Millionaire

The name pretty much sums this one up. And I like this cocktail more than the Millon-Dollar Cocktail made with gin and pineapple juice. There's just something elegant when you use Pernod in an egg white cocktail. It gives the foam such an aroma of sweetness and spices. Grenadine gives the drink a slightly pink color, but not much compared to other pink foam drinks like the Love Cocktail.

• 2 oz. bourbon (Cleveland bourbon used)
• 1 oz. Pernod
• 1/4 tsp. grenadine
• 1/4 tsp. triple sec
• egg white

Shake all ingredients in a shaker to create foam. Add ice and shake to chill. Strain with a gated finish into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Presbyterian

The Presbyterian might just fit into the religious class of cocktails like the Bishop and the Cardinal. But this mix of bourbon, soda and ginger ale is really hinting at a broader appeal, the simple tastes of a sect of Christians who take their bourbon with soda and ginger ale.

In the photo is a painted depiction of an academic building at the College of Wooster, a formerly Scottish Presbyterian college and my alma mater. I have Cleveland Bourbon featured in memory of those late night trips from Wooster to Cleveland where we learned about life in a real city.

• 3 oz. bourbon 
• club soda
• ginger ale

 Build drink in a highball glass with bourbon and ice. Top with soda and ginger ale and stir gently. 

Whiskey Cooler

Cleveland bourbon makes a rich backbone to this Fizz style of drink. I used demerara syrup to sweeten the cocktail and the lemon twist really added a lot on the nose--as you can imagine. The fresh lemon scent and oils in the soda contrasted perfectly with dark whiskey and cane sugar sweetness for a drink that does as advertised on a hot day.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Cleveland bourbon used)
• 1/2 tsp sugar (demerara syrup used)
• club soda
• lemon twist

Build drink in a Collins glass with ice, whiskey and syrup. Top with club soda and stir before twisting the lemon peel on top.

King Cole (Blood Orange variation)

Save this tiki-like Old Fashioned for the winter holidays when rhymes about Old King Cole being a merry soul are more appropriate. Or make it instead of an Old Fashioned if you happen to have pineapple pieces left over from other recipes that need using.

The recipe calls for a typical orange (like a naval orange) and blended whiskey. For more richness, I used Cleveland bourbon, which has a debatable status as bourbon anyway. It is rich compared to many blended whiskies and suited to a rocks sipping cocktail like this one. Blood orange, just because it is good, is another wonderful addition.

One last change, or enhancement, to this recipe includes the use of demerara syrup instead of sugar. A syrup is already dissolved and does not require as much stirring, but demerara still imparts a rich flavor, too. See how I made this along with D.I.Y. falernum and you'll know why I love this stuff.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Cleveland bourbon used)
• orange slice
• pineapple slice
• 1/2 tsp sugar (demerara syrup used)

Add fruit and sugar to an Old Fashioned glass and muddle fruit to extract juices from pulps. Add whiskey and ice and stir. 

Whiskey Sling

The Whiskey Sling is a blended whiskey drink, but all I had was bourbon, Cleveland Bourbon, that is. A sling, it seems, is a "helpmate" cocktail. These drinks, like Fixes and Fizzes, are designed to help soften a spirit and get it down your gullet in a hurry, hence the "sling" terminology.

One thing I found fascinating about the Whiskey Sling--and it's the reason it differs from a Whiskey Sour--is it's preparation precludes chilling. I'm not sure why, but the idea is to have a rocks drink that is still pretty warm when served, which melts the ice cubes just as if it was all room temperature hard liquor. But it isn't; it's juice and sugar and a little water, which is easy to drink.

A word about Cleveland Bourbon. It's isn't really bourbon, but it is probably a straight whiskey. The Sling calls for a blend for the obvious mixability of blends. But Cleveland Bourbon is a "black label" of the brand, distilled in Indiana and rapidly aged in Cleveland. It can't be bourbon because of its origins and rapid aging process, but it is very much in the style of bourbon, perhaps more than most American whiskies like Jack Daniels.

• 2 oz. blended whiskey (Cleveland Bourbon used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. fine sugar
• 1 tsp. water 
• orange twist

Combine water and sugar in a mixing glass and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add whiskey and lemon juice and stir. Pour over ice in an Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with the orange twist and give one more gentle stir.