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February Cocktail: Cherry Pi Solution

57 of you solved the February Cocktail puzzle, Cherry Pi, with 48 solving the original puzzle within two weeks without any help. Congratulations to all! Below is the solved grid and an explanation of the final answer. A full solution, including cryptic solutions to every clue, is available for download on my Patreon page. If you haven't joined, sign up at https://www.patreon.com/negronis_cocktails, which will also give you access to future puzzles. The next Cocktail will launch on Saturday, April 11, at 4pm Eastern.

Cheers!

Negroni

The five concentric circles have multiple entries that both start and end at the letters A through E. For row A, the entries all needed to be inferred. The entries for the spokes, numbered 1 to 20, move inward from the square in circle A. For each pair of adjacent spoke entries, one has six letters instead of five; one letter gets skipped and is placed instead inside the inner circle. Finally, the letters placed into the inner circle, starting to the right of the column of letters A to E and moving clockwise, spell the final answer, MARASCHINO, the best type of cherry to use in this cocktail, and also a liqueur from Luxardo that could be used as a substitute for Cherry Heering.

About Me

My name is Martin Reinfried, and in some circles, I am known as Negroni. I have been writing puzzles for a long time, both for work and for fun, and I have always been enamored of cryptic crosswords, especially variety cryptics. I have written several variety cryptics, some for fun, some appearing in the MIT Mystery Hunt, and some published in the National Puzzlers League's Enigma magazine. Most of the variety cryptics I have written can be accessed at negroni.fun/puzzles. I am a software engineer, and I have been a co-founder of a couple of companies, including Shinteki, where I wrote a mobile app to run puzzle-based events. I live in Telluride, CO with my wife Dennise and son Max, and I look forward to providing you with a steady stream of variety cryptic puzzles.