Beekeeper's Sour (Original Recipe)

 It's fun to mix with bourbon and honey. It's even more fun to mix with a whiskey that is made from infused honey comb. That's what MurLarkey honey whiskey is, the distillery's craft white whiskey aged with homegrown honey comb. 

Master distiller George Zwetkow raises his own bees out in rural Virginia. His honey whiskey has the essence of real honey without the sticky sweetness. This is a far cry from honeyed whiskies that have sugar and artificial flavor added. In fact, if you want a sweet cocktail with Murlarkey honey, you'll need to make it sweet.

So I did. I made a typical Sour but with honey and some bourbon. I changed up the format and did it with crushed ice in a rocks glass. It looks great and tastes even better!

• 1 oz. bourbon (Ancient Age used)
  
• 1 oz. MurLarkey Honey whiskey
• 3/4 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. honey
• orange slice garnish

Combine all ingredients except garnish in a shaker with ice. Strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of crushed ice. Garnish with fruit.

Smokehouse Sour

 

Honey barbecue is the inspiration for this cocktail. It relies on two MurLarkey whiskies to lend it the signature barbecue flavors, but still requires a principal dose of bourbon to keep things from getting too intense. That's because the bacon smoked Smokhouse whiskey is very savory, but I still wanted vanilla and brown sugar flavors to permeate the smoke.

Otherwise, this is a very straightforward Sour, on the rocks as any barbecue fan would like his drinks so they don't spill on the picnic table's uneven planks. 

• 1 oz. bourbon (Virginia Gentleman used)
• 1/2 oz. MurLarkey honey whiskey 
• 1/2 oz. MurLarkey Smokehouse whiskey
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• lemon wheel and maraschino cherry for garnish

Combine sugar, juice and spirits in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. Garnish with the cherry and lemon slice. 

Tom Neuberger's Toddy

Contrary to popular belief, a Toddy is not a hot drink (that's the Hot Toddy). It is actually mixture of spirits, water, honey and lemon that is used as a curative. Tom Neuberger's Toddy is the kind of cure you need on a hot day.

My first inclination was that adding equal parts spirits and water to a recipe will create something that tastes watered down, and that does happen to an extent. But that is just what you need when looking for a refreshing rocks sipper. All spirits and ice don't go over well when you are sipping in the sun, at least not for very long.

Another thing to consider is making any cold drink with honey means you get a lump of honey that doesn't dissolve into the cocktail like it does when the water is hot. It actually takes a lot of work and creates too much variation when mixing multiple drinks. Bartenders resort to a half-honey/ half-hot water solution that further dilutes the cocktail. You can do that or you can just use MurLarkey honey whiskey.

Either option is good. I enjoyed how much honey presence MurLarkey gave the drink without adding too much sweetness. There's only a twist of lemon in the drink, so it isn't so much a question of balance as it is about having honey represented alongside cinnamon, lemon and whiskey.

• 1 tsp. honey (or 1/2 oz. MurLarkey Honey whiskey)
• 2 oz. water
• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Seagram's 7 used)
• dash maraschino liqueur
• lemon twist
• cinnamon stick

 If using honey, add honey and water to a chilled Old Fashioned glass and stir until the honey dissolves. (For better results try a 1:1 ratio of honey and hot water syrup plus the 2 oz. of cold water.) If you have honey whiskey skip the first step and use the honey whiskey. Add blended whiskey and maraschino liqueur to the glass and fill with several ice cubes. Stir well before twisting the lemon peel over the drink and dropping it in. Garnish with the cinnamon stick. 

British Tea

There's something nice about a traditional English breakfast tea. It is bitter and rich and goes with sweet or savory food. A hot tea cocktail is also pleasant for day drinking: it's four o'clock somewhere, after all.

I'm using MurLarkey's three tea whiskey for its tea flavor, but it is very dry by itself. If you like your tea with honey and milk, I recommend MurLarkey's honey whiskey for the flavor it adds. Again, you'll still need to use sugar to sweeten the drink to your liking, so pretty much the same thing you'd do with any tea.

• 1 cup hot black tea
• 1 oz. MurLarkey three tea whiskey
• 1/2 oz. MurLarkey honey whiskey (optional)
• 1 tsp. sugar to taste
• splash milk

Pour all ingredients in a warm mug and top with tea. Stir to combine.

Proper MurLarkey

There aren't many great Irish whiskey sipping cocktails. Most of the St. Patrick's Day-themed cocktails are sugary and heavy on cream and artificial green colors. This cocktail may be slightly orange, but the flavor is undeniably Irish.

MurLarkey Honey whiskey is a rare bottling. The master distiller soaks naturally harvested honeycomb in a barrel of their white whiskey. It isn't sweet, but it has a honey essence. Irish whiskey like Proper Twelve has a honey scent on the nose as well. The rest of the drink brings bitter citrus and spice to make this a well-rounded and rich cocktail.

• 1 1/2 oz. Proper Twelve Irish whiskey
• 1 oz. MurLarkey honey whiskey
• 1/ 2oz. Royal Combier
• 1 dash orange bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass full of ice. 

Witch's Promise (Original Cocktail)

This cocktail is as good for summer months as it is in the fall and winter, provided you have the herbs for the garnish. I dedicated this drink to Jethro Tull's song by the same name in which the witch is looked for as a bringer of blessings as well as curses. The apearance of Strega (the witch's liqueur) is appropriate, but so are other medicinal ingredients.

This is the first time I used MurLarkey honey whiskey in a cocktail for this blog. This whiskey is sweet tasting but has very little sugar, as the honey comb is added to the barrel but spun out of the final product before bottling. It is made once a year in very small batches, so it is hard to come by. Fans in Virginia keep a lookout for when Papi harvests honey from his hives. There's lemon, tonic water, passion fruit syrup, and basil and dill as garnishes as well.

• 1 1/2 oz. MurLarkey Honey whiskey
• 1 oz. Strega
• 1/2 oz. passion fruit syrup
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• tonic water (Fever Tree light tonic used)
• basil leaf and dill sprig (optional garnishes)

Combine the first four ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Double Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice. Top with tonic water and stir gently. Garnish with herbs.