33) The Modena

2 oz. Eagle Rare Bourbon
.5 oz. Nocino Walnut Liqueur
.5 oz. Cynar

Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, and garnish with a flamed orange peel.

Ed and I were out grabbing a drink last week when he told me he had an idea for our next libation. The bar had recently received a bit of Monteverdi Nocino, and it had given him an idea to make a dessert drink that would mimic the flavors of walnut ice cream. We bandied about ideas for a while, and both vowed to remember what we had come up with.

Flash forward to the weekend.

Me: "So!"
Ed: "Arg! What?"
Me: "How 'bout we mix us up a drink? Do you, uh, remember what we had decided on trying?"
Ed: "Not really. Nocino - ice creamy?"

So, yeah, that really worked out.

As we began the process of reconstructing the drink we started to lose enthusiasm for the idea of doing a dessert drink. Fortunately we were still quite keen on using the Nocino, so we turned our attention to the more pressing matter of getting some lipstick on that pig. Having had (and seen) several iterations of Manhattans using Amero's in lieu the standard bitters, I thought riffing off that riff would be rifftastic. Riff!

Our primary concern was that the Nocino would be a pretty sweet addition, so we picked a bourbon with a pretty good kick to offset that possibility. The results were somewhat surprising to me as I had doubts as to how well the Nocino would work with the bourbon. To my moderate surprise they worked very well together. The bourbon was most prominent, but the Nocino left nice, mild notes of walnut on the finish, and the Cynar stayed very much in the background while working its bitter mojo to elevate the overall drink.

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