Summer

This fun tropical drink created by Jake Smith, mixologist at Wild Flower in St. Louis, Mo., won the United States Bartenders’ Guild Lux Row Bourbon Battle on May 28, 2019, earning Smith a trophy and an all-expense-paid trip to the…

Three years ago, I bought a bottle of limoncello in Sorrento as a memory of my first trip to Italy. The liqueur is traditionally made from the zest of Femminello St. Teresa lemons, also known as Sorrento or Sfusato lemons,…

The Negroni is a classic cocktail featuring just three ingredients: gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari, a bright red apéritif with a bittersweet taste. If gin’s not your thing, substitute bourbon or rye whiskey and you’ll have a Boulevardier. Or leave out…

Heaven Hill sponsored the opening night’s reception at the Bourbon Women’s Sip-osium at the Pendennis Club on Friday, Aug. 21, and three bartenders created cocktails using three of their products. My favorite, The Kentucky Sparkler, was mixed by Emily Hornback…

The Kentucky Mule is a variation on the Moscow Mule, a cocktail that mixes vodka, lime juice and ginger beer over ice, usually in a copper mug. The Kentucky version obviously substitutes bourbon for the vodka. Bourbon has always played well with…

The classic Horse’s Neck cocktail has only two ingredients: bourbon (or rye, or brandy) and ginger ale, stirred in a highball glass and garnished with a long spiral of lemon peel that gives it its name. When you make it…

At a recent party where I featured a bourbon tasting, I wanted to have something available beforehand – something easy that wouldn’t require a lot of bartending. Punch was the obvious answer. You can mix it up ahead of time,…

Here is a terrific brunch cocktail I came across at The Girl in the Little Red Kitchen: the Blueberry Bourbon Smash. Bursting with the fresh flavors of plump blueberries and mint from the garden, it will go down easy all…

Cocktails were originally created to make less-than-stellar spirits more palatable by masking them with other ingredients. But now the philosophy is to enhance the spirit, not cover it up, says Cincinnati mixologist Molly Wellmann. Molly has studied the classic cocktails of…

The Kentucky Distillers’ Association pulls together a pretty mean bar for the Governor’s Derby Eve Gala at the Mansion in Frankfort, Ky., and this year’s was no different. They usually have something new or rare to share. This year, the…