Bend it with a Backwoods Bourbon Punch

Get-togethers are incomplete without a bowl of fruity punch. How about adding a perfect twist to the quintessential party drink with some good ol’ bourbon?

Here’s a quick recipe for a Backwoods Bourbon Punch that’s fresh in terms of its essence, quick in its method, and great to get you tipsy.

The Process

Take a cocktail shaker. Add 180 ml bourbon, 60 ml vermouth, 90 ml grapefruit juice, and 40 ml grenadine. Fill it with ice and keep shaking till the outside turns frosty. This should take you about 30 seconds or so. Take a few glasses. Fill them with ice and pour your cocktail. Garnish all of them with sweetened cherries and lemon twists. Serve and enjoy!

Whiskey and Summer Food: The Spring of Our Heart's Content

The air i balmy, the un i crip, there’ a pring in your tep, and even life come with it own oundtrack – “Step outide, ummertime' in bloom.” Come ummer and the color palette around you change. Verdant hue lay iege upon the grey and brown. Market are flooded with freh produce, and the mell of barbeque waft through the clement air. Sitting down for a meal with friend and family echoe the warmth of the eaon. And if alad and citru punche are what you thought ummer food and drink are all about, we’d beg to differ. So, let’ break that myth and explore how you can perfectly marry bite of the eaon with your favorite bottle of whikey.When you think of ummer whikie, intenity and depth of color i what we ugget you look for. Full-bodied, they hould reonate the ame warmth that characterize ummer. Whikie with fruity and honeyed aroma, along with one which exude a certain amount of pepperine and alinity.If you are having friend over for brunch on a weekend, or hoting an evening oiree, it i probably a good idea to get your barbeque out. If you are not much of a pit mater, you can alway get the grill or the alamander izzling. Set ome lamb chop marinated in garlic, toated cumin and cinnamon, paprika, oregano, lemon and olive oil on the barbeque top, or put them under the grill.Pairing lamb with a whikey i not a complicated endeavor a ome might make it out to be. Simply put, chooe a bottle of ingle malt which compliment the meat' picine. A Longmore 16 Year Old i a great choice – it vinou character with hint of pepper and bail line up perfectly with the richne of barbequed or grilled red meat.We know that chicken can get a bit boring. How about tranforming that Sunday roat? Make a compound butter with garlic, thyme, lemon zet, anchovie, caper and black pepper, and tuff it under the kin. Finally, fill the cavity with ome more lemon, thyme and garlic clove, and low roat. Once done, open a bottle of Glenmorangie Original or a vintage Balblair and you’ll be golden.Malt tend to pair very well with fih and ea food. A young, peated malt, matured in bourbon cak make for the perfect accompaniment to eafood. Scallop go very well with omething like the Caol Ila Moch. You can erve linguini and muel, ome crab alad, or ome butter-poached lobter with a Caol Ila 12 Year Old. If you prefer drinking unpeated whikie with your eafood, make ure that they are marine-tyle, with marked altine – a Bruichladdich or Oban being a good bet. Don’t forget the freh catch from river during ummertime. A weet river fih, cooked enpapillotte i heaven on a plate – tuff the fih with fennel, lemon, adding ome wine and butter, before wrapping it in parchment paper and cooking in the oven. Fruity and mooth malt uch a The Glenlivet or Glenfiddich perfectly echo the weetne of river fih. Thee malt alo go with a few delicate ea fih a well.Now that we have given you the ultimate low down on how to pair whikey with ummer fare, we earnetly hope you’ll oon throw a bah. Don’t forget to invite u!

Sea and Scotch Hot Chocolate

Whiskies distilled in the Islands lend a distinct character of the sea to a dram. A sip of an Island whisky will leave you with the scent of the salty mist of waves crashing onto rugged cliffs. Of the seven hundred or so islands dotting the cold seas around the Scottish mainland, only a handful of them are owned by distilleries. These islands endure their fair share of fierce environmental forces, but only one has translated the darkness of the archipelago into their tell-tale whisky-- Orkney. Orkney with its cold rains is home to the Scapa Distillery, second-most northern distillery of Scotland. The wetness also tends to lead to lesser loss of alcohol through evaporation. Scapa whisky is known for its nose of fresh sea air with a smooth, long finish on the palate. A sip from this whisky begins with a smoky fruit cocktail taste before being carefully cut through with the brine. So how do you turn this whisky into something that could take you by absolute surprise? Add it to a steaming cup of hot chocolate, of course. The exceptional flavours well aged in sherry and bourbon casks are a perfect mix with hot chocolate. The rich taste of the hot chocolate compliments the lightness of the whisky.

When Pate is Passé: Try Some Offal With Whiskey

If you are mad about meat and like a dram for dinner, chance are you are a teak junkie. It’ no ecret that whikey goe well with a prime cut, done up crip or left bloody. But, here’ the thing – it’ not jut a hank or belly that couple jut right with a gla of rich bourbon or cotch. Offal are jut a worthy.The Sicilian cook a mean tew with eaonal vegetable and veal tripe, lowly braied from the crack of dawn and old a regular treet fare. The little pepper, olive oil and lemon eaoning add the adequate zing you need to pair it with a meaure of Kilbeggan 8 Year Old. The young Irih ingle grain exude creamy cereal and white chocolate, finihing hort with ome trace of toffee and butter. Although the pairing might eem counterintuitive, and unlike pairing wine which aim for familiarity, whikey thrive on contrat which i exactly what thi match offer up.Pate i paé, but that houldn’t be caue enough to ignore the humble liver. The only problem i, the organ leave a very trong aftertate which end up ubtracting from an otherwie pleaant experience. A gra-fed lamb’ liver or for that matter, chicken liver, pan fried with white onion, vinegar, tarragon, pepper make a great prelude to a gla of Templeton Rye. Capone’ drink of choice – orange, allpice and buttercotch dominate the pallet. Even at 4 year of age, the wood i palpable in every ip and compliment the earthy creamine of the liver.The hardet-to-reach place hold the mot coveted treaure and bone marrow i a fitting example in that regard. Try it a jut an appetizer or a the main coure, the buttery texture and the ubtle umami i exceedingly more ublime than a cut of Kobe cooked to perfection. Diced marrow even make an excellent ingredient in a alad or roat platter. The Monkey Shoulder Blended Scotch make for affable company. Combining ingle malt from Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie, the deeply oaky profile i intercut with trong note of dried apricot and honey offer a weet counterpoint for the marrow’ nuttine.