Boulevardier
45 ml Bourbon, 30 ml Campari, 30 ml Sweet vermouth, 1 Orange twist
Ingredients
Measures below are multiplied for 12 drinks. Unmeasurable amounts such as “a splash” are left as written.
- 720 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 720 ml line. Bourbon
- 240 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 240 ml line. Lemon juice
- 240 ml Measuring jug A measuring jug: pour to the 240 ml line. Honey syrup - Two parts honey, one part hot water
- 12 twists Lemon twist (optional)
Measured in Millilitres (UK). Sign in to read these in American measures. Print a kitchen card at this size.
What the jigger, the spoons and the jug hold, in millilitres and in fluid ounces, is on the measures reference.
Quick version
- Shake the three with ice and strain over one large cube.
Method
Batch (12 drinks)Batch (12 drinks) - about 1.2 l of measured ingredients, before ice and dilution.
Timings and per-glass steps below are written for one drink and are not scaled. A full jug takes longer to chill, so stir or shake until it is properly cold rather than by the clock, and pour over fresh ice one glass at a time.
- Stir the honey into hot water to make the syrup and let it cool - cold honey will not mix.
- Shake the bourbon, lemon juice and honey syrup with ice for 12 seconds.
- Strain over one large cube in a rocks glass.
- Twist a lemon peel over the top and drop it in.
Serve it
Volumes in this story are multiplied for the size above, along with the ingredients. Years, ratios and the capacities of glasses and jugs are left as written.
Gold Rush
This came out of Milk & Honey in New York in the early 2000s - the same bar as the Penicillin and the Paper Plane - and it is the simplest drink in the modern canon: a whiskey sour with honey where the sugar was, and no egg white to hide behind. Three ingredients, one shake, and it is somehow nearly perfect.
Getting it right
With this few ingredients there is nowhere to hide, so the honey matters and so does the lemon. A dark, strong honey - chestnut, heather, buckwheat - makes a drink with real character; the pale squeezy-bottle sort makes a sweet one. And do make it into a syrup: honey straight from the jar will sit at the bottom of the shaker and sulk.
Tasting notes
Bright and golden, with the honey carrying the bourbon's corn sweetness and the lemon keeping it from tipping over. It tastes like late afternoon in a garden, which is exactly when to drink it.
More Bourbon cocktails
Mint Julep
60 ml Bourbon, 8 leaves Mint, 15 ml Simple syrup, 1 Mint sprig
Old Fashioned
60 ml Bourbon, 10 ml Simple syrup, 4 dashes Angostura bitters, 1 Orange slice