Omaha Sling

     Searching around the wonderful plethora of cocktail websites (I love the endless inter-webs , I stumbled upon a semi-simplistic version of a Singapore Sling (Fenway Sling) that utilized a shrub. I recently had made a batch of shrub following a recipe I tried last year.
      Now the first cocktail I had tried with it was a play on the Arbusto Oaxaca, as we didn't have any mezcal I chose to mimic it the best I could and used a mix of mid-grade tequila cut with a smoky "Scotch-like" whisky, McCarthy's Whisky from Clear Creek Distillery. I followed the recipe's suggested measurements only substituting Patron XO Cafe for the Tia Maria. I figured that added tequila punch couldn't hurt.

     The drink came out a deep rich crimson to purple color,(the one on the right)to the point that the recipient stated was," a drink with character that only the adventurous would appreciate." As many other sampled the offering I soon began to understand what he had meant. West Omaha palates still aren't ready for roller coaster ride of flavor that craft bartenders are accustomed to.
     So as I had stumbled upon the Fenway Sling I took the challenge to attempt to create a similar drink that would be appealing to the masses. I have lately been working with a lot of tea-infused liquors and decided to whip up a batch of tea infused rum. We had a good amount of Bacardi Gold lying about(as it's not my preferred rum of choice I hoped it would make a good vessel to incorporate). Two and a half hours later I had an intriguing strawberry pu-erh tea infused rum to play with.
     I immediately imagined the ingredients I would use; infused-rum, falernum and shrub. Now let's build something around it. Hoping a simple 2:1:1 ratio would suffice, I threw together my cocktail, added some lemon juice for added zip(my shrub tends to be sweet in a cocktail), shook it all up strained it into a lowball glass and topped it with gingerale. what have we here?

Omaha Sling
2 oz. Strawberry Pu-erh infused rum (Bacardi Gold)
0.75 oz. Velvet Falernum
0.75 oz. homemade blackberry shrub
0.25-0.33 oz. fresh lemon juice
- shake and strain into lowball galss with ice
top with gingerale
lemon twist garnish

     The resulting drink took the imbiber on a fantastical ride of flavors with a great underlying amount of sugar that was heavy, but not cloying (almost but not quite, i did cut the falernum back a bit to aid this). The cocktail was so good we literally got the "Wow!," from nearly all who tried it. Some said it reminded them of something from their childhood, What could that be I wonder? Anyway the resulting effect treats you, this cocktail is EPIC!