It’s Labor Day weekend! Which is traditionally the last day where you can wear white, which is very important for us. Well, ok, not really. We wear whatever the fuck we want ;). We do love the spirit of the day though, a nod to everyone (including us!) who has to work for their living. We decided to come up with a couple of cocktails to celebrate the holiday as well as the transition from summer into autumn. With that in mind, we decided to do one gin cocktail and one aged spirit cocktail. Read on to find out what we came up with.

First up we wanted to make a gin cocktail (gin being the spokes-spirit of summer) that was fruit-forward, to celebrate the last days of summer fruit. We played around with various liqueurs and finally settled on a mint and peach combination with the gin. Hey, if it works in a mint julep why shouldn’t it work with gin? :)

Workhouse

• 2 oz gin
• 1/4 oz mint liqueur (we used the Sound Spirits Depth Menthe because it’s on the less sweet side)
• 1/2 oz peach liqueur
• Couple drops each of Angostura and grapefruit bitters

Stir all ingredients with ice. Strain into a glass. Garnish with a cherry. Enjoy!

• Nose: Juniper, peach fruit and bitter peach pit, mint, grapefruit, cherry
• Palate: Grapefruit and juniper to start. Little bit of mint, then fruit flavors on the mid-palate, predominantly peach but some gin botanicals show up. Finish is mint along with spice from the Angostura. Sweet intro but then dries out. Very light in body for essentially a glass of booze, no strong bite.

On the other end of the seasonal transition, we wanted something more complex, using aged spirits to mark the beginning of autumn. Christa really wanted some smokey scotch notes, it being a favorite, but we still wanted to keep it reasonably approachable. With that in mind, we went with a cognac base highlighted by a smokey scotch accent.

Lenin’s Lagniappe

• 2 oz cognac
• 3/4 oz black walnut liqueur
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• 1 bar spoon smokey scotch

Stir all ingredients with ice. Strain into a glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. Cheers!

• Nose: Lemon, rich sweet wine-y cognac notes, smoke, brine. Nuttiness from the black walnut, but also some funky tannic notes.
• Palate: Black walnut plus interesting brine notes on the front. Rich smooth cognac on the middle with a little bit of lemon. Scotch smokiness and interesting earthy/mineral flavors (stone, chalk, peat) on the finish. Clean Angostura spice on the aftertaste.

Both of these cocktails turned out rather nicely in our opinions, though rather strong. Though what else is new for us. :) We hope you’re having a lovely holiday weekend where ever you are and are enjoying a nice drink or three.

Filed under: black walnut liqueur, cognac, gin, mint liqueur, peach liqueur, scotch Tagged: ardbeg, lenin's Lagniappe cocktail recipe, Pierre Ferrand 1840 cognac, sound spirits depth menthe, workhouse cocktail recipe