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The BEST Delicious Whiskey Cocktails You Can Make

Whiskey Cocktails
Late Summer Fizz/Photo by Glenn Scott Photography

Whiskey is one of my favorite things. I’ll go to lengths to describe the way it makes me feel and especially the way it performs in craft cocktails. What? Whiskey cocktails? Don’t look away; it’s perfectly acceptable to mix cocktails with whiskey. By the way, if you’ve enjoyed a whiskey smash or a mint julep, you’ve had a whiskey cocktail. And if you’ve treated your glass of whiskey to a splash of soda or a muddle of fruit, that is a cocktail too.

Yup, your world just got a bit bigger and you haven’t event gotten to the Manhattan’s or the Rob Roy Cocktails yet!

One such creative cocktail from my recently published book, The Craft Cocktail Compendium is named “A Pleasant Little Gentleman.” It takes a bit of rye whiskey, raw honey simple syrup and whiskey barrel aged bitters and twists them up a bit.

A Pleasant Little Gentleman

  • 2 oz. Fernet Branca
  • 1 oz. rye whiskey
  • 1 oz. raw honey simple syrup (1 cup raw honey to 1 cup hot, but not boiling, water)
  • 2-4 shakes Barrel Aged Bitters
  • Boiling water for hot tea (Lapsang Souchong)

Boil tea. Add the liquors. Sweeten with raw honey to taste. Add the bitters. Serve.

Another little taste of deliciousness is the “Late Summer Fizz.” It includes Pimm’s Cup. Now you know what to do with this cucumber-scented slice of heaven.

Late Summer Fizz

(Pg. 110 of The Craft Cocktail Compendium)

  • 2 oz. rye
  • ½ oz. Pimm’s No.1. Cup
  • ½ oz. apple cider
  • ½ oz. sweet white vermouth (I used Carpano Antica Formula)
  • ¼ oz. allspice dram
  • Sprinkle of sea salt
  • Lemon bitters
  • Splash of club soda

To a Boston Shaker filled ¾ with ice: Add the liquors and the apple cider. Add the dram. Cap and shake hard for 15 seconds. Pour over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Splash club soda. Dot with lemon bitters. Sprinkle sea salt over the top. Serve.

The next one is my take on the classic Old Fashioned. It involves roasted fruit that you split, add light balsamic vinegar or apple cider vinegar and Demerara sugar, roasted, cooled and muddled. Pretty spectacular.

Grilled Peach and Thai Basil Roast

  • 1 oz. roasted peaches (split, sprinkled with sugar and 1 tsp balsamic and roasted for 1 hour at 350 degrees until soft and charred)
  • 1 oz. roasted oranges (split, sprinkled with sugar and 1 tsp balsamic and roasted for 1 hour at 350 degrees until soft and charred
  • 4 oz. bourbon whiskey
  • 1-2 sprigs Thai basil

Muddle the roasted peaches and oranges with Thai basil very lightly, just to release the aromatics adding a bit of bourbon along the way, muddle some more and add more bourbon (I used Barrell Bourbon Batch 11). Strain the mixture into a rocks glass without ice or if you want, with one large cube of ice and a bit of the muddling mixture. Garnish with a sprig of Thai basil.

How can you go through summer without a take on the Moscow Mule, but with whiskey instead of vodka? This one takes a bit of a different tack. It involves making a very quick Shrub — no, not a shrubbery, but a little concoction that adds a bit of apple cider vinegar to the usual ginger beer. Kind of a ginger snap in your mouth!

Son In The Foreign Legion

  • ¼ oz. apple cider vinegar
  • 3 oz. ginger beer (cane sugar-based)
  • 2 oz. blended Scotch whiskey (Like Johnny Walker Red)
  • 4-6 drops Angostura bitters (or like)

To a cocktail mixing glass: Fill ¾ with ice. Add the whiskey. Add the ginger beer. Add the apple cider vinegar. Stir well to chill but not dilute. Pour into 2 coupe glasses. Dot with bitters and serve.

The last cocktail is also from my book The Craft Cocktail Compendium. It is simply named “Bill Monroe’s Country Cooler,” paying homage to the master mandolin player himself.

Bill Monroe’s Country Cooler

  • 1 oz. peach nectar
  • 1 oz. apricot nectar
  • ½ oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 oz. sweet iced tea (sugar to your own taste of course!)
  • 2-4 oz. white (un-aged) whiskey
  • 2-5 dashes Angostura bitters
  • Fresh mint (picked in the shadow of the roots of an ancient oak tree, where sweet branch water bubbles forth in a belly laugh)

Add all the liquid ingredients to a cocktail mixing vessel filled ¾ with ice. Stir well to chill. Strain into ball jars. Dot with bitters. Slap the mint against your palm and garnish. Serve and quickly prepare more! They go down quick!

Read More here, at the Fresh Toast! https://thefreshtoast.com/culture/the-best-delicious-whiskey-cocktails-you-can-make/

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Articles Interviews

Columbus, Ohio-World Class Cocktails and Spirits

Warren Bobrow: iPhone X

Travel just about two hours by airplane- due West from the New York/Metropolitan region, and be prepared to find great ice! (As shown above) And much, much more! There is a craft spirits, culinary and craft cocktail revolution- ‘not so quietly’ reinventing itself in Columbus, Ohio. The finest culinary and alcoholic ingredients in the land are no longer only being only shipped to the big cities to the north and on both sides of this ‘fly-over’ city. Local cooks and mixologists are raising the bar on what is delicious- and what has not been discovered yet by the rest of the country. New money and massive amounts of raw, entrepreneurial creativity is gushing into this former rust-belt town. Each passing day is creating great pressure on existing bar and restaurant businesses- to ‘raise the bar’ and to do it really quickly or be left behind by changing tastes. There are gleaming new restaurants, distilleries, micro-breweries and craft cocktail bars all over town- some of them carved into former bank building lobbies, as if the employees of the bank just got up at the end of the day and their places were immediately replaced, not by investments, but by toothsome food and drink.

Warren Bobrow: iPhone X

Detail of Former bank lobby

READ MORE AT FORBES

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Events

First Friday at Partition Street Wines!

Today, I’ll be at Partition Street Wine Shop at 6:00 pm signing books with my good friend Brendan Edwards!
Address102 Partition St, Saugerties, NY 12477
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Reviews Tasting Notes

Precision, Perfection, Symmetry and Intensity… Japanese Whisky

Japanese Whisky: Quiet Perfection

A quiet pursuit of excellence is taking place by the careful and studied guidance of Eric Tschudi, the affable and youthful beverage director of Shuko. His hand-chosen selection of esoteric, Japanese Whiskies will certainly intellectualize even the most altruistic guest in your dinner party.  And then there is a private dining room that intrigues the carefully interested. This space is the most private room, set deeply down in the subterranean part of the former bakery- a quite hidden, inner sanctum, located in the depths of 47 East 12th Street in New York City. This is certainly not a tourist restaurant, nor does it have any signs announcing the constantly changing approach to an educated curiosity that takes place within the walls daily. There are no lines of paparazzi craning their necks towards the stars, nor very much in the way of foot traffic on this part of the street, set just off the teeming hustle and bustle of soon to be, lower Broadway. Find some parking just across the street, just up the way a bit and stretch your legs, but only so much. The scent you detect in the air may well tinge of sea salt water on this tiny spit of land only a few short blocks from the churning East River. The Japanese inspired liquids are driven by the culinary treats that emulate from within the tabla rasa walls. And all of these surprises are completely undetected from the street. A hidden gem surrounded by so much darkness.

READ MORE AT FORBES

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Events

Whisky LIVE Debuts A New Format In Its Annual Return To NYC & DC

NEW YORKFeb. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The producers of Whisky LIVE, the internationally renowned whisky tasting event, turns it up a notch on this year’s annual US tour with an exciting new Whisky Nite! format touching down at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York on February 28 and at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, DC on March 2nd.

General Admission Ticket Holders
General admission tickets are priced at $139 and for those ticket holders, doors open at 6:00 PM (NY) and 6:30 (DC). The ticket price includes an event program and a souvenir Glencairn tasting glass.

With tickets, whisky lovers will have the opportunity to:

  • Sample and taste several exclusive whiskies, which have never appeared in America prior to the event. Whisky LIVE is proud to debut these whiskies to American consumers.
  • Explore Authors’ Row featuring some of the following whisky, wine and spirits experts Fred MinnickDavin DeKergommeauxAmanda SchusterKara NewmanWarren Bobrow, and more signing copies of their latest books which will be available at the show.
  • Taste and experience limited offerings from the Pilot Project Whisky and Four Kings Whiskey, a 600-bottle collaboration between four Midwestern distilleries.
  • Explore products from non-traditional whisky producing countries like IndiaCzech Republic and Australia.

Whisky LIVE USA is proud to partner with Modern Trader, the award-winning, essential journal for professional traders and active investors since 1972. Modern Trader’s partnership for Whisky Nite! brings the event to members of NY and D.C.’s financial community.

Updates and more information on the event can be found at whiskyliveUSA.com and social media channels:

  • Twitter: @WhiskyLiveUSA
  • Facebook: WhiskyLive USA
  • Hashtag: #WhiskyLiveNY and #WhiskyLiveDC
  • Instagram: WhiskyLiveUSA and WhiskyNite

About Whisky Nite! 2018

New York – Wednesday, February 28
Metropolitan Pavilion 125 West 18th Street, NY, NY 10011
VIP: 5:30-9:30 PM
General Admission 6:00-9:30
$199

DC – Friday, March 2
Fairmont Washington, DC- Georgetown2401 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037
VIP: 6;00 PM-9:30 PM
General Admission opening at 6:30 PM
$139

For more information, please visit http://whiskyliveusa.com/

SOURCE Whisky LIVE USA

Join me!

Read More Here!

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Events

Meet me in Lawrenceville !

Saturday, December 16th I will be doing a tasting at Joe Canal in Lawrenceville NJ from 12:00 – 2:00 pm

  • Laird’s Applejack86
  • Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye Whiskey
  • Crop Vodka
  • Farmers Gin

3375 US Route 1 South Lawrenceville, NJ 08648

Joe Canal!

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Reviews Tasting Notes

Authentic Rum: Foursquare Rum Distillery

Warren Bobrow

Real Rum, not manipulated rum

In life there are certain accomplishments that are sometimes quantified by the quality of the spirits that you sip. If you doubt the words of a rum expert, all you need to do is look at the groaning shelves at your favorite package store. Rum has just about exploded in popularity in recent decades after a hundred or so year slumber. Sure you could count on a booze-cruise rum punch while sailing with your friends in the islands- you probably want to forget what highly manipulated rum can do to your gut and your aching head. But this is not a piece about what happens when you drink manipulated, (read: lousy) rum on a stern of a pitching sailboat. This is about drinking some of the very best rum that money can buy. And while you’re learning about what is special about Foursquare Rum, the suggestion is first and foremost, that you are worth it. This is not booze-cruise rum, nor is it rum that deserves a place on the very top shelf of your bar, never to be opened. Why? Fear perhaps has much to do with it. You do deserve to drink Foursquare. Recognize this fear of the unknown and you’ll come to a magical place where quality and cost become a misnomer. Where success is not measured by expense, but by quality. Where experience matters, like that picnic boat you ogled over in your youth, or the first time you experienced a glass or two of really well aged wine, or slurped some really rare Scotch Whisky. It’s important to note that while Foursquare is not inexpensive, there are rums on the market that far exceed it in cost. Many of these pretty label and fancy bottle rums are manipulated in some manner. Why is that? Because they can, it’s because they are permitted, because no one really cares to know. From caramel coloring to sugar being re-added for a sweet mouth-feel, to globs of thick glycerin to even out the creaminess across the palate- to all sorts of things that would get a rum judge in trouble, just by mentioning that so-and so’s rum is being manipulated.

READ MORE HERE AT FORBES

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Uncategorized

Sherryfest!

Sherryfest is returning to New York!

Oct 28th 11:00am – 4:00pm   Astor Center 399 Lafayette St – New York, NY
Get Directions
I will be at tomorrw’s Sherryfest for Osborne;  The range of Sherryfest events will provide a wealth of opportunity to taste, learn and enjoy sherry with friends and visiting producers, including Osborne, Gonzalez Byass, Barbadillo, Bodegas Tradicion, Delgado Zuleta, Bodegas 501, Rodriguez La-Cave, Valdespino, La Guita, Real Tesoro, Williams & Humbert, Hidalgo – La Gitana, Fernando de Castilla, Lustau, Emilio Hidalgo, Gutiérrez Colosía, , Alexander Jules, Viñas la Callejuela, and more!
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Events

Stonington Harbor Yacht Club

Lovely evening at the Stonington Harbor Yacht Club!

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Events

Stonington Harbor Yacht Club Event

Stonington Harbor Yacht Club Event

Single Malt Scotch Tasting

Saturday October 21, 2017 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM

A Virtual Cruise to the Isle and Highlands of Scotland- A Single Malt, Scotch Whisky Tasting

Back by popular demand, Warren Bobrow, noted international judge, journalist and food writer, the “Cocktail Whisperer” will share his knowledge of Single Malt, Scotch Whisky. From the Isle to the Highlands, you will taste 12 different Scotch whiskies, from the bland to the beautiful. From the bottles that you can buy anywhere to something special from his own stock. Warren will have us tasting the difference between the stuff your father drank and the fine bottles we should be drinking!

The cost per person will be $35.00 for tasters. Accompanying tea-totalers and designated drivers will be admitted free. This tasting is limited to the first 30 members and their guests to register.

This is sure to be an educational and memorable event.

The tasting will be followed by a Scotch themed dinner at the club. Have your kilts pressed and dust off your bag- pipes for a wonderful evening.

CHECK OUT THE DINNER MENU!!