Seersucker with a Side of Bourbon

Apologies for the blogging hiatus. But I’m back to give you some summer drink ideas, just in time for the Kentucky Derby this weekend. So grab your favorite bourbon and enjoy these two concoctions that have become staples of our summer grill-outs and barbecues.

Bluegrass Burro

I have always enjoyed the Moscow Mule (ginger beer + vodka + squeeze of lime), but I’ve never been a huge vodka fan. It was after a couple rounds of Dark & Stormy’s (ginger beer + dark rum) with a buddy of mine that the light bulb went off – if ginger beer works well with vodka and rum, it has to be good with bourbon. After some tinkering with the formula and trying it with lime juice and without, we looked to the classic mint julep for the missing component - mint.

Muddled mint, crushed ice, bourbon, ginger beer and a squeeze of lime – the Bluegrass Burro was born.

The internet does show some evidence that we are not the first people to pour ginger beer and bourbon together (often under the unimaginative name Kentucky Mule), so we will plead independent creation. However, the muddled mint is a key element missing from any other write-up I’ve come across.

Southern Gentleman

The Southern Gentleman was born back in the summer of 2010, when the southern swoop haircut was spreading like wildfire across SEC campuses. As a clean-cut northern boy, I couldn’t help but be a little jealous of these southern guys that could pull off that hairstyle. When I would go a little too long in-between haircuts, I’d try to pull off the Southern Gentleman hair, often with little success and much to the chagrin of Mrs. T.

We were playing cornhole in front of our old apartment in Chicago, my buddy FJ was looking for something to mix with the bourbon he had brought over. As always, I had plenty of beer on hand, but not a lot in the way of mixers. I did have a bottle of limeade in the fridge though. We poured bourbon into a highball and topped it off with limeade. We now had the cocktail to go with the hair – the Southern Gentleman had arrived!

So this weekend, bust out your seersucker & linen and sip on these cocktails while coming up with your own idea for next year - you can use the Kentucky Derby horses for inspiration, Golden Soul sounds like a great summer drink, though I'd be scared of what the following morning would look like after a couple rounds of Black Onyx.