1 1/2 oz old-fashioned rye

3/4 oz maraschino

1/2 oz lemon juice

soda water

combine rye, maraschino, and lemon juice in a tall glass over ice.  top with soda.

garnish with lemon and cherry (in this case, i pegged one of the brandied cherries the bar carries to one of the macerated rainier cherry halves from the infusion).

i finally got around to decanting the old-fashioned rye i set to infusing a month or so ago yesterday.  the mellowness of the rainier cherries really came through, softening the hard edges of the whiskey, and the spice notes from the ginger, cinnamon and cloves seemed to twinkle just right in the firmament thus created.  there was a tiny bitterness from the orange zest, but far and away the dominant flavor was the mellow tart sweetness of the cherries (which took awhile to infuse into the whiskey).

to be honest, i was tempted just to sell it on its own (it really is tasty), but yesterday was a sunny day, not a whiskey day (at least not without a little tweaking).  i fucked around with some manhattan variations for a minute (the perfect version was interesting in that the vermouths seemed to cancel out the subtleties of the whiskey, at least until the drink warmed a bit), but none of them worked for me, so i hit on the idea of a simple cooler.  maraschino’s not usually one of my go-to mixers, though i’m warming to it, and it seemed to fit the bill for what i was looking for.  add a little lemon for some tartness, a little soda for the sparkling refreshingness, and you’ve got yourself a delightful summer sipper.

i know it was good, because i had to make two server samples.  the first one disappeared before the whole crew was on.  i’ll probably run it again today, and that’ll be it for the old-fashioned rye, i suspect.  i only made two bottles, after all.