The Morning Cocktail

For my introductory post, I figured I'd minimize all the getting-to-know-you junk and get right down to a drink (Kind of like meeting a girl in a dive bar, no?).

When they were first introduced, cocktails were morning drinks. You'd have one or two (or four or five) before breakfast in order to get over what you were drinking the night before. While this didn't do much for the cocktail's reputation in those early days - we're talking late 18th century here - there are still a few drinks that lend themselves, either by composition or by name, to early in the day imbibing. The Bloody Mary is probably the most popular morning-after libation, but there are others...

This is one of them - The Morning Cocktail (recipe from cocktaildb.com)

1 oz. brandy (I used cognac)
3/4 oz. dry vermouth
1/4 oz. curacao
1/4 oz. maraschino liqueur
1/4 oz. pastis (or absinthe - I used a pre-1975 bottle of Pernod, back when it was 86-proof and quite a bit tastier)
2 dashes orange bitters

Stir and strain into a cocktail glass. No garnish is needed, because this drink is complicated enough for someone with a hangover to put together without messing about with a channel knife, but an orange or lemon twist would likely work well.

With these proportions, this drink is a little too sweet for my taste, and the next time I make it I'll likely cut back on the maraschino and curacao, and substitute a real absinthe for the pastis, which should result in a drier and more agreeable drink. I don't think this will do much as a curative, but it's a pleasant enough drink in it's own right.