I know.

-Andy