ENDANGERED COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH: BOURBON BELLE

We’d like to raise a glass today to one of our favorite bourbon drinks, the Bourbon Belle.  A modern classic created in the mid-2OOOs by LUPEC Boston founding member Joy Richard, this is hardly an extinct cocktail.  But we feel the drink deserves a little celebratory pomp for its clever riff on the staid classic, the Manhattan.  It’s a great example of how to tweak the old to create the new.

Ah, the Manhattan.  This august drink has dubious origins – was it invented at the Manhattan Club in 187O?  Or just a drink served widely in that borough around that time?  As is usually the story with history passed along from drunk to drunk, no one knows.  However you slice it, the drink is old.  Yet the pre-Prohibition classic never lost its mojo.  Cocktails from throughout the ages like the Stinger, Whiskey Sour, Moscow Mule, Sex on the Beach, and Cosmopolitan have come and gone, and in some cases, have come back again.  But the Manhattan is a drink that most people never forgot how to make.

Joy Richard had it right when she invented this cocktail.  Following a classic 2-1 recipe of spirit base to sweet modifier, she put her own twist on the drink by swapping the classic rye base for her favorite brown spirit, bourbon, and adding a whisper of peach liqueur.  The result is a delightful aperitif cocktail as worthy of the Pantheon of classics as its inspiration. 

In the years since she invented this drink, LUPEC’s own Bourbon Belle has gone on to open a great whiskey bar, The Citizen.  There are over 1OO selections on offer there.  We challenge you to join the ranks of the few and proud who have tried them all.

‘Til then, mix up one of these at home.  Or take a stab at your own Manhattan iteration.

BOURBON BELLE
2 ounces of bourbon
½ ounce of sweet vermouth
½ ounce of Mathilde pêche liqueur
3 dashes of Angostura bitters

Stir ingredients with ice in a mixing glass. 
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Cin-Cin!