A look at Makers Mark and Cocktails
Posted in Brown Spirits, Recipes on August 25th, 2009 by halw – Be the first to comment
Makers Mark. What’s the first thing you think of when you hear that name?
A Makers and Coke?
Incorrectly associated with being a high-end choice at dive bars, Makers Mark doesn’t get the respect it should.
For starters, it’s an impressive product from start to finish.
Makers Mark originates from a winter wheat that’s harvested locally from cooperative farms. This is followed up by using a proprietary in-house yeast that manages to combine both new yeast as well introducing the remnants of yeast left from previous cultures into each new batch, allowing for the possibility of yeast being used that dates back as far as pre-prohibition.
Using white oak barrels, air-dried a minimum of nine months to age Makers Mark you start to wonder about how the spirit is aged once it hits the barrel.
As you hear more about how each bottle is brought to the level the distillery feels is good enough to bottle, you start to get further curious to hear more about this spirit. Rather than stamping a particular age on each bottling, the good people at Makers Mark, age each bottle for a minimum of 5-7 years depending on taste, though if a certain barrel is not ready it will remain until deemed worthy of being bottled.
Once you begin to sample Makers Mark your greeted with a nice yet mellow flavor profile of mild notes of caramel and vanilla, making each sip worth savoring.
From the way Makers Mark goes from crop to barrel, and given it’s unique flavor profile, it’s one of those brown spirits that should be given more credit.
So what if we took this spirit and see what new cocktails we can come up with to help it earn back some of that respect it lost over the years.
First up a riff on the infamous Dark and Stormy, with some minor changes such as replacing the traditionally used dark rum with Makers Mark Bourbon and using a vanilla infused simple syrup.
The Mark and Stormy-
2 oz Makers Mark Kentucky Bourbon
1oz-Vanilla Syrup(Simple Infused with Vanilla Extract)
1/2 oz Lime Juice
Build in ice filled Collins glass and top with Ginger beer
Garnish with Fresh Lime
The Mark and Stormy. Using Makers Mark, Vanilla Syrup, Ginger Beer and Lime Juice.
A Cool Summer Day in Kentucky
2 oz Makers Mark
1 oz Palo Alto Sauvignon Blanc
½ oz Grand Navan
½ oz Yellow Chartreuse
½ Simple Syrup
½ Lemon Juice
2-3 Dashes Regans Orange Bitters
Shake with Ice
Serve in Wine Goblet
A Cool Summer Day in Kentucky. Using Makers Mark, Palo Alto Wine, Chartreuse, and Grand Navan.
