Bourbon Cocktail Recipes
It was in Louisville, Kentucky where I first set foot behind a bar and that’s where I learned my first Bourbon cocktail recipes. It’s not much of a surprise that I, like millions of others, fell in love with Bourbon. For many of us it is a life long passion.
Bourbon cocktail recipes are interesting. Partly because many of them didn’t start out as cocktails where the base spirit was Bourbon. In many cases they were originally brandy, or rye whiskey cocktails. The overwhelming popularity of Bourbon earned it a place as the default in many of these drinks.
Bourbon is more approachable than American rye, and less distinctive than Scotch. That means it harmonizes well with a number of cocktail ingredients. Bourbon works well in cocktails where you want balanced integrated flavours.
If you’re looking for something more robust throw in something with a higher rye content. If you’re feeling frisky, substitute peated Scotch in some of these ‘Bourbon cocktails’.
Two of the recipes, the Old Fashioned and the Manhattan, are in our list of Seven Core Cocktail Recipes. Learning these recipes will give you a great foundation for being a very solid bartender.
Bourbon Cocktail Recipes
If you love a couple large ice cubes melting into some Bourbon in a rocks glass this is the part of this site where you will find our collected bourbon cocktail wisdom.
That means if you are looking for classic bourbon cocktail recipes you’ll find them here. You will also find links to information on how bourbon is made. In addition, bourbon tasting notes are collected here. That means you can look here to find a new favourite bottle.
We’ll also help you learn about how to taste bourbon and what to look for in your glass. In short, if you want to bourbon better, start here.
Contents
- Classic Bourbon Cocktails
- Variations on Classic Bourbon Cocktails
- How is Bourbon Made?
- Bourbon Flavour Guide
- Bourbon Tasting Notes
- More Bourbon Cocktails
Classic Bourbon Cocktail Recipes
Old Fashioned
Simple and classic. This recipe dates to at least 1833. That makes it well over 200 years old. By the time it shows up in a recipe book it was already considered old fashioned, hence the name.
Manhattan
The Manhattan has all the streamlined sophistication of the fancy private club on the island for which it is named. The Manhattan recipe is perfect for experimenting with.
Bourbon Sour
For many people the Whiskey Sour is one of the first drinks that comes to mind when the topic of sour cocktails comes up. This is one of those drinks everyone should know.
Boulevardier
The Boulevardier was first published in Barflies and Cocktails, a cocktail book written by legendary bartender Harry McElhone in 1925. The cool thing about this is that it was a collection of cocktail recipes from McElhone’s regular customers.
Mint Julep
The Mint Julep is a drink that I imagine was immensely more popular before air conditioning. Everything about this drink is designed to cool you down. Mint and Bourbon poured over crushed ice and served in a chilled silver cup.
Kentucky Buck
The Buck is a cocktail that came riding back on the coattails of the Moscow Mule. Not that it really went away. Folks in Kentucky have been drinking Bourbon and ginger for a long time. But more recently the proper Kentucky Buck found a home on cocktail menus everywhere.
Variations of Classic Bourbon Cocktails Recipes
Paper Plane
The Paper Plane is a modern classic aperitif cocktail. It is a Bourbon take on the Last Word. You can also think of it as a Boulevardier with added lemon and the Campari is split between Aperol and Amaro Nonino. If you are looking for another approach to a Bourbon based Aperitif cocktail this is a good one to try.
Gold Rush
The Gold Rush is one of the simplest variations on the whisky sour you could imagine. Really, the only change is substituting honey for sugar. Sounds also too easy to even call it a variation, yet the change has an impact. The combination of honey and Bourbon always yields interesting results.
Fancy Free
The Fancy Free is one of my favorite variations on an Old Fashioned. It has all the elegant stripped down simplicity of the original, with a touch of Maraschino liqueur and some added orange bitters.
Vieux Carre
The Vieux Carre is a sweet, rich, spicy, bitter, and warm cocktail made with Bourbon, Benedictine, and sweet vermouth. It is a classic drink that originated in the Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans.
Sazerac
The Sazerac cocktail is a classic New Orleans cocktail. It is made from whiskey, sugar, water and Peychaud’s bitters. Most recipes also call for a few dashes of absinthe. The recipe for this drink dates back to the 1850s.
Toronto Cocktail
The Toronto Cocktail is a variation on the Manhattan. Except it uses Fernet. Weird. Complex. Delicious. This is an easy to make three ingredient cocktail that delivers big on flavor.
What do I need to have Stocked in My Bar to Make the Best Bourbon Cocktails?
Lemons for lemon juice and lemon peel – as in fresh lemons that you squeeze to make fresh lemon juice. It is essential for a whiskey sour, plus you’ll need lemons for all those long loopy amazing twists you are going to make.
Oranges – A strip of orange peel is the garnish for so many Bourbon drinks it really is smart to keep a couple oranges on hand. And, while orange juice isn’t essential for many bourbon based cocktails you can use it in other drinks.
Other citrus – For Bourbon drinks oranges and lemons are really all you need, but it’s never a bad idea to
Bitters. A good aromatic bitters like Angostura is essential if you must have only one bottle this is the one. Orange bitters are a close second. Peychaud’s bitters are would be the third one you want to add.
Pure maple syrup is a nice item to have. Maple has a lot of flavours that are complementary to bourbon and it is a good alternative to refined sugar. I like to use a bourbon barrel aged maple syrup for my Old Fashioned cocktail.
Ginger beer is another item that lends itself to drinking with Bourbon. It’s such a versatile mixer, it is worth keeping behind the bar to mix with rum, gin and vodka as well.
How is Bourbon Made?
If you want to make high quality cocktails with Bourbon it helps to know a little about how bourbon is made. You’ll come across terms like Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Bottle in Bond, Small Batch and Single Barrel. In this section we’ll sort some of that out from.
What is the difference between Bourbon and Whiskey
Bourbon is whiskey but not all whiskey is Bourbon. In other words, Bourbon is a type of whiskey. Other whiskies include Scotch, Irish, Canadian and rye.
There are two things that make Bourbon unique. First, it must be distilled from a mash containing a minimum of 51% corn. Then, it must be aged in charred, new American oak barrels.
Bourbon Flavour Guide
Understanding the flavours present in Bourbon will go a long way to helping you not only select the best Bourbon for the cocktail you are trying to make. It will also help you figure out flavour pairings that will help you create your own variations on classic cocktail recipes.
In our Bourbon flavour guide we’ll take a look at flavours that come from the raw ingredients, and pairing ideas. Next we’ll examine flavours that come from the distillation process. Finally we’ll take a look at flavours that come from the ageing process.
Bourbon Buyers Guide
In this section we’ve collected tasting notes on classic Bourbons, high rye bourbon and wheated bourbon. There are suggestions on how to use these Bourbons in various cocktail recipes.
If you’re interested in writing your own tasting notes we’ve got a downloadable Bourbon Tasting Notes Template. We also have some suggestions on how to develop your skills as a taster and suggestions for tastings you can put together for your friends.