If an old-fashioned is your signature drink, what do you sip when the situation calls for something celebratory? The Solera Soirée, of course. Trevor Bowles of Kentucky’s Stitzel-Weller Distillery crafted this riff as a way to amp up the opulence of those classic old-fashioned flavors. “It has dessert qualities without being too sweet,” he says. “The bitters provide a great balance.”
Solera Soirée
Yield: 1 cocktail
For the cocktail
2 oz. Blade and Bow Solera Reserve 12 Year
¼ oz. house-made Tawny Port syrup (recipe follows)
2 dashes El Guapo Spiced Cocoa Bitters
1 dash Angostura orange bitters
1 orange peel
For the Tawny Port syrup
16 oz. white sugar
16 oz. Tawny Port
Preparation
- Make the Tawny Port syrup: Combine sugar with Tawny Port. Boil on low for 5 minutes. Can be stored for up to three months.
- Make the cocktail: Put Blade and Bow Solera Reserve, Tawny Port syrup, El Guapo Spiced Cocoa Bitters, and orange bitters in a mixing glass. Add ice. Stir for 35 rotations. Strain over a large rock. Express orange peel oil over drink. Run peel around the side of glass and tuck it next to the ice cube.