Introducing, a new section of the Recipes page – James’s Drinks! James is our resident cocktail aficionado and shaker maker mixologist. He’s current specialties are the old fashioned, the whiskey sour, and the margarita. Ever since we moved to Chicago, we’ve also been slowly expanding our liquor cabinet, and it’s been surprisingly fun to survey our growing collection of geometric glass bottles and whimsical labels.

What bothers me about James’s cocktail shenanigans, though, is that he always has to look up the recipe every time he makes a drink, even if he’s made it like fifty times already. And given that he always looks it up on another food and drink blog, it’s sort of like blog cheating on his wife, to be honest. So I’m finally making him sit down and record everything he does, and we’re putting his recipes up here!

To start, the classic old fashioned. Remember that roasted sugar I made about a month ago? Remember how I promised I would make simple syrup out of that? Lo and behold, a deep, richly mahogany, caramelly and complex simple syrup is born! Classic recipes for simple syrup call for one part sugar to one part water, by volume, but James read that if we doubled the sugar, the syrup would keep longer. So we did two parts sugar to one part water, gave it a swirl over the stove, decanted it into a squeeze bottle, and it’s now in our fridge for all our cocktail making needs. I love this roasted sugar simple syrup – it smells and tastes amazing – more nutty and caramelly than white sugar, but not as prominent of a molasses flavor as brown sugar. It’s more like demerara sugar, but better, cause I coaxed that amazing flavor out of white sugar all by myself! (with the help of my oven, fine.)

Our other ingredients are fairly straightforward – an old fashioned is also a good cocktail to start with because its ingredients – bourbon and bitters, basically – are extremely versatile and are used in many other drinks. We also add a Luxardo cherry, even though it technically doesn’t belong in an old fashioned (oops), because we love those sweet little guys.

Add a giant ice cube, et voila! Classy, sassy, and splashy.

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Simple Syrup

Sources: Food Republic, the Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

• Sugar - either white or roasted
• Water

Instructions

• For standard simple syrup: Use one part sugar to one part water, by volume (e.g. one cup sugar, one cup water)

  For "rich" simple syrup: Use two parts sugar to one part water, by volume (e.g. one cup sugar, 1/2 cup water)
• Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring. Once all the sugar has dissolved, remove from heat.
• For flavored simple syrups: add flavorings after you remove the syrup from heat. Cover and let steep until cool.

  Possible flavorings include: herbs (rosemary, thyme, mint, basil); citrus peel (orange, grapefruit, lime); spices (vanilla beans, cinnamon sticks, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, peppercorns, cardamom, fresh or dried chiles).

  Once the simple syrup is cool, remove the additional ingredients to prevent spoilage.
  
• Store the simple syrup in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Storage times are:

  Standard simple syrup: up to a month

  Rich simple syrup: up to 6 months

  Flavored simply syrup: two weeks

Notes

Keep in mind that the sugar dissolves into the water, so 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water does not equal 2 cups of simple syrup. It’s more like 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups. Adjust your measurements as needed.

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James's Old Fashioned

Source: Liquor.com, the New York Times

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon simple syrup
• 2-3 dashes Angostura bitters
• 2 ounces bourbon
• Orange peel
• 1 Luxardo maraschino cherry (optional)

Instructions

• Combine simple syrup and bitters in a chilled rocks glass.

  Add bourbon and one large ice cube, or three or four smaller cubes. Gently stir until chilled and the flavors are combined, about 30 seconds. 

  Use a vegetable peeler to cut one strip of orange peel. Twist orange peel over the glass to express the oils in the zest, rub peel over the rim of the glass, and drop peel into glass.

  Add maraschino cherry if desired, and serve!

Notes

We actually use a "rich" simple syrup containing 2 parts sugar and 1 part water - see recipe above. So, we use a little shy of a teaspoon of this rich syrup and dilute with a splash more water. The sugar is there to flavor the bourbon and mellow the spirit a bit, so feel free to play around with the proportions to see how you like it.

Traditionally, Old Fashioneds are made with solid crystalized sugar or a sugar cube, not syrup. We don't do this because we've started to make and store simple syrup in the fridge. However, if you want to go this route, use 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1 teaspoon water. Add the sugar, water, and bitters into the glass, and stir until dissolved. Once dissolved, proceed with adding the bourbon and ice.