Classic Cocktail

You read the name right: this is the original classic cocktail. Well, at least it purports to be classic. If you think about it, this drinks is somewhat modern. It brings together liqueurs and brandy in ways that taste familiar to brandy cocktail drinkers of the 19th century. Lemon and lemon zest keep it tart while a sugar rim means you can choose how sweet each sip will be.

The look and feel of the drink are certainly classic; the crust of sugar and three parts of lemon (the juice, the wedge and the peel) reminds me of last century architecture that possesses such ornate beauty for no other reason than appearing beautiful or prestigious. That's this drinks to a tee.

So I did a few unusual things with my liquor choices here. First, cognac please. You don't use ordinary brandy when you are making a classic drink. Use cognac. Next, I thought a half ounce of maraschino liqueur (which tastes like bitter marzipan) would be too intense, so I cut the proportion of it in the drink down and replaced that portion with Cherry Heering, which darkened the drink and made it sweeter with a more rich dark cherry flavor. Finally I chose Vitae orange liqueur because of its rum base. It is much closer to real Curacao, which is rum based, than cheap triple sec.

• 2 oz. brandy (Cognac, please.)
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur (half Cherry Heering and half Luxardo used)
• 1/2 oz. curacao (Vitae orange liqueur used.)
• sugar
• lemon wedge
• lemon twist

Rim a cocktail glass with sugar by coating it with juice from the lemon wedge and dipping it in a bowl of sugar. Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into the cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon wedge and peel.