Recently, Alie and I took our last camping trip of the season. While we were out, we visited one of our favorite local distilleries in the area we were staying. The distillery had a number of exciting cocktails on its menu. One contained whiskey, orgeat, Peychaud’s bitters, and lemon juice which caught our attention. We tried the cocktail and it was just ok. However, we were inspired to experiment with the ingredients which helped us to create our newest cocktail, Not Your Grandma’s Maraschino.
The original cocktail from the distillery was too tart. The whiskey was overpowered by the lemon juice and it lacked the sweetness that is typical of orgeat. We started by scaling back the amount of lemon juice in the cocktail and we liked the results. After a couple of tries, we landed on the perfect mix of ingredients to make this cocktail shine.
We opted to use rye whiskey instead of bourbon. The rye whiskey helped balance the sweetness and lemon tart flavors. We used Laws San Luis Valley Rye. The lemon juice in the Not Your Grandma’s Maraschino brings out the orange peel and fig flavors found in the Laws. If you haven’t checked out our review of Laws Rye Whiskey, you can find it here.
We added the whiskey, orgeat, and lemon juice and gave it a good stir. We finished by adding a few dashes of Peychaud’s on top. Adding the bitters last gives it an interesting look since the Peychaud’s sits in the top third of the cocktail.
Our Not Your Grandma’s Maraschino tastes just like a maraschino cherry. If you like cherries, you are going to love this cocktail. Give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments or over on our Instagram.
Happy Exploring!
Not Your Grandma’s Maraschino
Ingredients
- 2 ounces Rye Whiskey
- 1 ounce Orgeat
- 1/2 each Lemon – juiced
- 3 dashes Peychaud's Bitters
Instructions
- Combine the whiskey, orgeat, and lemon juice in a rocks glass.
- Stir. Add a few dashes of Peychaud's Bitters on top.
- Enjoy!