24 Mar Drink of the Week: The Jackson Cocktail Recipe

Drink of the Week: The Jackson

The second author being welcomed at the PEN/Faulkner cocktail reception was Mitchell S. Jackson, author of The Residue Years, a novel that shows a much different side of Portland, Oregon, from Portlandia. Being a critically acclaimed new author, he, like Jamison–it could go without saying–lives in Brooklyn. But since he works in Manhattan, we used that as our jumping off point for his cocktail.

We always like to make sure that we have a low alcohol drink on the menu, and that seemed especially necessary here with the oversized Faulkner and the stiff martini Jamison being the other options. So, we reversed a Manhattan’s normal proportions of whiskey and vermouth. Then, as a nod to the event being held at Compass coffee, and for an extra note of bittersweetness, we added some coffee liqueur. While we usually consider rye to make an equal or better Manhattan to Bourbon, for this one we prefer the smoothness of Bourbon.

This is a rich, smooth, sweet, fruity drink–with the whiskey and coffee bringing just the right amount of bite to give it depth and complexity.

The Jackson

Ingredients

• 2 oz sweet vermouth (we like Boissiere when we can find it)
• .5 oz coffee liqueur (we always use cheap ones with no brand recognition. Why pay for big marketing budgets? And we like the molasses flavor.)
• .5 oz Bourbon
• cherry (a proper maraschino, like from Luxardo. not one of those bright red ones.)

Instructions

• Stir the first 3 ingredients with ice until chilled.
• Strain.
• Garnish with cherry.