Death of the West: A Red Dead Redemption 2 inspired cocktail

Source

===The Recipe===
* 2 oz bourbon
* 1 oz sweet red vermouth
* 2 dashes Angostura bitters
* Powdered cinnamon
* Orange peel (optional)
Form the cinnamon powder into a small pile and light. Wait for it to begin smoking, then upend an old-fashioned glass over the top, allowing it to fill with smoke. Meanwhile, add bourbon, vermouth and Angostura bitters to a mixing glass and stir briefly to chill.
Slowly remove the old fashioned glass from the cinnamon pile and return to an upright position. Strain your drink into the glass; the smoke should pour out. Flame the orange peel into the drink and drop into the glass. Serve!
===The Fluff===
I make video-game-inspired cocktail recipes over at [Experience Bar](https://experience-bar.com/), and this week I decided to take a break from shooting people’s hats off and create a cocktail inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2.
Alcohol was kind of a big deal in the Wild West. Commerce, medicine, leisure—there were few activities in which a tumbler of bourbon wouldn’t find a home.
And if the Red Dead Redemption series was a simple Western where players gallivant around rolling hills and plains, shooting ne’erdowells and rescuing damsels in distress, we might throw in a sugar cube, a dash or two of bitters and some lemon juice into a shot of bourbon and call it a day. A simple drink for a simple game—no offence Old Fashioned fans.
But Red Dead is about a lot more than that. It’s about freedom, conflict, the process and progress of civilisation, and the ultimate demise of the ‘Wild’ part of the Wild West.
So I came up with this twist of a Manhattan to represent that conflict: bourbon for the wild, vermouth for encroaching civilisation, and some ‘gunsmoke’ for the inevitable conflict between the two. If you’d like to learn more about the drink, I’d encourage you to head over to the [main recipe page](https://experience-bar.com/2018/11/03/death-of-the-west-red-dead-redemption-video/).