Cocktails Recipes

Round About Midnight – Strawberry and bourbon cocktail

Name: Round about midnight
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Yield: 1
Ingredients: 60ml / 2oz - Maker's Mark.; 20ml / 0.7oz - Demerara and mint syrup; 30ml / 1oz - Fresh lemon juice; 3 Strawberries

May 1, 2020 by John Raviv No Comments

Jump to Recipe

Strawberry and bourbon were always one of my favorites combinations.
and this strawberry and bourbon cocktail is superb.
the sweet flavor from fresh strawberries combined with the oaky intensity and vanilla flavors from the bourbon is divine.

This cocktail is super simple there is no sophisticated methods or complex infusions.
all you will need is some fresh strawberries, mint, and high-quality bourbon.

For the fruit, you can choose between two methods.
the easy one is simply to muddle the fruit inside the cocktail shaker and then double strain the drink when you finish.
the second method is to make a puree by blending the strawberry and straining it through a fine-mesh strainer.
either way will work fine with little to none effect on the final taste.

Bourbonology

Bourbon is a great whiskey for cocktails; it has an intense flavor, so he pops out in mixed drinks.
one rule to remember – the quality does matter.

So what bourbon actually is?
first of all, bourbon has to be produced in America to be classified as such.
second, it’s mash (a mixture of grains), must contain at least 51% corn.
be aged in charred new oak barrels, and finally not contain any additives (like caramel for instance).

There is a lot of decent bourbons in the market.
Maker’s mark is the one I choose for this cocktail (and many others).
but you also can use Four roses or Knob creek (from Jim beam’s distillery).

strawberry and bourbon cocktail — Round about midnight

Mint syrup

The mint syrup is just simple syrup (based on demerara) with fresh mint.
just add the mint after the syrup is ready but don’t boil the leaves indirect heat, it will ruin the taste.
simply add the mint after you turned off the heat, stir and let it sit until its completely cool.

This method will result in a more mellow taste of mint.
there are two major problems when heating fresh herbs.
the first one is when boiling herds in too much heat you will get a bitter taste. that bitterness will almost currently ruin the final taste of the cocktail.

second is oxidation, almost always your syrups will turn brown after a few minutes, that’s natural don’t panic.
because of oxidation, fresh herbs syrups won’t last for long, so simply make small batches and drink a lot of cocktails 🙂