When it’s dark at 4.30pm, your drafty home refuses to get above 55F, and there’s ice on the INSIDE of the windows, what do you do to warm up in the evening?
You could make a big fort in the middle of your living room with every blanket you have in the house. You could rub two kittens together and bathe in the glow of their static electricity (DISCLAIMER: DOES NOT WORK WITH CHICKENS).
Or you could make these Old Fashioneds with maple syrup.
Mixologists will tell you that these are not real Old Fashioned cocktails, since they aren’t strictly made with plain sugar or simple syrup. While they’re explaining that to you, nod sagely and drink up and then demand another glass of “whatever the hell you want to call it, Poindexter”.
Emily bought me the PDT Cocktail Book and a fine Boston cocktail shaker set for Christmas (do you think she was trying to tell me something? Should I be making more cocktails? Is the answer to that question ever “no”?) which I needed to test out, and their “Benton’s Old Fashioned” was a great starting point. Now they use bacon-infused bourbon, which, delicious as it sounds, I just couldn’t put my hand on.
So use whatever whisky or bourbon you have – we’ve tried both Jack Daniels and the local Hudson Whiskey pictured in these shots. Feel free to adjust the amount of maple syrup or bitters; these are just general suggestions that work for us.
These directions are for 1 cocktail.
Our winter warmer: Maple-syrup Old Fashioned
Ingredients
- 2 oz bourbon or whisky
- 1/4 oz maple syrup
- couple of dashes of bitters
- ice
- lemon or orange twist
Instructions
- Mix whisky, maple syrup and bitters. Stir or shake over ice.
- Pour into glasses with a little ice or water if preferred
- Add lemon
1
5
Something truly next level? A few drops of vanilla extract. So good.
4.5
2
4
3.5
Honestly too sweet. I am using pure maple syrup from my family’s farm. I will have to play with this recipe.