Ah, crap.
Busted Flush.
I’m sometimes asked how I name my cocktails. Mostly I’ll look for a connection between the main ingredients and see if anything suggests itself but when that fails I turn to The List. Huh? Well, whenever I hear something that sounds like it would make a good name for a cocktail* I add it to a file on my phone with perhaps a suggestion of which kind of base spirit it might be suited to. When I’m stuck for a name for a newly invented cocktail I run through The (by now rather extensive) List hoping to find a good match and usually that bears fruit – or at least triggers a related idea. I should point out that once settling on a name one should check it isn’t already an established cocktail. I say “established” because in my opinion if there is a single instance of some shitty unbalanced concoction that has clearly barely passed anyone but the creators own lips they don’t get the right to hog a good name. Very occasionally I even use The List ass-backwards and create a drink around the name. Recently whilst perusing The List I came across a name I’d added a very long time ago on an evening when I was donating most of my meagre earnings to my “friends” in a game of poker. Busted Flush (4 red ingredients and 1 black) said the entry. Game on! To be fair this really isn’t usually the best way to create a cocktail but sometimes giving yourself some limiting factors actually helps with the creativity, forcing you to explore combinations you might otherwise never consider. This time I believe it worked out pretty well. The black(ish) ingredient is my own blend of dark Jamaican rum but feel free to use an existing one – US Coruba dark, Hamilton, Myers’s, Worthy Park 109 and Blackwell’s all fit the bill. The red ones are pretty standard** and listed below. What results is a somewhat Negroniesque drink but more bittersweet than just bitter thanks to the Heering and with a nice rich and complex depth from the addition of the vermouth and bitters. Otherwise simply make – and enjoy – it in the same same way as a traditional Negroni.
Busted Flush.
1.5oz / 45ml Dark Jamaican rum (see text).
0.5oz / 15ml Cherry Heering.
0.5oz / 15ml Campari.
0.5oz / 15ml Punt e Mes (or another sweet vermouth).
3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters.
Stir with ice and strain into a double old fashioned glass containing a block or sphere of clear ice. No garnish required.
Toast Corky McCorquodale (2004 – 1968) who brought Texas Hold ’em Poker to the world.
*Can be literally anything such as a song, a book, a turn of phrase, a mythological or historical character, an animal or plant. Anything.
**If you don’t have all of these in stock you’re really not taking this cocktail thing very seriously and need to have a quiet word with yourself.
