A few weeks ago, Jamie Clayton and I were in Athens to shoot a wedding together. We didn’t have to be there until 4:00, so we decided to grab a late lunch at The National, a place neither of us had been. Naturally, we sat at the bar, ordered two of their cocktails, and started some heavy snacking. About an hour later, we found ourselves in good conversation with the bartender on duty, John Honeycutt. It was time for another drink, so Jamie asked if he’d be up for creating something new together. He was, as we were the only people in the bar. How about juicing that grapefruit? Let’s add bourbon and simple syrup. Definitely shake it. Oh! Chill a coupe.

We thought it was good, but it needed something else. Got any fresh mint? Perfect.

So, the second draft was born, and it was better, but it wasn’t complete. With 1 oz of simple syrup, it was a tad too sweet for all of us, and in need of some bitters.

So John adjusted; less simple syrup, added bitters, and voilà. The third was fantastic.

We were all excited over this one, and declared that it needed a name. Jamie asked John what his favorite name for a girl was. “Helen,” he replied. “It’s my grandmothers name.”

“Then this is going to be the Mt. Saint Helen.”

The Drink:

• 2 oz bourbon – we used Bulleit
• 1/2 oz fresh grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• Angostura bitters
• 2 mint leaves

Lightly muddle simple syrup, 2 dash bitters and 2 mint leaves in a cocktail shaker.
Add bourbon, grapefruit juice and ice.
Shake and strain into a chilled coupe.
Garnish with 1 large mint leaf.

The Glass: Coupe from The Boston Shaker.

The Attire: Kristen in a J.Crew top and Ralph Lauren jeans.

The Drink: 21st Amendment’s Hell or High Watermelon has been our go to beer this summer. A wheat beer that undergoes a second fermentation process using fresh watermelon, this baby is as they claim it to be: summer in a can. Not too heavy, not too sweet, 100% American and delicious. Their seasonal is out until September, so get yours hands on some now!

The Glass: No glass, obviously, because this is the coolest can ever.

The Attire: Onia Calder 5” swim trunks (c/o). We love how this design both appears to be, and fits, like a pair of tailored shorts, but is ready for the water with a mesh lining. With 5 different inseam choices, and 7 different styles to choose from, not to mention a huge selection of designs and colors, there is a pair of for every kind of guy.

And guess what? Onia has offered Back Down South readers a $25 discount. Go get your shop on and use code BDSSUM25 at checkout (discount good through August 7th).

The Drink: When it comes to such a historic cocktail, you’re going to find various ways to make it. Some use sugar cubes, some use syrup, some use lemon peel, some flame orange peel, Herbsaint or Absinthe…the options seem overwhelming. But, what we want whiskey lovers to know is that this drink is actually incredibly simple to make at home.

First – don’t let absinthe scare you. It’s an anise-flavored liquor derived from leaves and flowers and putting it in your cocktail(s) will not make you hallucinate. For those interested, read more about it here. It can also be pricey, but the small amount used in your drinks will make it last longer than anything else in your bar. Some liquor stores sell mini bottles of Absente for about $10. I (Caroline) have been using mine for months.

Second – you’ve got to use Peychaud’s bitters. Peychaud’s is comparable to Angostura, but has a lighter body, sweeter taste, and is what helps make the Sazerac such a pretty drink.

So, here is what we use, what we do, and why we use and do what we use and do…

• Rye Whiskey – we recommend Sazerac for your Sazerac.
• Absinthe – we both use Absente. Herbsaint is often recommended because its drier than Pernod and sweeter than Absente. We love Absente because of its price and because it’s not as sweet as Herbsaint.
• Peychaud’s
• Simple syrup
• Orange or lemon peel – we like flaming an orange peel to a lemon zest, but sometimes it just depends on what we have in the fridge. Both are delicious, but flaming an orange peel is also a lot more fun.

Chill an old fashioned glass.
Take another old fashioned glass and add 2.5-3 oz Rye (we like 3), 3/4 oz simple syrup and 2-3 dashes Peychaud’s.
Add ice and stir until cold.
Take your chilled glass and a splash of absinthe for an absinthe rinse (1/4 oz or less).
Swirl the absinthe to coat the glass and discard the rest. You can also fill a small spray bottle with absinthe and spray your glass instead of rinsing.
Strain the rye, bitters and syrup into your absinthe rinsed glass.
Flame an orange peel to add caramelized citrus oil, or lemon peel twist.
No garnish.

The Glass: Crown Royal lowball glass.

You may remember in this post the story of how Jamie really wanted to impress a girl who will go unnamed but her initials may or may not be AC. He did some pretty extensive research and discovered that she liked St-Germain (she told him over Twitter). This is the drink that he made for her. I’d been hearing him talk about it for a while now and wanted him to whip it up for this series and dang…I’m glad I did. 

The Drink:

• 2 oz gin – we used New Amsterdam
• 3/4 oz simple syrup
• 1/3 oz St-Germain
• Lavender bitters
• 1/8 lemon
• 1 strawberry
• Mint

In a cocktail shaker, muddle lemon, strawberry and one sprig of mint (smack that mint before you muddle to release the mint oils).
Add gin, simple syrup, St-Germain and 2 dash lavender bitters.
Add ice, shake it, strain it.
Garnish with a mint leaf.

The Glass: Coupe from The Boston Shaker.

“Hermano is the Spanish word for ‘brother’ – a fact that neither Michael nor Gob knew when they were tracking down the elusive man they believed was named Hermano. Turns out, Marta was interested in Gob’s hermano – Michael.” 

The Drink: I (Caroline) was inspired by Proof and Provision‘s Retox cocktail. I didn’t try it while I was there, but I wrote down the listed ingredients thinking it would be interesting to make at home. That being said, I have no idea if this cocktail tastes anything like their Retox, but will be going back soon to find out. Ours definitely has a perfectly balanced sweet and sour flavor with a little kick!

First, the ingredients.

• Silver 100% agave tequila – we used Camarena 
• Maple chili syrup (you’ll need pure maple syrup and 1 serrano pepper for this).
• Fresh lime juice
• Orange bitters

Second, the syrup. I made a small batch, but if you use equal parts you can make however much you want.

• 1:1 maple syrup to water. I did 1/4 cup water to a 1/4 cup maple syrup. 
• Put it on the stove and heat it up. Stir until syrup and water are combined well. Turn it down.
• Cut 1 serrano pepper, get the seeds out, and then slice.
• Add a few slices at a time and let seep for a few minutes. I did this to taste. You want this to have a kick, but not be so spicy that it overpowers the syrup flavor. I ended up using almost all of the serrano, but this is up to you. Just keep adding, letting it seep, then tasting. Once it’s where you want on the spice level, take the peppers out! Also, note that I used almost an entire pepper for the small amount I made, so make sure to get enough peppers if you want to make a large batch of the syrup.

Now, the cocktail.

• 2 oz tequila
• 3/4 oz maple chili syrup
• 3/4 oz fresh lime juice
• 2 dash orange bitters

Put all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake.
Strain into a glass with some large ice cubes (we have Tovolo tray’s).
Garnish with a lime slice.

The Glass: Anthropologie Color Pop glass.

The Drink: It’s a beer cocktail, baby! We adapted this one from Chow’s Dirty Flower recipe. We nixed the grapefruit and Ludacris’d it up with a Southern wheat beer. Instead of making a pitcher of it and passing out, we altered it to a single serving. 

• 2 oz gin – we used Plymouth
• 1 oz St-Germain
• 3/4 oz lemon juice (fresh to death)
• 3/4 oz simple syrup
• 2 dash orange bitters
• Southern wheat beer – we used Yazoo’s Hefeweizen (Nashville brewery love)

Put a handful of ice in a pint glass.
Pour all of the ingredients, minus the beer, and stir ’em up.
Top with beer, garnish with a big lemon peel.

The Glass: Target pint glass.

Jamie Clayton and I teamed up again to bring you a second round of Drink This Takeover. It’s Part II, y’all!

We set up the bar in my BFF’s backyard in Nashville on a ridiculously beautiful evening. Today through Saturday, we’re bringing you five cocktails, both classic and new, to rock your world. Hurr we go…

The Drink: The Mint Julep is one of the greatest drinks of all time. To quote Jeffrey Morgenthaler, “I don’t know if a lot of people realize how easy this drink is to make at home.” We wanted to further the cause and get more people drinking Julep’s made the right way.

• 12-20 mint leaves (get fresh mint, not boxed mint. We got ours from Produce Place). 
• Bourbon
• Simple syrup

Lightly muddle the mint leaves at the bottom of your cup with 1/2 oz simple syrup.
Add 2-2.5 oz of bourbon – we used 2.5oz of Buffalo Trace.
Make some crushed ice – we used my Lewis Bag to create perfectly crushed dry ice.
Pack your cup as tight as you can with ice, garnish with mint sprigs, stick a straw in it and enjoy.

The Cup: Salisbury ‘Texas’ Pewter Cup, a gift from Christie Leigh of Southern League Magazine.

“Despite its unfortunate reputation as the Lindsay Lohan of the drink world, it deserves to rub elbows with the likes of the Manhattan and the martini. A properly made margarita is like Emma Stone-fun-loving but, deep down, classy and smart.” – Wall Street Journal

Happy Cinco de Mayo! There truly is no better way to celebrate the Mexican army’s 1862 victory over France than to drink margaritas. AMIRIGHT?!

Let’s get right to it. I’ve said it before, and I’m saying it again: it’s a tragedy how horrible the majority of margaritas are made. My Texan blooded heart breaks at the disservice to this glorious drink that the majority of restaurants have brought. My beloved ‘rita, one of the easiest drinks to make, has been hijacked by sweet-and-sour mixes, frozen fruits, cheap tequilas and machines.

The Drink(s): The basic margarita should only have 3 ingredients in it: tequila, triple sec and lime juice. Like all cocktails, your margarita will only be as good as your worst ingredient, so don’t buy from the bottom of the shelf. For the four we made, we chose Espolón Blanco tequila, one of the best tequilas for the money. Whatever you buy, make sure it’s 100% agave, and stick to blanco (a.k.a silver or white) tequila for your ‘ritas. Next, don’t buy that $10 Triple Sec bottle with the orange on it. Get some Grand Marnier or Cointreau, the latter of which I prefer. Last, when I say lime juice, I mean freshly squeezed lime juice. Don’t you dare buy a concentrate or limeade. Fresh, fresh, fresh.

Now, here are cuatro recipes that we love. We whipped these up with friends in Nashville and had a little tasting party. We even decided to extend the invites to our friends and family to get their thoughts on it too. Ok, some of the people may have used a fake id to get in on the action, but we made sure that we drank responsibly, as we wanted as many honest opinions as possible. I think it worked. They were all well received, and everyone had different favorites, which is why we’d encourage you to try them all and decide for yourself! You shake ’em, you strain ’em, you like ’em.

UNO | The Classic (3 parts tequila, 2 parts triple sec, 1 part lime juice)

• 1.5 oz tequila
• 1 oz triple sec
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• pinch sea salt (I prefer shaking with salt instead of rimming glass)

DOS | Caroline’s Favorite Variation (found in The PDT Cocktail Book)

• 2 oz tequila
• 3/4 triple sec
• 3/4 lime juice
• 1/4 agave syrup

TRES | Mark’s Favorite Variation (via Jeffrey Morgenthaler)

• 2 oz tequila
• 1 oz triple sec
• 1 oz lime
• 1 oz lemon
• 1 oz simple syrup

CUATRO | The Bitters Variation (via White on Rice). This one tastes the most different, but still really delicious. The bitters in place of triple sec bring a really unique flavor while still managing to taste like a margarita.

• 1.5 oz tequila
• 1.5 oz lime juice
• 1 oz simple syrup
• 3 dash orange bitters

The Glasses: Tig got these at a market in Cabo San Lucas.

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Bonus note: I’ve been margarita-focused in restaurants over the past couple of weeks and have noticed something that’ll make a lot of girls happy. The majority of margaritas that are described as “Skinny” on a menu are actually the ones that will taste the best! This may not be true of all places, but if you read the ingredients what you’ll hopefully see is “fresh lime juice and agave nectar” instead of sweet-and-sour. If you find yourself in a place where Splenda is listed in the ingredients, get up and leave.

The Drink: The Mulligan, our improved version of a John Daly (lemonade, tea, and vodka). You may have been calling it an “alcoholic Arnold Palmer,” but it’s John Daly, friends.

When Firefly brought sweet tea vodka into our lives, it made John Daly’s even easier to make, and even more delicious. But when we visited the distillery last Spring, I discovered something that my liquor store didn’t carry at the time: Sweet Tea Bourbon. Holy smokes, southern Batman! I was in love. Bourbon whiskey from the Buffalo Trace Distillery infused with South Carolina tea and sweetened with cane sugar? Boom.

Now that it’s officially warmer weather cocktail season, sweet tea liquor was in order a few nights ago…but I wanted to alter it a tad. Thus, The Mulligan was born. Using Sweet Tea Vodka in this would also be delicious, I just highly recommend giving it a try with Sweet Tea Bourbon. The must do alteration here is fresh lemon juice instead of store bought lemonade. A little extra work goes a long way in this drink. The measurements below are for a 12 oz glass. Pour, stir, and enjoy.

• 6 oz Firefly Sweet Tea Bourbon (or Sweet Tea Vodka).
• 3 oz water.
• 1.5 oz fresh lemon juice.
• Handful of ice.
• Lemon wheel to garnish.

The Glass: Firefly Mason Jar glass (c/o).

The Attire: 

• The Old Try ‘Hill Country’ shirt. Texas forever. 
• Urban Outfitters ‘Around the World’ watch.
• J.Crew jeans.

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Are you jealous of my awesome Firefly mason jar glass? I figured you would be…so they sent me 2 to give to one of you! In honor of The Masters starting today, and, well…the whole golf talk thing we’ve got going on here…you just need to leave a comment on this post letting us know who you’re pulling for this year! A winner will be drawn at random on April 14th after the green jacket is on the shoulders of the 2013 winner.

Additional high fives for liking:

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED – CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MAPLES FAMILY FOR WINNING!*

The Drink: Monday Night Brewing‘s Fu ManBrew. We love this and think this brewery is putting out some of the best beers in Georgia. Their Belgian-Style Wit packs a punch of ginger and spice and all things nice and is the perfect beer for Spring porch sittin’. Or anytime, anywhere sittin’, really.

As of now, the brewery doesn’t distribute outside of the state, but plans on looking into it early next year. So, for you Georgia based readers, click here to see where you can fill your growler or get it on draught. Last month, the brewery started selling bottles in various spots around Atlanta (like Hop City), and plans on selling in Athens in the next two weeks.

For the non Georgia readers, this is a must try local brew the next time you visit.

The Attire: 

• Thrifted $3 OCBD, yellow buttonhole stitching swapped by Mark.
• Volunteer Traditions Georgia belt.
• Chubbies ‘The Vice’ shorts.