Cunningham

This Scotch whiskey drink is one cunning cocktail. 

Around here, there’s nothing we enjoy quite as much as a cocktail riff. In fact, some of your favorite cocktails might just happen to be riffs if you stop to think about it. The Rob Roy is a riff on the Manhattan, the Whisky Skin is a riff on a Hot Toddy, and the South by Southwest is a riff on the Boulevardier (which just so happens to be a riff on the gin Negroni). The list goes on and on. Creating a new cocktail that’s a riff on an old one has long been a tradition in the cocktail community. It’s a way to pay homage to another bartender, all while inventing a creative and cunning new concoction. 

And the Cunningham is the perfect case study. Invented by Marco Dionysos, a San Francisco bartender who currently works at the Comstock Saloon, the Cunningham is a Scotch whiskey cocktail that sits somewhere between the Blood & Sand and the Bobby Burns. Now, deciding to riff on both of those Scotch cocktails is pretty ambitious when you consider how storied they both are. The Blood & Sand, for example, dates back to 1930 and was revived by none other than the “King of Cocktails” Dale DeGroff. Meanwhile, the Bobby Burns can be found throughout classic cocktail books as early as 1902. Marco Dionysos certainly picked two legendary cocktails to riff on, but hey – the Scotch cocktail pantheon could always use another member. 

Like all good cocktail variations, the Cunningham takes the best parts of both cited cocktails, while also adding in a flair of its own. Although all three cocktails share a Scotch base, the Cunningham highlights a dash of Heering Cherry Liqueur from the Blood & Sand and herbal Bénédictine courtesy of the Bobby Burns. However, even though the Blood & Sand calls for fresh orange juice, Marco Dionysos decided his twist would all come down to his choice of citrus. That’s right- for the Cunningham, you’ll need both lemon juice and blood orange juice. Blood oranges are deliciously sweet, tart, and a seasonally winter fruit that’s perfect for brightening up gray winter days. 

The resulting combination is everything that you could want – Sweet, smoky, tart, and herbal with just the right amount of bite. Marco Dionysos certainly knew what he was doing with this cunning riff of a cocktail.