Frère Johnnie

Here is my second drink from this week's "Monks!" themed TDN, as in:

Anything created or originally developed by monks is fair game: Benedictine, Champagne, Chartruese, Trappist Ales, or any other odds and ends your research turns up.

Frère Johnnie

• 1 oz Johnnie Walker Black
• 1 oz Bénédictine
• ½ oz Fernet Branca
• 1oz oj
• ~3 oz tonic

shake all but tonic and strain over fresh rocks and top with tonic, garnish with orange twist

I liked the way the Scotch works with Bénédictine in a Bobby Burns, and with OJ in a Blood and Sand, and I went from there.  I started out without the Fernet, but decided it needed something extra, and remembering a drink I recently had off of the very original cocktail list at Casa Cruz down in Buenos Aires over the holidays, I reached for the trusty elixir to add that special something, and I think it worked.

For reference, here is the drink from Casa Cruz:

Nacho

• Fernet Branca
• jugo de naranja (orange juice, or muddled orange slices)
  
• tónica (tonic water)
  

I didn't get the proportions, but I think you can be quite flexible with the components based on how sweet vs strong you like it or are otherwise in the mood for.

This was a deceptively simple and tasty drink. The whole cocktail list here was quite inventive, or at least it seemed to be to me from the pieces of Spanish I could decipher.  I decided to go with this drink because they love their Fernet down in Argentina, and when in Rome...
In fact, cocktails, while becoming more common, are still not commonplace in  the country.  I believe the most common one consumed there is the Fernet and Coke, believe it or not.  I've never tried it, but the Nacho was quite good so maybe I should give it a try.  Here's how much they love Fernet, the biggest bottle I've ever seen, it's like a Jeroboam or something: