Hunter
A Hunter is 60ml rye whiskey and 30ml cherry brandy, stirred over one large cube in a rocks glass for 15 to 20 seconds, with a cocktail cherry if you want one. About 3.1 UK units by our calculation, taking cherry brandy at 24% ABV, Difford’s Guide’s figure for Heering. The earliest printed recipe we found is in Jack Grohusko’s Jack’s Manual of 1908, which gives 75% rye whiskey and 25% cherry brandy, three parts to one; Straub’s manual of 1913 gives equal measures. Ours is two to one, a little sweeter and fruitier. We have found no source that credits anyone with inventing it. It works like a Rusty Nail: a spirit and a sweet liqueur, with no citrus and no bitters. The cherry brings dark fruit and a faint kernel note, and the rye’s pepper keeps it from turning into cordial. Nothing in it spoils, so it travels well in a flask.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Maraschino cherry (optional)
Ingredients
60ml
Rye with some spice, bottled at 40% ABV or higher. Its pepper stops the cherry tasting like cordial; bourbon adds sweetness to an already sweet drink.
30ml
A dark cherry liqueur in the Heering style. Difford’s Guide gives Heering at 24% ABV and describes stewed cherry and jam with a faint almond note, made with the stones crushed in. Not maraschino, which is clear and makes another drink.
Instructions
Put one large ice cube in a rocks glass.
Add the rye and the cherry brandy.
Stir for 15 to 20 seconds.
Add a cocktail cherry if you like.
Expert Tip
Get the right cherry. You want a dark cherry brandy in the Heering style, rich and sweet with a kernel bitterness underneath. Maraschino is a different liqueur, clear and floral, and it makes a different drink. Keep the ratio at two to one or drier. At equal parts the cherry takes over and the glass tastes of liqueur with whiskey in it. Jack’s Manual of 1908 ran at three to one, which is worth trying if you find ours sweet. Stir it in the glass over one large cube, for 15 to 20 seconds. A big cube chills it without washing it out, and the drink keeps opening as it slowly dilutes.
Behind the Hunter
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The earliest printed recipe we found is in Jack Grohusko’s Jack’s Manual, a bar book of 1908. It calls for 75% rye whiskey and 25% cherry brandy, three parts to one, stirred over ice and strained. The 1910 edition, in the Internet Archive scan, prints the same.
We have found no source that credits anyone with creating it.
Straub’s manual of 1913 prints it at equal measures of rye and cherry brandy, stirred. Ours keeps it plain and runs a little sweeter, at two parts rye to one of cherry.
The Two-Bottle Arithmetic
A spirit with a sweet liqueur, stirred, is an old pattern in drinks. The Rusty Nail, Scotch with Drambuie, is the familiar example.
The Hunter runs the same pattern with darker fruit. Only the ratio changes, and it decides whether the whiskey or the cherry leads.
The Hunter and the two-bottle pattern; the 1908 ratio is from Jack’s Manual, and the other rows are our recipes; the units are our calculation
Hunter, ours
- Spirit
- 60ml rye
- Liqueur
- 30ml cherry brandy
- Ratio
- 2 : 1
- UK units
- 3.1
Hunter, 1908 ratio
- Spirit
- 60ml rye
- Liqueur
- 20ml cherry brandy
- Ratio
- 3 : 1
- UK units
- 2.9
Rusty Nail
- Spirit
- 45ml Scotch
- Liqueur
- 25ml Drambuie
- Ratio
- About 2 : 1
- UK units
- 2.8
| Drink | Spirit | Liqueur | Ratio | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hunter, ours | 60ml rye | 30ml cherry brandy | 2 : 1 | 3.1 |
| Hunter, 1908 ratio | 60ml rye | 20ml cherry brandy | 3 : 1 | 2.9 |
| Rusty Nail | 45ml Scotch | 25ml Drambuie | About 2 : 1 | 2.8 |
Which Cherry
Two cherry liqueurs are in common use, and they do not swap.
Cherry brandy in the Heering style is dark, sweet and rich, with a faint kernel bitterness. It tastes of preserved cherries, and it is what the Hunter wants.
Maraschino is clear and floral, with a strong almond note. In this drink it makes something closer to a Fancy Free.
Why It Suits a Flask
Nothing in the drink spoils. There is no juice to oxidise, no dairy and no foam to collapse.
Mixed in the morning, it tastes the same in the afternoon. Outdoors in cold weather, it needs little or no ice.
How to Serve It
Over one large cube in a rocks glass, stirred for 15 to 20 seconds, with a cocktail cherry if you want one.
Pour one at the end of a cold day. Make one beside a Rusty Nail to taste the same pattern with fruit in place of honey.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Whiskey (Rye)Rye whiskey, under the US standard 27 CFR 5.143, takes at least 51% of its grain from rye and its colour from new charred oak, and goes into bottle at a 40% ABV minimum; our recipes take 40% as the figure. Rye makes a drier, spicier, more peppery spirit than corn, which is why stirred classics such as the Manhattan, Vieux Carré and Brooklyn are written for it. It appears in 23 of our recipes.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Hunter cocktail?
How strong is a Hunter?
Which cherry liqueur should I use?
Can I use bourbon instead of rye?
How does it relate to Remember the Maine?
Where does the Hunter come from?
Can I carry it in a flask?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- J. A. Grohusko (1908), Internet Archive, “Jack’s Manual” (primary source: Hunter Cocktail, 75% rye whiskey, 25% cherry brandy, stir, fill glass with ice, strain and serve (the 1910 edition: 75% rye, 25% cherry brandy, fill glass with ice, stir, strain)).
- Jacques Straub (1913), Internet Archive, “Straub’s Manual of Mixed Drinks” (primary source: Hunter Cocktail, jigger of rye whiskey, jigger of cherry brandy, stir).
- Difford’s Guide, “Cherry Heering” (secondary source: alc./vol 24%; made to an 1818 recipe from Danish Stevns cherries crushed with the stones, a hint of almond; tasting notes stewed cherry and cherry jam with faint almond).
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Remember the Maine
Remember the Maine is 60ml of rye, 22.5ml of sweet vermouth and 15ml of dark cherry liqueur, stirred over ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained into a chilled coupe rinsed with 7.5ml of absinthe, with a cherry. Those are the IBA’s measures. About 3.1 UK units. Charles H. Baker Jr. recorded it in The Gentleman’s Companion in 1939, writing that he drank it in Havana in 1933, during the revolution. Punch says the Maine, a US naval ship, was sitting off the coast of Havana in 1898 when it exploded and sank, and that journalists used the phrase “Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain” as a rallying cry that would jumpstart the Spanish-American war. It is a Manhattan with the vermouth cut back to make room for dark cherry, and anise from the absinthe on the nose. The rinse is the delicate part: swirled round the glass and poured away, the absinthe scents the drink without taking it over.
Rusty Nail
A Rusty Nail is 45ml Scotch whisky and 25ml Drambuie, stirred for 15 to 20 seconds over one large ice cube in a rocks glass and finished with a lemon twist, expressed and dropped in. About 2.8 UK units. The IBA gives the same measures, a little under two parts whisky to one of liqueur. Drambuie’s own site calls it a whisky liqueur, a blend of aged Scotch whisky, spices, herbs and heather honey, so the drink pairs a spirit with a sweeter version of itself. Difford’s Guide says David Wondrich has traced the pairing to 1937 and a drink called B.I.F., and the Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails says the name Rusty Nail, first recorded in 1961, appears to have originated in New York City. The ratio is the whole recipe. In our view more Drambuie makes a honeyed after-dinner drink; more whisky makes it drier and leaves the honey as an accent.
Fancy Free
A Fancy Free is 60ml of rye whiskey, 15ml of maraschino liqueur and two dashes each of Angostura and orange bitters, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over one large cube in a rocks glass, with an expressed orange twist. About 3.0 UK units. It is an Old Fashioned sweetened with maraschino in place of sugar. Punch traces it to Crosby Gaige’s Cocktail Guide and Ladies’ Companion of 1941, where it was shaken, served in a sugar-rimmed cocktail glass and given only two dashes of maraschino. The drink came back through New York’s revival bars. Punch says the bartender Jeremy Oertel met it at Dram in Brooklyn around 2010, where it had arrived on a Milk & Honey spec sheet, and his version, stirred over a big cube with 15ml of maraschino, is the one we follow, with rye where he uses bourbon.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026