The BF was experimenting with some seville oranges I finally managed to score at the farmer’s market. I had to special order them from one of the farmers the week before so that he could bring me some this week. We were tossing around the idea of creating a literature-inspired cocktail for when some of my co-workers stopped by before the official literary pub crawl started to get in a bit of pre-drinking. Since this variation of a blood and sand contains rye, I thought it apt to name it ‘Catcher in the Rye’ — loosely literary.

The seville orange juice gives the cocktail a refreshing tartness with a bitter finish which prevents it from being overly sweet, or too much like a whiskey sour. I like that this mixture is both easy to drink but has enough depth to be a ‘sipper’. I’d imagine that a mixture of tangerine (or a tart orange) juice and grapefruit juice could be used in place of seville orange if it’s not easily available.

Recipe by the BF:

1.5 oz Rye (I used Old Overholt for no particular reason)
1 oz seville (sour) orange juice
.5 oz sweet vermouth (I used Carpano Antica Formula)
scant .5 oz Heering Cherry

Shake, strain into chilled cocktail glass, garnish with brandied cherry and/or orange twist.