Happy Hour With 3 Ingredients: Old Fashioned Maple
Happy weekend everyone, and welcome back to Happy 3 Ingredient Hour , a weekly drinks column featuring very simple yet delicious libations. This week has been pretty hectic for a variety of reasons, so I feel the need for something insanely orderly, even by our standards. I want to pour, stir and drink, and maple syrup will help me.
Unless you’re in Wisconsin (where the cocktail is very unique), Old Fashioned is usually made with a lump of sugar, a few drops of bitter, and a couple ounces of your favorite bourbon (or rye). Instead of white sugar cubes – which I don’t have anyway – we’ll use a tiny spoonful of maple syrup. Come to think of it, maple syrup is a ready-to-drink smoothie sweetener that requires absolutely no preparation or boiling on your part and has a little more depth than ingredients made with sucrose.
Basically, you get more flavor without any additional ingredients or effort, which is what I need in an alcoholic beverage at the moment. To make it you will need:
- 2 ounces bourbon
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup (I love that it tastes “strong” – was previously grade B )
- 3-4 drops of Angostura bitterness
Put everything in a ball and stir until the syrup is completely mixed with the whiskey. Add a large ice cube and stir again until the drink cools. Have a drink and relax on the weekend.