The Loosened Tie

I am fascinated by mixology for the same reason I love to cook, seemingly incongruous ingredients not only work together, but elevate a dish, or in this case, a cocktail to the next level.  The Loosened Tie, a modern take on the Sazerac, combines cheery heering, absinthe, and ginger liqueur, a combination that might not seem appetizing at first, but I guarantee you will love it!

Ingredients:

2 ounces rye

1/2 ounce cherry heering

1/2 ounce ginger liqueur (I used Domaine de Canton)

2 dashes orange bitters

Dash absinthe

Coat a lowball with absinthe.  Toss excess (or better yet, drink it!).  Add rye, cherry heering, ginger liqueur, and bitters to a shaker with ice.  Shake well.  Strain into the lowball with a large ice cube.  Twist an orange peel over the glass to expel the orange oils and drop it in.

I absolutely love the Sazerac, a classic cocktail from New Orleans which combines rye, simple syrup, Peychaud's bitters, and absinthe.  One day after work I was in the mood for one but I had run out of simple syrup, so I figured the next best thing is to use a liqueur, which has inherent sweetness.  I rummaged around my liqueur cabinet and realized that my bottles of cherry heering and Domaine de Canton had become dusty with disuse.  So I added a bit of each until the drink was balanced and to my surprise the drink was delicious.  It goes to show that improvisation sometimes yields surprising and delicious results!