More experimenting with calvados and sloe brandy
Calvados is a spirit I don't know very well. I've had calvados that I like quite a lot, but unfortunately I own two bottles of calvados that I don't like very much (it may be that it's a nice calvados and that my tastes here are peculiar. I don't know, but I suspect not). As I'd like to reduce the number of bottles on my shelves, this gives me an incentive to try and figure out ways to use it up.
So I was looking into calvados cocktails and came across the Corpse Reviver #1. I've had a lot of Corpse Reviver #2s, but never tried the #1 (though had been warned off).
Unfortunately the only brandy I own other than the calvados is a very nice armagnac that I don't want to be rid of and don't especially want to mix. I do however have a bottle of sloe brandy.
I figured there was something I could do here... It wouldn't be the first time I've combined the two. Previously here and here.
30ml Pierre Magloire calvados
15ml Sloe Motion sloe brandy
15ml Punt E Mes
Stirred with ice, served in a cocktail glass.
I reversed the order of the ingredients in this from the corpse reviver because I figured that that much sloe brandy would be overpowering. I think this might have been a mistake. In the initial version of this the calvados was really the predominant flavour and, given that I don't like the calvados in question that much, the result was not overly pleasant. However, a splash more sloe brandy greatly improved the drink and resulted in something quite pleasant.
Fundamentally the result is still something that tastes like calvados, but the addition of the sloe brandy and punt e mes results in something a bit fruitier and with some interesting spiced notes that I think works quite well. The proportions need work (maybe half and half sloe and calvados), and even if those were fixed I'd probably not be drinking these that regularly, but it's pretty enjoyable and I'd definitely not say no to drinking it again.