Sips & Synopsis

• This Weeks Makings

• Trivia Question

• Drink of the Week - The Kentucky Buck

• The Ginger Beer Difference

• Bonus Cocktails

• Mocktail Moment - Zero-Proof Kentucky Buck

This Weeks Makings.

Fourth of July is Saturday.

Which means this is the week for the cocktails that show up loud. Bright colors. Bigger flavors. Drinks that look like fireworks in a glass.

This week I built the whole issue around the flag. Red drink, white drink, blue drink. The one in front is a Kentucky Buck: bourbon, muddled strawberries, and a good pour of ginger beer. Deep pink-red, refreshing, honestly the kind of cocktail that makes you look like you know what you are doing.

Behind it: a Piña Colada for the white, a Blueberry Paloma for the blue. Three totally different spirits, three colors, one American afternoon.

In this issue:

• A red bourbon Drink of the Week worth batching

• Why ginger beer is not ginger ale (and which brands to buy)

• Two bonus cocktails that finish the flag

• A trivia question about America's first cocktail

• A zero-proof Kentucky Buck for the whole crew

Trivia Question ❓

Name that cocktail. I was invented in the 1850s in New Orleans and am often called America's first cocktail. My recipe: rye whiskey, a sugar cube, Peychaud's bitters, and an absinthe rinse in a chilled glass. What am I?

Answer at the bottom of the newsletter

The Kentucky Buck

Bourbon, muddled strawberries, and a snap of ginger beer. Bright red and built for a porch.

Ingredients

• 4 fresh strawberries, tops removed

• 2 oz bourbon

• 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice

• 0.25 oz simple syrup

• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

• 2 to 3 oz spicy ginger beer to top

• Strawberry half and fresh mint sprig to garnish

Directions

1. Muddle the strawberries in the bottom of a shaker

2. Add bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup, and bitters

3. Fill with ice and shake hard for 10 seconds

4. Double strain into a tall glass over fresh ice

5. Top with ginger beer

6. Garnish with a strawberry half and a mint sprig

Why It Works

Strawberries and bourbon are one of those pairings that should not work as well as they do. The lemon and ginger beer keep everything bright and crisp, so even in the heat this drink never feels heavy. Erick Castro invented it at Rickhouse in San Francisco a decade ago. It has been on cocktail menus ever since.

Behind the Bar - The Ginger Beer Difference

A Kentucky Buck is only as good as its ginger beer.

Which brings up a very important thing most people get wrong. Ginger beer and ginger ale are not the same drink.

Ginger ale is a soda. Sweet, mild, mostly ginger-flavored syrup and carbonation. Great stand alone, or if you like your well drinks more on the sweet side. Not great in a cocktail.

Ginger beer is spicier, more assertive, and often brewed rather than flavored. Real ginger beer has actual ginger root in it. You can feel it in the back of your throat.

For cocktails, always reach for the beer. Never the ale.

A few brands worth stocking:

• Fever-Tree Premium Ginger Beer — clean and crisp, works everywhere

• Bundaberg Ginger Beer — cloudy, brewed, big Australian ginger punch

• Q Mixers Spicy Ginger Beer — cocktail-bar favorite, dry and hot

The homemade shortcut. Steep a knob of fresh ginger in hot water with sugar for 20 minutes, strain, and mix with lime juice and soda water at the last minute. Not shelf-stable, but ridiculously fresh.

Once you switch from ginger ale to real ginger beer, every Moscow Mule, Dark and Stormy, and Kentucky Buck you make tastes twice as alive.

Bonus Cocktails

Piña Colada

The white one. Tropical, creamy, unapologetic.

Ingredients

• 2 oz white rum

• 3 oz fresh pineapple juice

• 1 oz cream of coconut (Coco Lopez or similar)

• 0.5 oz fresh lime juice

• 1 cup crushed ice

• Pineapple wedge and a maraschino cherry to garnish

Directions

Blend rum, pineapple juice, cream of coconut, lime juice, and crushed ice on high for 20 to 30 seconds until smooth and frothy. Pour into a chilled hurricane glass or tall glass. Garnish with a pineapple wedge and cherry.

Why it works

Cream of coconut is not coconut milk. It is the sweetened, thick, almost pudding-like coconut concentrate that makes a Piña Colada taste like the ones on vacation. Skip the shortcut and this drink is worth showing up to a party for.

Blueberry Paloma

The blue one. Tart, salty, deep purple in the glass.

Ingredients

• 10 to 12 fresh blueberries

• 2 oz blanco tequila

• 2 oz fresh grapefruit juice

• 0.5 oz fresh lime juice

• 0.5 oz agave syrup

• Grapefruit soda or club soda to top

• Salt or Tajin for the rim, lime wheel and 3 blueberries to garnish

Directions

Rim a tall glass with salt or Tajin. Muddle the blueberries at the bottom of a shaker. Add tequila, grapefruit juice, lime juice, agave, and ice. Shake hard for 10 seconds. Strain over fresh ice into the rimmed glass. Top with grapefruit soda. Garnish with a lime wheel and three blueberries dropped on top.

Why it works

Muddled blueberries turn a bright Paloma into something deeper and more grown-up. The salt rim keeps it from getting sweet. The color is impossible to photograph badly.

Mocktail or Zero Proof Option

Zero-Proof Kentucky Buck

All the strawberry snap. None of the proof.

Ingredients

• 4 fresh strawberries, tops removed

• 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice

• 0.5 oz simple syrup

• 2 dashes non-alcoholic aromatic bitters (or a splash of strong-brewed black tea for depth)

• 4 oz spicy ginger beer

• Strawberry half and fresh mint sprig to garnish

Directions

Muddle the strawberries in the bottom of a shaker. Add lemon juice, simple syrup, bitters or tea, and ice. Shake hard for 10 seconds. Double strain into a tall glass over fresh ice. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with a strawberry half and a fresh mint sprig.