Happy 4th of July! What better way to celebrate the day than with a delicious, cold, refreshing libation?
There are many 4th of July drink staples you can serve up to your guests today. However, so few of them stand up to the pomp and circumstance America's birthday.
Slapping an American flag on a light beer can doesn't make it taste any less like garbage water. Red and blue liquors, while fun, and often tasty, are usually difficult to find, expensive, and really only useful for this one day of the year. Not worth the money and time searching for a bottle of booze you'll never use.
For your 4th of July party today, we've concocted a riff on a classic American drink, The Whiskey Smash. One of the earliest examples of a smash appears in the form of a julep recipe in Jerry Thomas’ 1862 How to Mix Drinks, or, The Bon Vivant’s Companion.
Our version honors the most American liquor, bourbon, that took the throne of popularity thanks to Prohibition, and mixes it with rum, the drink of our Founding Father's origin, rum. Substitute in some maple syrup - a truly American sweetener - for the sugar, and garnish with mint, and some blueberries to give it some festive flare.
Our custom recipe is below. For more drinks like this, pre-order a Cocktail Computer for festive libations year round. Special 4th of July special of 10% off with code 'JULY4'.
Ingredients
- 1 oz bourbon
- 1 oz rum
- 3/4 oz maple syrup
- 3/4 oz lemon juice
- Mint
- Blueberries
Directions
Combine all of the ingredients in a shaker and gently muddle the berries and mint. Add ice and shake for about 10 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube. Garnish with a blueberry, mint leaf, and any other seasonal festive berries you may enjoy. Serve.