Welcome to our annual return to Valentine’s Day cocktails! Over the past two years, we’ve created a handful of drinks to help enhance your romantic celebration. We started with some riffs on a Love Potion using rum, before turning our attention to chocolate vodka with lots of strawberries in our Chocolate Covered Strawberry. The syrup even doubled for mocktail purposes in our Chocolate Covered Strawberry Hot Chocolate. We wanted to expand the line up, and to lead things off this year, we wanted something boozy that could stand up to the frigid temps with a little bit of sweetness. A real whiskey forward manly drink. After all, Who Saz Men Can’t Be Romantic?
Who Saz Men Can’t Be Romantic?
Who Saz Men Can’t Be Romantic is a layered experience that leads with a brown sugar and french vanilla sweetness. It parts into a lanolin texture with notes of spicy oak and caramel with hints of candied cherries. The ending brings on a balanced touch of bitterness, rounding things out with a pop of clove, herbs, hints of anise, and a bit of sweetened caramelized oak. The overall experience is sweet, herbal, balanced, and complex in all the right ways.
Drink Notes & Recommendations
The original inspiration for this cocktail turned out to be anything but romantic (Rolling Stone’s Brown Sugar – which has since been retired and is not particularly appropriate once you read the lyrics). That aside, there’s a certain charming character to the city of New Orleans which is named in the first couple of lines. One of the quintessential drinks that hails from The Big Easy is the Sazerac, which is an amazing classic that we’ve tweaked slightly for this recipe. One thing to note is that ingredient choices are very critical to the outcome of the finished cocktail.
- Maker’s Mark 46 – The vanilla and caramel notes are positively critical to the outcome of this cocktail. While you should be able to find it, you could try to replace it another French oak finished bourbon.
- St. George Absinthe Verte – We like St. George for it’s quality and heady herbaceous hit. You don’t need to St. George, but we recommend using an actual absinthe over a pastis like Pernod.
- Peychaud’s Bitters – These are the standard for any Sazerac. You can purchase them at most well appointed liquor stores or through Amazon*.
- Angostura Bitters – These are the gold standard of bitters. You should have a bottle in your bar, and you can purchase them most grocery stores or Amazon*.
- Brown Sugar Syrup – The brown sugar syrup is a rich syrup, and we’ve detailed our recipe as shown below.
Brown Sugar Syrup
- 200 g Brown Sugar
- 100 g Water
Instructions:
- Sous Vide: In a small mason jar, combine brown sugar and water. Put the lid on and shake to combine. Place in a sous vide at 145 degrees for 2 hours. Remove from the water and allow to cool for an hour. Bottle and refrigerate. Dispose of if mold or haze develops.
- Sauce Pot: Combine Brown Sugar and Water in a sauce pot over medium – low heat. Slowly heat until sugar completely dissolves. Remove from heat, and allow to cool. Bottle and refrigerate. Dispose of if mold or haze develops.
* – Amazon links contain affiliate links that may result in First Pour Cocktails receiving a portion of the sale. These commissions help us keep researching new drinks and pay for the webhosting!
Looking for something more sweet and floral? Why not try a Flowers Are Expensive:
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