New Cocktails: The McCarthy Project

After my review of the whiskey, I decided that I wanted to try to make a cocktail with it. There aren't too many cocktails that use peated whisky, as it tends to dominate as an ingredient, but there are a few. I used the Laphroaig Project as a template, but tweaked it a bit to account for the fact that McCarthy's Single malt isn't as strong or smokey as Laphroaig Quarter Cask.

The McCarthy Project
0.75 oz Green Chartreuse
0.75 oz McCarthy's Oregon Single Malt
0.5 oz Luxardo Maraschino
0.25 oz Yellow Chartruese
0.75 oz lemon juice
2 dashes Fee's West Indian Orange Bitters

Combine all ingredient, shake with ice for six seconds, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

The nose is balanced between sweet grassy notes from the Chartreuses and smoke from the whiskey. The sip opens a bit thin, but proceeds to expand with herbal notes from the Chartreuse, a burst of smoke, then funky cherry notes from the Maraschino. The finish is sweet and sour, with a bit of smoke.

I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out. Admittedly, as Camper English noted about the Laphroaig Project, "If you have all of these ingredients at home you are a huuuuge cocktail geek."

I resemble that comment.