Whiskey and cherries go well together and ditto for cherries and champagne—so, Brian and I wondered, does this mean whiskey, cherries, and champagne will harmonize into a winning drink? For this month's bubbly-themed Mixology Monday—hosted by Anita and Cameron at Married with Dinner—we decided to find out.

We had wanted to do something a little unusual, and Google searches turned up few cocktails marrying whiskey to sparkling wine. So we hit the liquor shop for bubbly and a bottle of rye, Trader Joe's for one of those big jars of Morello cherries I always shuffle past in the check-out line (which, at the Manhattan TJs, winds clear around the store), and came home for an evening of tinkering.

As it happened, we nailed it on the second try.

Our first attempt suffered from too much whiskey—two ounces. We cut that down to one, and ended up with a nicely balanced, quaffable cocktail. A teaspoon of simple syrup rounds out the tartness of the cherry juice, and orange bitters add a note of spice.


CHERRY WHISKEY FIZZ

1 ounce whiskey
1 ounce cherry juice*
1 teaspoon simple syrup
Dash of orange bitters
Dry champagne or other sparkline wine

Shake whiskey, juice, bitters, and simple syrup well with ice. Strain into an ice-filled wine glass. Top with champagne, stir gently, and garnish with a cherry (or three).

*We used the liquid from our jar of Trader Joe's morello cherries, which was juicy and tart rather than syrupy. If your "juice" is on the sweet side, omit the simple syrup.

Category: Drinks
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