Recipe Description
A podcaster I know asked that I create a cocktail for an event he was attending in honor of a man they call The Honeybadger. The directions were to keep it simple and don’t go all Texas on it since the event is in Minneapolis, so a spicy mezcal sour (my first instinct) was out.
Of course, I wanted honey, I wanted it to have bite (do you know anything about the honeybadger?) and I wanted it to be bourbon-based (just seemed like the right thing for the time and place). Finally, I didn’t want to interfere with the honey undertones so I needed something spicy that was sharp but low-key flavor-wise.
Seek and ye shall find! A quick search for “spicy bitters” yielded the PERFECT thing! Scrappy’s Firewater Tincture!
Almost nothing can get me to go to the store when I can order a thing on amazon. I’m sorry to say it, cause I am not a fan of the Brave New World, but I also HATE shopping. Even so, I am not lying when I tell you I practically ran out of the house to the local Total Wine in search of Scrappy’s…and to my tremendous joy, they had just what I was looking for!
…well, you thought I tore out of the house to go to Total Wine?! You should have seen me tearing home, Scrappy’s in hand! You would think I had a Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring waiting in my mailbox!
One cocktail later, I knew I had a winner right out of the gate…I’m not trying to fool anyone–it’s a spicy gold rush–but hey man, I really did strike gold!!!
Ingredients
-
2 ounces high quality bourbon
Eagle Rare is perfect in this. - 3/4 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
-
3/4 ounce honey syrup
3 parts honey, 1 part hot water, stirred - 1 dash Scrappy's Firewater Tincture
Preparation
Put a rocks glass with a giant ice cube in it in the freezer.
In a shaker, combine all ingredients and ice. Shake thoroughly.
Service
Remove glass from freezer. Strain cocktail over cube & enjoy!
As my father used to say, “It’ll put hair on your chest!”
