More fantastic bourbon amazingness

With the weather becoming colder and grayer, I’ve been craving whiskey drinks more – and my standby, a frosty beer, less and less. And while you can’t beat a top shelf Bourbon (Woodford, Makers Mark, Bakers, etc.) at room temperature in a glass with nothing else, the downside is that it’s an expensive way to catch a delicious buzz. I wasn’t too keen on moonlighting at the docks to support my cocktail fetish, so I came up with a cheaper alternative.

A good Bourbon has a full flavor that is less evident in it’s more wallet-friendly brethren. You can easily dull the sharpness and bite of any harsh liquor by adding some tonic, soda, or water, and Bourbon is no exception. But these cocktails usually taste too much like the ingredient they’re mixed with (more on this later). I was hoping to enhance the “Bourbonness” of the drink rather than mask it.

So, after some experimentation, here’s my solution to drinking even more of the bottle of expensive Bourbon that’s already half-empty…

Mix some Jim Beam with honey, maple syrup (actual maple syrup, not pancake syrup!) and a splash of water. Toss it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds, and you’ve got a winner! You want the end result to be hot, but not boiling. The heat helps dissipate the honey and syrup and just makes it taste really, really good. As for the proportions, it’s roughly: 3 parts bourbon 1 part syrup 1 part honey 1 part water

I say “roughly” because depending on your personal taste or the mood you’re in, (or the brand you choose) you may want it sweeter, stronger, or lighter. The first time I made it exactly 3:1:1:1 and loved it, but each subsequent time altered the ratios very slightly at the end.

Also, go ahead and use a different Bourbon if you want, but Jim and I were roommates in college, so I called him up for the occasion.

Furthermore, while I was at the store picking up the honey and maple syrup, I also grabbed some ginger beer and ginger ale. Bourbon and ginger go well together, and I thought I’d do a little compare-and-contrast between the two as a potential mixer for my budget Bourbon.

Even though they each have ginger as the predominant flavor, there is a difference between the two, especially as a mixing ingredient. Ginger beer has much less carbonation than its counterpart. It has the “fizz” of well, a beer. Ginger ale, on the other hand, is all about carbonation-you can still taste the ginger, but it’s in the background. Based on that comparison, I decided to use the ginger beer as my main ingredient (next to the alcohol of course) in the next cocktail.

I made a few variations of just ginger beer and Bourbon, but they all tasted too plain. But after adding a couple old standby’s, it really came alive: 2 maraschino cherries, muddled in the glass 2oz Bourbon 2oz ginger beer squeeze of lime The result is a Bourbon cocktail I can live with: not too strong, not too fizzy, and all the flavors complement each other. You can even taste the Bourbon.

Cheers!