Recipes
Summer Cocktails: 5 Bourbon Recipes to Beat the Heat
From the original 1862 Mint Julep to a modern Paper Plane — five tested bourbon cocktails for warm Kentucky evenings.
Wyatt Brennan
Head Bartender, The Cellar at Bourbon & Oak
Most cocktails are about masking a spirit. The five recipes below are about lifting one. Bourbon in July is one of the more rewarding spirits to mix with: the sweetness of the corn handles citrus beautifully, the oak gives weight to drinks that would otherwise feel thin, and the proof is high enough that ice and dilution become part of the recipe rather than a problem to solve. Below are five summer bourbon cocktails — three classics, one modern classic, and one house pour — that we serve all summer at The Cellar.
A few rules before you start. Use a bourbon you'd actually drink neat — a high-proof small batch like E.H. Taylor Small Batch or a wheated single barrel like Weller Single Barrel works beautifully in every recipe below. Skip the bottom-shelf stuff; the cocktail will only ever be as good as the spirit going in. Crushed ice means actually crushed: cubes wrapped in a clean tea towel and worked over with a mallet until the chips are about the size of peas. And always measure. The difference between a great Mint Julep and an over-sweet mess is half an ounce.
Recipe
The Mint Julep
Serve in: Pewter or silver julep cup, frosted in the freezer for 30 minutes
Ingredients
- 2.5 oz Kentucky bourbon (90 to 100 proof)
- 0.5 oz rich simple syrup (2 parts sugar to 1 part water)
- 8 to 10 fresh mint leaves, plus a generous mint bouquet to garnish
- Crushed ice
Method
- Place 6 mint leaves and the simple syrup in the chilled julep cup. Gently press the mint with a muddler — bruise, do not pulverize — for 5 seconds.
- Fill the cup three-quarters with crushed ice. Pour the bourbon over the ice.
- Stir with a bar spoon, working the ice up and down until the outside of the cup is fully frosted.
- Mound additional crushed ice into a dome above the rim.
- Slap the mint bouquet between your palms to release the oils, then insert it into the ice dome. Add a short straw cut to just below the mint, so the drinker's nose is pressed into the herb on every sip.
GarnishMint bouquet and a thin lemon wheel
Recipe approximates the 1862 specification published by Jerry Thomas in How to Mix Drinks, with modern proof. Skip the lemon wheel for the strict Kentucky Derby version.
Recipe
Bourbon Smash
Serve in: Double old-fashioned, well chilled
Ingredients
- 2 oz bourbon (small batch, 90 to 100 proof)
- 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
- 0.5 oz rich simple syrup
- 4 fresh mint leaves
- 3 to 4 ripe blackberries or raspberries (or a half lemon wheel for the classic)
- Crushed ice
Method
- In a shaker tin, muddle the berries with the simple syrup and mint leaves until the fruit is broken down but the mint isn't shredded.
- Add the bourbon and lemon juice. Fill with ice and shake hard for 8 to 10 seconds.
- Double-strain into a double old-fashioned filled with crushed ice.
- Top with a small mound of crushed ice and a fresh mint sprig.
GarnishMint sprig, two berries on a pick
The Bourbon Smash is a 19th-century cousin of the Julep and the Sour. The smash element is in the name — fruit is muddled, not just garnished.
Recipe
The Whiskey Sour
Serve in: Coupe or rocks, your choice
Ingredients
- 2 oz bourbon (higher-rye bourbon shines here)
- 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
- 0.75 oz rich simple syrup
- 1 fresh egg white (optional but recommended)
- 2 to 3 dashes Angostura bitters (float on top after pouring)
Method
- Add bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup and the egg white to a shaker tin without ice. Dry shake hard for 15 seconds to emulsify the egg white.
- Add ice and shake again for 10 to 12 seconds until well chilled.
- Double-strain into a chilled coupe (or over a single large cube in a rocks glass).
- Float 2 to 3 drops of Angostura bitters on the foam and draw a pattern through them with a toothpick if you're feeling fancy.
GarnishBrandied cherry on the rim
Skipping the egg white is fine but you lose the silky texture and the foam canvas for the bitters. The egg white version (a Boston Sour) is the original — it predates the dry version by half a century.
Recipe
Paper Plane
Serve in: Coupe, chilled
Ingredients
- 0.75 oz bourbon
- 0.75 oz Aperol
- 0.75 oz Amaro Nonino Quintessentia
- 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
Method
- Combine all four ingredients in a shaker tin filled with ice.
- Shake hard for 10 to 12 seconds until well chilled.
- Double-strain into a chilled coupe.
- No garnish — the perfect equal-parts geometry of the drink is the point.
Created by Sam Ross at Milk & Honey in New York in 2008. The Paper Plane is one of the only modern cocktails to enter the canon in the last 20 years, and arguably the cleanest answer to what to mix with bourbon when you want something elegant.
Recipe
Distillery Bourbon Lemonade
Serve in: Highball or mason jar
Ingredients
- 2 oz bourbon
- 4 oz fresh lemonade (fresh-squeezed lemon, water, and rich simple syrup to taste)
- 1 sprig fresh thyme or rosemary
- Ice cubes (not crushed)
Method
- In your serving glass, clap the herb sprig between your hands to release oils and drop it in.
- Fill the glass with ice cubes.
- Pour bourbon over the ice, then top with lemonade.
- Stir twice. Float a fresh sprig on top.
GarnishLemon wheel and a fresh herb sprig
Use real, fresh-squeezed lemonade. Bottled mixers will dull a good bourbon. We end every garden tour with this in July — it's the most-asked-after recipe at the distillery shop.
A Note on Ice, Glassware, and Garnish
Three details separate a competent home cocktail from a great one. First, ice: a single large clear cube melts about 40% slower than cracked ice from your freezer's automatic dispenser, which keeps your drink cold longer without watering it down — buy a single-cube silicon mold and pre-freeze with filtered or boiled-and-cooled water for clarity. Second, glassware: chilled glasses keep the first sip at the temperature the recipe was tuned for. Stash your coupes and julep cups in the freezer 30 minutes before you start mixing. Third, garnish: garnishes are aromatic, not decorative. A mint bouquet on a Julep is what the drinker's nose presses into between sips. Skip the bottled cherries — buy or make brandied cherries with actual fruit.
What to Pour the Cocktails From
For everyday cocktail use, you want a balanced 90-to-100 proof small batch bourbon — high enough proof to survive ice and dilution, expressive enough to actually show through citrus and mint. E.H. Taylor Small Batch is built exactly for this job. For sours and the Paper Plane, a higher-rye bourbon like Russell's Reserve 13 adds drying spice that lifts the lemon. For a Julep on Derby Day, give yourself permission to use something a little nicer — a wheated single barrel rewards the simplicity of the recipe. Skip barrel-proof bourbons unless you're scaling the bourbon back; over 110 proof, you start needing more dilution than the recipe is tuned for.
All five recipes above scale cleanly. For a small dinner party, the Bourbon Lemonade or the Smash can be batched in a pitcher (multiply ingredients by your headcount, hold the ice and garnish until service). The Sour and Paper Plane don't batch well — they need to be shaken to order to get the texture right. The Julep is a one-at-a-time drink by tradition, and frankly by design: the joy is in building it slowly, in a chilled cup, with someone you're glad is on your porch.
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