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THE HUNTER COCKTAIL

Duncan McRae

THE HUNTER COCKTAIL AND THE HUNTED (OUR RIFF)

A festive whisky cocktail you can make on repeat. Maybe you got a bottle of whisky for Christmas. Maybe you didn’t, and treated yourself in the Black Friday sales (some wild deals out there).

Or maybe you’ve realised that decorating your house with full whisky bottles is both a fire hazard and a terrible waste. Either way, this is your nudge to grab a bottle, some ice, and stir down something delicious.

Today we’re talking about The Hunter.

A classic. Simple. Flexible. Perfect for the festive blur.

A drink with a past (and a few lives)

The Hunter first appears in print in 1908, in Jack’s Manual by Jacob A. Grohusko.You can see it here, in all its understated glory:

The original spec is beautifully spare:

  • Rye whisky

  • Cherry Heering

  • Roughly 75% / 25%

That’s it.

Frankly, that’s the sort of recipe we like.

Fast-forward a century and the drink is resurrected by Ueno-san of Bar High Five (Tokyo). Same core idea, but evolved: bourbon instead of rye, plus maraschino and bitters. Is it the same drink? Technically yes. Practically, it’s a different expression.

Difford’s Guide lists a modernised version served over ice, which you’ll find here:

So it’s fair to say the specs are… fluid.

 

 

Variations THE HUNTER worth knowing

Cocktail YouTube legend Anders Erickson lands somewhere between past and present with his own riff, The Huntsman, adding a touch of DOM Bénédictine (a quietly heroic modifier if there ever was one). Full disclosure i discovered this drink by watching this video - so Anders Erickson must get the credit for all the research mentioned above. 

Regular readers of this blog (hello, both of you) will know we always have a bottle of DOM Benedictine in the studio. It’s whisky’s old friend. Herbal, honeyed, and endlessly useful. Made by monks? Allegedly. Effective? Undeniably. There are no bad drinks with DOM Ben, it makes everything better.

 

So long story short, Anders' recipe REALLY spoke to me. I made it once, and i'm smitten. And since it's the time of festive celebrations, we thought it was important to share with you. 

 

Why this is a perfect festive drink

What I want from a festive cocktail is repeatability.

One recipe.

One set of ingredients.

A drink I can make for myself, my family, or neighbours who “just pop round”.

After dinner. Mid-afternoon. Possibly from a hip flask on a cold walk.

The Hunter ticks every box.

 

Whisky choice (and why we use Superblend)

Cherry Heering is non-negotiable. It’s the cherry brandy. Iconic, balanced, and thankfully available in sensible bottle sizes for things you only use a few weeks a year (if it survives Christmas).

The whisky cocktail question always sparks debate: rye or bourbon?

Our usual answer to this dichotomy is to take things in a different direction altogether…our first line of enquiry is usually, will it Scotch? It's what we have the most of to hand usually, and our palates enjoy the slightly more dry profile that Scotch often brings to stirred down and brown classic cocktials. 

Scotch is broad enough that the answer is almost always yes. Start balanced. Then experiment… usually toward something peated - and BOOM- you've got a new studio classic right there. 

But with the drink - and listening to Anders debate the merits of Rye vs Bourbon - we were reminded of the exact reason why we invested our whisky called SUPERBLEND. 

 

SUPERBLEND has not had a lot of love from us of late. We've been excitedly bringing new products to the market. So it was nice for us to get a bottle open and remind ourselves of what it was born to do. 

We designed Superblend to be the ultimate cocktail whisky. A true split base:

  • Rye for spice

  • Bourbon for sweetness

  • Scotch for structure and character

  • Irish for brightness and texture

One bottle. Endless directions. And every time we look at a recipe and think - Rye, Bourbon, Scotch or something else - the answer is always SUPERBLEND. 

Superblend is our answer to the question 'If you could only take one whisky to stock a bar' (or escape to space), this would be it.

It’s also an award-winning dram in its own right. But in cocktails? It really shines.

 

 


Our take: THE HUNTED

A Woven studio riff that borrows from the original, nods to the modern versions, and leans into herbal depth. 

Ingredients

  • 60ml Woven Superblend

  • 20ml Cherry Heering

  • 10ml Green Chartreuse

Method

  • Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass

  • Stir well over ice

  • Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass

  • Express an orange zest and discard (or drop it in, we won’t judge)

 

If you like this, you’ll find a bunch of other road tested serves in our free downloadable recipe guide.

Perfect for the rest of the festive stretch ... and beyond!

Download the Woven Cocktail Guide

 

Make one. Then make another. Share, enjoy - and do it responsibly. 

 

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