Bourbon and Elderflowers

Day 275, Cocktails 276 & 277

After last Saturday’s French Gimlet I was in the mood last night and tonight to continue to play around with the St. Germain.  It’s just soooo delicious and I want to see just where I can take this.  On Sunday Gwen and I watched a couple of episodes of “Drink Up” that I had on the DVR.  This is a 1/2 hour long show on the Cooking Channel and features several cocktail recipes in each episode, along with a number of other food and entertaining tidbits. 

One of the drinks that caught my eye used St. Germain and bourbon.  I’ve paired the St. Germain with rye previously, so I was pretty sure that this would be a winner, and it was.

  Westlake Cocktail

• 2 oz bourbon
• 1 oz St. Germain liqueur
• 3 dashes orange bitters

Combine the ingredients in a mixing glass and stir to combine and chill.  Strain into a rocks glass over cracked ice or ice cubes.  Garnish with a big, oversized orange peel.

Oh, yeah…this is a lovely blend of elderflower, orange and smokey bourbon flavors.  It’s very well balanced, not too sweet but yet the St. Germain is prominent.  I used Maker’s Mark for this cocktail, but I’m sure any quality bourbon would work well.

Tonight I wanted to continue the theme and did a search on the web for St. Germain cocktails.  I found this one, and though it was very similar to the Westlake, I decided to try it so that I could compare and contrast.

  Elderflower Manhattan

• 2 oz bourbon
• 1 oz St. Germain liqueur
• 1/2 oz dry vermouth
• 2 dashes Agnosturo bitters

Combine the ingredients in a mixing glass and stir to combine and chill.  Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a cherry.

Very, very nice.  This is a twist on a perfect Manhattan, with the St. Germain filling in for sweet vermouth.  With the dry vermouth this is a bit more boozy than the Westlake since it is drier.  I could drink way too many of these in one sitting – its just that right mix of sweet and dry.

Give these two takes on bourbon and St. Germain a try and let me know which you liked best.

Cheers!