The Dead Rabbit's Recipe for a Strawberry Bourbon Cocktail
It may be summer, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy whiskey. We visited New York City's highly acclaimed Irish pub The Dead Rabbit to learn how to make a cocktail that stands up to rising temps. It's proof you can break some rules when it comes to how to drink whiskey.
The Buttoned Up is a new whiskey cocktail on The Dead Rabbit's summer menu. It's a booze forward libation, but it certainly doesn't taste like it, so note that after one or two you'll be feeling far less "buttoned up" than you were before.
The team at The Dead Rabbit went through 10 to 14 iterations before landing on the perfect mix.
"Sometimes you hit it on the second or third try, sometimes it's way above 20," Mario Frimani, head bartender at The Dead Rabbit, tells Men's Journal.
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"We make small tweaks here and there until we get to the point that the last drink we taste isn't as good as the previous one, then we know that we've arrived," he adds.
The Buttoned Up is based on the basic DNA of an old fashioned: spirt, sugar, bitters, and water. The twist comes from the strawberry-cinnamon syrup and hickory bitters.
"We basically steep hickory into a grain alcohol and cut it with some water. The higher the alcohol, the more flavor it'll extract," Frimani told us. "So we just put a couple dashes in to kind of round off the cinnamon and the nuances of the whiskey and the rum."
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You're left with a cocktail so refreshing you don't even have to appreciate bourbon to enjoy.
You can try The Buttoned Up at The Dead Rabbit or try your hand at making it at home. The recipe below is a riff on The Dead Rabbit's recipe so it's more user-friendly.
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How to Make The Dead Rabbit's Buttoned Up Cocktail
Ingredients
- 2 dashes Angustura Bitters
- 1 tsp Strawberry Syrup (we like Monin but you can make your own)
- 1 oz Chamberyzette
- .75 oz Ron Zacapa Rum
- .5 oz Angel's Envy Bourbon
- .5 oz Craigellachie Armagnac Cask
Instructions
- Pour all ingredients into a glass with ice.
- Stir for one minute, adding extra ice as you go.
- Strain into a frosted glass and enjoy!