Evening in a Sugar Orchard
Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with fresh ice, and garnish with an orange twist.
An Old Fashioned influenced by the American Trilogy.
For an article, I needed to craft a few maple syrup drinks. This one is an Old Fashioned variation that I named Evening in a Sugar Orchard after a Robert Frost poem. I was influenced by the revised version of the American Trilogy (Michael McIlroy's original called for Demerara syrup instead of maple). And the cinnamon aspect came from my recent tinkerings that developed the Two Roads Diverged (also a Robert Frost allusion); the combination of cinnamon and maple also appeared in Death & Co.'s Ole Bull and Timothy Miner's Christmas in Prison. In the text, I describe how the "Bourbon is bolstered by rich flavors from an aged rum and complemented by maple, cinnamon, and bitters. While Bourbons are generally consistent due to the laws regulating the spirit, rums vary a lot. I developed this recipe with a local aged rum, Privateer New England Reserve, but I can see this recipe prospering with darker rums as well. Use what you have got and experiment over time."
- Cloyingly sweet (though in fairness to the creator, they do tell you that you are spending your evening in a sugar orchard). If you want an American Trilogy, just get that instead. This is *so much* sweeter than what it is riffing off of that it may as well be a different cocktail altogether. It'd be like if you claimed that candy corn was a "riff" on movie theater popcorn. Perhaps if the cinnamon syrup and maple syrup were meted out in teaspoons, the resulting flavor profile would be more similar to an Old-Fashioned. — ★★★
- Clandestino Old Fashioned — Bourbon, Rye, Campari, Bitters, Cinnamon syrup, Vanilla syrup, Orange peel
- Chai-Town Brown — Bourbon, Bitters, Allspice Dram, Grade B maple syrup
- Walker Percy's Mint Julep — Bourbon, Simple syrup, Nutmeg, Mint
- La Oficina — Añejo rum, Oloroso sherry, Bitters, Orange bitters, Cinnamon syrup, Orange peel
- Boss Lady — Bourbon, Cognac, Coffee liqueur, Pedro Ximénez Sherry, Aphrodite bitters, Demerara syrup