Back Down South

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.