The Easy Smash
Let’s not waste time muddling around. We’ve got drinking to do.
By Erin Henderson
It’s the height of peach season here in southern Ontario.
To celebrate, I was going to bring you a recipe for homemade peach puree for a classic Bellini cocktail. But that will have to wait until next week (don’t worry, local peaches will be here until September, so we’ve got plenty of time.)
The reason for this Bellini bump is to bring to you a staggeringly good, and mercifully easy, whisky smash.
This week we hosted a corporate event that included wine and whisky stations, and, as part of the whisky stations, an idea for a quick cocktail for those adverse to straight whisky.
Normally whisky smashes, as you can see here from a You Tube video I hosted a few years ago, are muddled, smashing out the lemon oils with the sugar and the mint. A delicious, yet laborious and somewhat timely process.
At this event, with 40 or so guests in attendance, we did not have those luxuries. Instead, we threw everything into a shaker, and shook the bejesus out of the concoction. What came out was just as good as the muddled original – at a fraction of the time. Our guests kept coming back for more (the best compliment.)
Once again proving, cocktail lovers, that necessity is the mother of all invention. And that sometimes, good enough, can turn out to be better.
The Easy Smash
I love serving this cocktail in the summer, and especially to the whisky avoidant. It’s bright, fresh, tangy, sweet, and smoky all the things that makes for a refreshing tipple when the heat is on. And to watch the smiles on the faces of those who normally avoid whisky… well, that’s I do the job that I do.
Serves: 1
Bartender level: this is called “easy” for a reason
Ingredients:
- 2 oz bourbon, or preferred whisky
- 1 oz fresh lemon juice
- ¾ oz simple syrup
- A few sprigs fresh mint
How to Make It:
- Into a shaker filled with ice pour all the ingredients and add 2 good-sized mint sprigs.
- Shake until well chilled and the mint has broken down a bit.
- Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice.
- Garnish with a fresh mint sprig and serve.