Does a drink called "Cherry Bomb" exist and what's in it?

A couple of years ago I was in Vegas, I had just discovered a band called Spoon, and listened to their song called "You got your Cherry Bomb" or something like that on auto-repeat. Then at some bar being pretty drunk I stumbled to the counter and ordered me and my friends cherry bombs without knowing whether such a thing exists. The bartender immediately knew, made us drinks, and we all thought it was the best thing we had ever drank. It had at least Red Bull and possibly cherry vodka?

Anyway after Vegas not a single place anywhere in the world (tried in ~15 countries) has known it and I haven't been able to order it since. Could you give me the full recipe so I could order it elsewhere?

Chuck,

Cherry Bomb Recipe

Chuck, was someone in your group on the phone when you ordered? You must have given the bartender the Cherry Bomb code somehow, (Hello Dad! Hello Mom!)

I'm having some people over in a few weeks and I want to make a simple syrup for Wisconsin style old fashioneds that I discussed earlier ITT.

A standard old fashioned is a good whiskey with some muddled oranges and cherries with a dash of bitters. A Wisconsin old fashioned is more like a whiskey sour with elements of an old fashioned, i.e it has bitters and simple syrup/cherry juice.

Simple syrup is easy enough to make, but I don't know how to incorporate blood orange and cherries into it without it going bad. Anyone have experience making an infused simple syrup?

I would imagine that as long as you keep the simple syrup refrigerated that any fruit you put in it would be fine.

That said, only midwesterners muddle fruit in their old fashioneds. A proper old fashioned is just whiskey, spalsh of water, sugar, bitters, with a lemon/orange peel.

Knives,

Your "standard old fashioned" description is basically the well done steak with ketchup version of old fashioneds.

Great thread.

I made a whiskey order on Thursday and now basically want to stock a basic home bar.

This is my list:

Vodka	Belvedere Vodka 1.0L
Vodka	Ketel One Vodka 1.0L
Vodka	Zubrowka Vodka 1,0L
Tequila	Patrón Silver 0,7L
Tequila	Patrón Añejo 0,7L
Rum
Rum
American Whiskey	Four Roses Yellow Label 1,0L
American Whiskey	Elijah Craig 0,7L
American Whiskey	Jack Daniel's Gentleman Jack 1,0L
American Whiskey	Jack Daniel's Single Barrel 0,7L
American Whiskey	Jim Beam Rye Yellow Label 0,7L
American Whiskey	Makers Mark Red Seal 0,7L
Blended Scotch	Chivas Regal Scotch 12 YO 0,7L
Single Malt	Lagavulin 0,7L
Gin	Plymouth Gin 1,0 L
Gin	Hendrick's Gin 0,7 L
Cognac	Rémy Martin Cognac VSOP 0,7L
Liquor	Southern Comfort 0,7 L
Liquor	Jägermeister
Liquor	Aperol
Liquor	Baileys

I am basically missing a white and a brown (?) rum and need recommendations for that. I guess roughly $30 per bottle budget for that.

What do you think of my other choices? The American Whiskeys are all ordered, so there is nothing to be changed.
I love Maker's Mark, ordered the two JD just to see what the difference is.
The other 3 were recommendations by the whiskey store (or more like some awards in some magazine).

Priority-wise, I will first order the vodkas (anyone unhappy with Ketel One in there? The other two are set in stone unless someone really opposes them with a good reason) and the blended scotch.

After that, I would order Gin, Tequila and Rum.
Everything else is less of a priority (doesnt mean I am not ordering them).

So, I need recommendations. I am a cocktail mixing novice and to be honest, at the beginning, I think the bar would be more used for simple mixed drinks rather than complex cocktails.

So, basically, I need a recommendation for 2 (or even 3) rums and criticism regarding my other planned purchases.

Spurious,

Not a bad list. I'm not sure I'd have quite so much vodka on the list, but it honestly just depends on your and your friends' drinking habits.

In terms of rum, there's obviously a huge number of options. Personally I find the entire range of Flor de Cana rums to be smooth and good for mixing while hitting a good price point. They're not especially interesting rums, but they're not as bland/one note as malibu/bacardi/etc. If you're in Europe, you probably have access to Havana Club, which is also a very good option. There's a lot of "funky" rums out there, but it doesn't seem like the sort of stuff your'e looking for.

In gins, I would probably wipe out the Plymouth in favor of something from the Tanqueray line, or in general one of the "harsher" gins. Both Plymouth and Hendricks come from the smoother/easier to drink end of the spectrum, and while they're tasty, you'll probably get a better chunk of spectrum from having something London dry available.

Four Roses and EC are totally respectable choices.

Otherwise, honestly, your choices look quite legit for a starting bar for drinking with friends who aren't looking for super sophisticated cocktails.

Thanks for your response.

Vodka and Whiskey are the two main choices for mixed drinks, so I think I can justify having more of them in there and the Ketel One and Zubrowka are two quite cheap choices (latter one has quite a unique taste).

Thanks regarding the Gin, I have no idea and went by some mentioned ITT.
I now got three London Dry Gins:
Tanqueray London Dry Gin
Tanqueray Gin No. 10 (not even sure if that one is indeed London Dry)
Beefeater 24 London Distilled Dry Gin

Which of those would you choose?

About rum, I got Havanna Club to choose from, but they are more on the cheap site (at least the basic versions). Is there anything one level above that?
Flor de Cana seemed more like it. Given that I only find brown ones, I would need a recommendation for a white one in addition.

Again, thanks for your input.

Knives,

It seems like it would be easy enough to make an infused simple syrup by cooking oranges and cherries in while you make the syrup, and then straining out the organic matter. Or just buying blood orange syrup and maraschino juice or w/e and combining it with SS to taste. Something like that?

Spurious,

I'm a big vodka drinker and I honestly think Smirnoff is the best bang for buck. If you want to pay a little more, Tito's is very good.

Rum--I like Mount Gay (you can't beat their slogan, "The rum that invented rum." Also, I like Gosling's dark as well--good for Dark and Stormys.

I agree.

Spurious,

Of those I would probably recommend the normal Tanq as a standard London Dry gin.

In terms of white rums, you're going to have a hard time finding any as expensive as $30/bottle, honestly. They're white because they're young, not aged. Think vodka vs whiskey pricing. Less labor/time goes in to them. Don't feel like if you get an inexpensive white rum you've gotten a garbage product, though. Havana Club, Matusalem, FDC, and even Bacardi produce very usable, versatile light rums. My personal preference would probably be FDC > HC > M > B of that group.

Mount Gay I do find and I am now contemplating.
There is too much choice.

Regarding vodkas, Smirnoff was always the one we drank when we were younger. I think Absolut is superior to Smirnoff.
I am not familiar with Ketel One, so if there is a case to be made to replace Ketel One, I happily listen.

I couldnt find the Tito one online.

Ok, thanks.

I will go for the standard Tanq then.
For rums, I will definitely get a FDC for the brown one, but I cant find a white one from them online.

Flor de Cana Centenario 0,7 L
Havana Club Anejo Blanco
Mount Gay Eclipse 0,7 L

Those are my three rum choices for now.

If you want to get a gin that is between tanqueray and Hendricks, the beefeater 24 is a great choice.

I don't know much about tequilas, but I always hear that you can get much better quality for the price you pay for patron. For example, don Julio is a great anejo around the same price, and for margaritas I use milagro which tastes great and it's 30% cheaper.

I dont care much about the price of Beefeater 24 or Tanqueray, they are both roughly the same, I want to know which one is better.

Thanks for the input on Tequila. Anyone with other input on that? I bought Patron only on name, not recommendation, so I assume there is a better option.
Is Don Julio better than Patron? And what is Gold, Anejo or Reposado? I assume Anejo. And what do I drink Reposado with (grapefruit and chili?)?

I get the Don Julio for 7% less, if the Don Julio is a better Tequila then I will go ahead, if not, then I dont mind paying a bit more.

I didn't mean that the price is in between those two, I meant the taste. Tanqueray is a regular London dry, Hendricks is a very particular gin with lots of floral flavors (I love it in martinis), the Beefeater 24 is sort of in between.

Here's a good review: http://cocktails.about.com/od/ginrev...ater_24gin.htm

Ok, gotcha.
Thanks for the review. I guess for a basic bar for someone not drinking Gin, the Beefeater 24 is not a necessity.

Any input on the Don Julio vs. Patron question?

Don Julio (especially the anejo) >>>>>>>>>patron

Thanks!!
Will swap them and save some money in the process.

Yah, as was said, Hendricks is a very "soft" gin, that girls love, doesn't have the big herbal bite as they use a less powerful/divisive set of herbs than most gin producers. It doesn't stand up well to some classic cocktails that really want a strong London dry gin, though. The 24 is a hybrid, basically, of Hendricks and Beefeater (not like they collaborated, but other gin producers have been trying to produce things in the Hendricks direction as they have been successful). I would probably recommend if you start with Hendricks + Tanq use Hendricks when the taste of the gin is going to be very apparent (if you like the taste of the Hendricks), like a martini or g&t, and use the London Dry for things where the gin is the base but there's a lot else going on (big citrus mixed drinks, Negroni, etc). Plymouth is an odd one because it's I think technically its own style of gin, and not many drinks out there call for "Plymouth style gin." Some people really like it, though, for all sorts of preparations.

Patron is basically a marketing gimmick. The stuff is definitely drinkable, but it's significantly worse than other tequilas in the same price bracket. Don Julio, Herredura, and many others. As with the light rum/dark rum thing, you're going to notice less wide variation amongst blanco/platinum tequilas, as they are not aged. The reposados are a bit of aging, and the anejos the longest. Without loss of generality, the quality of the producer will shine through in the reposado, and then more on the anejo. (The Don Julio is a very nice anejo.) Anejos are not much called for in mixed drinks as far as I know, as it's a bit like shaking a drink with a decent scotch. But if you can see yourself being someone who can slow sip a tequila, a good anejo is a great thing. Personally I love reposados because the price point is good, they go well in cocktails, and you could drink it straight if you want.

Thanks for that info.

I guess for me, Tequila will mostly be used a) as a shot or b) in an easily prepared mixed drink like Tequila Sunrise.
I will get those 3 from Don Julio:
Don Julio Blanco 0,7L
Don Julio Anejo 0,7L
Don Julio Reposado 0,7L

Spurious,

Re: Don Julio, what CQ said

Yeah, 4th vote for Don Julio way better than Patron. Sauza's "Tres Generaciones" is pretty damn good too.

Thanks for all the input on the Tequila. Found the Sauza as well, I assume the Don Julio is a notch better? Price-wise the Don Julio is only slightly more expensive.