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Fireball meets citrus and cherry. If you weren’t a fan of this high-voltage cinnamon spirit before, you will be now.
About the cocktail
Look, Fireball may not be for everyone, but this cocktail – a cinnamony, citrusy, cherry smash – absolutely is. For those of us who haven't had the pleasure of trying Fireball, it labels itself as “Cinnamon Whisky”, but given it’s made with a mix of Canadian whisky, sweeteners and natural cinnamon flavouring, it’s not quite a whisky. But if it ain’t whisky, then what is it? Its ABV sits around 33%, whereas a whiskey has to be 40% and up. So, technically Fireball is a flavoured whisky liqueur. Fireball has the vibe of an American deep-south spirit, but it actually comes from Canada. The story goes that a Canadian bartender, on a super-cold night, added sugar and cinnamon to his whisky to “warm up”. It was a relatively unpopular brand when it first popped up in the ’80s but had a giant uptick in the early 2000s and it’s now a pretty famous spirit (or notorious, depending on who you ask) worldwide. It gets a fair bit of play on TikTok from people who can’t get enough of its signature spicy edge, and with the tagline “Tastes Like Heaven, Burns Like Hell” you can see what we mean. So, what do we mix with this cinnamon liquor? Well, because of its spicy flavour, we like to put it with citrus (lemon and orange work well) and something sweet – here we've used maraschino liqueur. Due to Fireball’s fairly sweet flavours, we need a good lick of lemon acidity to cut through and a good amount of ice for dilution. After solid testing, we’re certain the Fireball Smash is the best way to drink Fireball Cinnamon Whisky.
Ingredients
50mL Fireball Cinnamon Whisky
25mL lemon juice 10mL maraschino liqueur 5mL sugar syrup 6–8 mint leaves 2 orange wedges Garnish: orange slice, lemon slice, mint sprig and a dusting of icing sugar
Method
Add all ingredients except garnishes to a cocktail shaker (squeeze the orange wedges into your shaker as you pop them in)
Chuck in a big handful of ice and shake vigorously Strain into a tumbler glass over fresh ice Garnish with an orange slice, lemon slice, mint sprig and a light dusting of icing sugar
Dan's top tips
If you want to make a damn delicious Fireball Smash, you’ll need to use fresh, zippy citrus to cut through those heavier, denser, uber-sweet flavours in the spirit. For this, fresh lemon will work best. Similarly, you’ll need a good amount of dilution to break up the sweetness, so don’t be afraid to over-dilute (by really shaking that ice) if you have to. And, of course, serve it over a stacked tumbler of ice (the more ice the better). You already know what we’re going to say about the mint. It needs to be green, and it needs to be fresh and flavoursome. We do not want to bruise the mint or, despite the name of this cocktail, smash it into little pieces; we want nice green, smelly mint. Smack it very gently against the glass to release some of those oils on the tumbler, so when you pick it up all those lovely minty aromas will linger on your hand.
image credits: Shelley Horan (photography), Bridget Wald (styling).
