Matthew Kelly / Supercall

Entertaining
4 New Maple Syrup Cocktails

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Richly sweet and gooey maple syrup is not just your waffleโ€™s best friend, itโ€™s also the key to delicious autumnal cocktails. While the Maple Old Fashioned is practically a bar menu staple these days, innovative bartenders are experimenting with new ways to use the amber elixir in things like sours, pungent tonics and spritzes.

Here, three fantastic new maple syrup cocktail recipes from some of our favorite bars (plus one from us). If you donโ€™t happen to have a maple tree nearby to tap for extra-fresh homemade syrup, skip the Mrs. Butterworth and instead opt for a high-quality, dark maple syrup.
 

Switchel (a.k.a. โ€œNatureโ€™s Gatoradeโ€) was the drink of choice for 18th century American farmers, who drank it during the harvest to stay hydrated. Like todayโ€™s sports drinks, switchelโ€”traditionally a fermented mix of maple syrup, apple cider vinegar and gingerโ€”is loaded with electrolytes and, like its funky brother kombucha, itโ€™s packed with probiotics. Our quick, boozy, unfermented variation swaps out fresh ginger for a pungently-spiced ginger beer and gets a healthy pour of bourbon. It might not be a suitable Gatorade replacement during a workout, but itโ€™s certainly refreshing after a long day at the office.  

The Essentials

Bourbon
Maple Syrup
Ginger Beer
Legendary bartender Jackson Cannon crafted this effervescent riff on a Champagne Cocktail for the Greydon House in Nantucket. Named for a local apple variety, this drink swaps out Champagne for small-batch sparkling cider from Massachusetts and throws in some Calvados (French apple brandy) for good measure. In place of the Champagne Cocktailโ€™s usual sugar cube, this delightful drink gets its sweetness from maple syrup.

The Essentials

Calvados
maple syrup
Inspired by the Rattlesnake (a classic whiskey drink from the Savoy Cocktail Book), this cocktail from B.S Taqueria in Los Angeles is a smoky, spicy, frothy mix of maple syrup, bourbon, lemon juice, egg whites and Ancho Reyes (a chile liqueur). A few drops of Peychaudโ€™s bitters dashed on top play up the spice and tame the maple syrupโ€™s sweetness.

The Essentials

Bourbon
Maple Syrup
This eponymous Whiskey Sour variation from New York Cityโ€™s Asian-inspired rooftop beer garden, the Kimoto, combines savory herbs with maple syrup, orange marmalade and bourbon for a drink that tastes like an autumnal walk through the park. Itโ€™s frothy egg white head gets a garnish of swirled orange bitters, which not only looks pretty but also adds a citrusy kick and aroma.

The Essentials

herb-infused syrup
Maple Syrup

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