Oh how we yearn to be in New Orleans. We’re not. Nowhere even close. Our latitudinal distance, though, doesn’t preclude us from celebrating Mardi Gras. What we lack in beads, masks and parades, we compensate for with a well-stocked bar.
Feeling festive, we devoted Saturday to crafting cocktail recipes. Two new acquisitions, Crown Royal Vanilla and Art In The Age Root Spirit, starred in our carnivàle. Crown Royal, of course, is blended Canadian whisky. This variety tastes of vanilla. Art In The Age Root Spirit is a liqueur replicating root tea, which was traditionally made from sassafras, sarsaparilla, wintergreen birch bark, and other roots and herbs. That may sound strange. It’s the essential flavor of root beer minus the sweetener and soda.
Let’s be honest: the vanilla whiskey and root liqueur together without anything else produces a spectacular sip. We’re tinkerers, so we tinkered. We added flavors of orange, brown sugar and bitters. We enjoyed the concoction. Our guests emptied their glasses. We consider that a success.
We named this drink the “Big Boy Sarsaparilla.” Any and all genders will enjoy it.
Big Boy Sarsaparilla
Ingredients
- Two teaspoons of brown sugar
- Two teaspoons of water
- Four ounces of Crown Royal Vanilla
- Two ounces of Art In The Age Root Spirit
- The juice from half an orange
- Two to three dashes of orange bitters
- Orange wedge, for garnish
Directions
In a cocktail shaker, dissolve brown sugar in water. Add whiskey, root liqueur, orange juice and bitters. Shake well. Strain over ice in a glass. Serve with an orange wedge.
Makes two servings.
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