Honeyed Bourbon Lemonade

This light, refreshing adult beverage uses our local Studinka Family Honey (If you’re curious, “Studinka” is Jessica’s maiden name. Her dad is the bee tender at Red Moon Farm!)   We served up this delicious cocktail at the Farm Dinner this spring and it was good enough that we had folks coming back to the bar a few times.

Fiddle around with the herbs you use in this cocktail and you’ll craft yourself a totally different drink.  My favorite flavor with citrus and honey is thyme. Mint would be nice and refreshing. Chamomile or fresh rose petals would be super mellow. In late June you could use our fresh basil, which would be absolutely fantastic in this drink.

Then to pick your bourbon. If you want a really amazing result, grab somethin’ a little higher on the shelf. Bulleit bourbon is one of our faves- certainly smooth enough to drink neat, and excellent in this lemonade. Plus the bottle is just great.

serves 6

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 handful of fresh thyme sprigs or other fresh herbs
• 1 cups water
• 1 cups lemon juice
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 sliced lemon
• 1 sliced orange
• 6 shots of  Bulleit bourbon
• 1 – 30 oz bottle of chilled club soda

Instructions

First make your simple syrup. Bring honey, sugar, water, and optional herbs to a quick simmer and stir until all sugars are dissolved.  Let cool to room temperature and strain out herbs. This can be made a few days ahead of time and stored in the fridge.

In a large pitcher or glass drink carafe, stir together your simple syrup, orange juice, lemon juice and bourbon in a pitcher. This is your lemonade concentrate (it’s pretty darn strong, and too sweet to drink straight). Fill a large glass with ice, add about 1/2 cup of the lemonade mix and fill glass with chilled club soda.

If you’re having too much fun in the sun to sit and mix up each drink one at a time, go ahead and pour in your club soda into the pitcher. The fizz will go flat after about an hour, so you’ll want to serve it up quickly.

Garnish with a slice of lemon of a bit of thyme sprig and you’ve got yourself a super fancy spring cocktail perfect for a night on the farm!