A Wee Experiment: Bourbon & Apple Brandy Cocktail

This was a little tipple I slapped together last winter. My car had been down with an engine rebuild and I was commuting in the cold and rain on my motorcycle. So after a day of freezing my ass off in wet jeans while dealing with my students, I came home to the desire for something bracing. Here's what I made:

2 oz. Bulleit Bourbon, 2 oz. Santa Fe Distillery Apple Brandy, two shakes of Angostura bitters, a teaspoon of the juice from the Maraschino cherry jar (plus one cherry). Stir and serve room temperature. Tastes good, bit of a kick, and very simple.

A more mellow version would be lose the Maraschino and drop a measure of lemon juice into the mix. Combine it all with ice in a shaker, shake ‘til cold, strain the results into a glass and get happy.