The Paper Wasp is an Old Fashioned with its base split three ways, posted by Death & Co's Denver bar. Three-quarters of an ounce of pineapple-chamomile shochu, the same of 100-proof rye, and a half ounce of sherry-cask Macallan share the glass with a quarter ounce of honey syrup, Angostura, and a single dash of absinthe. It sounds like a drink assembled by committee. It drinks like one bottle that doesn't exist.
Split the base three ways and the Old Fashioned becomes a blend, with the bartender as blender.
Origin
The spec comes from a recipe card Death & Co posted from its Denver location, which lists the bottles by name and nothing about who built the drink or when it went on the menu. No bartender is credited and we couldn't find one documented elsewhere, so this page doesn't name one. The name is undocumented too. The colors fit (honey, chamomile, a lemon twist), but that's our reading. The bar hasn't said.
The odd bottle on the card is the shochu. Matchbook Distilling Co. is an experimental, small-batch distillery in Greenport, New York, on Long Island's North Fork, and much of what it makes is limited release. Its pineapple-chamomile Hi & Hello isn't something most bars stock, which is worth knowing before you plan a shopping trip around this drink.
The Spec
Two ounces of spirit, a quarter ounce of honey syrup, bitters, and a rinse-sized dash of absinthe is standard Old Fashioned arithmetic. Death & Co has run split-base Old Fashioneds for years, and the idea is always the same. Each base covers a gap in the others. Here the rye brings the proof and the spice, the Scotch brings sherry-cask fruit and weight, and the shochu brings a light, floral top note that neither whiskey can produce.
The shochu sits light and floral, the rye sits spicy, and the Scotch sits rich, with oak on one side and dried fruit on the other. Weighted by pour (3/4, 3/4, 1/2 oz), the drink lands near the middle of both axes, which is why none of the three bottles takes over. The placements are our tasting judgment from the bottles' styles, not lab data.
Why Rye at 100 Proof
Shochu usually comes in well below whiskey strength, so the rye is doing double duty. Knob Creek's rye is bottled at 100 proof, and that extra alcohol keeps a stirred, three-quarter-ounce shochu pour from leaving the drink thin once the block starts melting. Swap in an 80-proof rye and you'll taste the difference by the second sip, as wateriness.
The Scotch Is a Seasoning
Macallan's Double Cask 12 is aged in a mix of American and European oak casks seasoned with sherry. At a half ounce it reads as dried fruit and a bit of weight under the rye, and you'd have trouble picking it out as Scotch. It's also unpeated, which matters here. A smoky Islay would flatten the chamomile in one move.
Honey and the Absinthe Dash
The card says honey syrup without a ratio. Our house honey syrup runs 3:1 honey to water, which is rich enough that a quarter ounce does the job. The single dash of absinthe is below the point where you'd name it as anise. It lifts the chamomile and makes the finish read drier than the honey would suggest. Add a second dash and it becomes an absinthe drink.
Bottom Line
A careful, quiet drink with one hard-to-find bottle at its center. If you can't get the Matchbook shochu, a plain rice shochu with a barspoon less honey gets you most of the structure and none of the pineapple. That's a fair trade on a weeknight, and a reason to keep looking on the weekend.