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All cocktails Blackthorn No. 2 (Homeboy's)

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Blackthorn No. 2 (Homeboy's)

Nightcap/sipping · Short and stirred · Spirit-forward

4.2 38 ratings

Ingredients

1 1/3 oz Irish whiskey
2/3 oz Tawny port
1/3 oz Brown sugar syrup
1 dash Absinthe
1 dash Aromatic bitters

How to make

Serve in a nick & nora glass

Prepare

  1. 1 Select and pre-chill a NICK & NORA GLASS.
  2. 2 Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.

Method

  1. 3 STIR all ingredients with ice.
  2. 4 FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

  1. 5 EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Flavour profile

22.5% alc./vol. · 1.1 standard drinks · 156 calories

History

Whiskey-laced, boozy blackcurrant fruit pastille, as described by its creator, Aaron.

This recipe is adapted from a drink originally named Breakfast in Milan, created by Dawid Steenkamp at Jamie Oliver's Barbecoa in London, England. It draws inspiration from the Negroni and Salvatore's Breakfast Martini. While this may be a variation of The Savoy Cocktail Book's Blackthorn it is more properly a riff on Harry Johnson's "Black Thorn" from his 1900 Bartender's Manual which, thanks to William "Cocktail Bill" Boothby's 1930 World's Drinks And How To Mix Them is now known as a Blackthorn No. 3. Aaron Wall at his Homeboy bar in Islington, London, England, where it is a signature cocktail, adapted it. Aaron explains, "The Blackthorn cocktail appears in The Savoy Cocktail Book with a gin and an Irish whiskey version, using fortified wine as a modifier. The idea for us was to amplify the berry flavours that you would get from the fortified wine and use a port instead and rounding it off with a little demerara sugar to make this drink finish with a distinct taste of boozy blackcurrant fruit pastille."

Created by Aaron Wall