This cocktail comes to us from Emily Landsman, who writes for the Jewish Food Experience.  Combining orange juice and Mosby's Spirit along with a refreshing dose of mint, and you have a very satisfying summer cocktail!  This one could easily be upscaled into a punch.  Try floating a few sprigs of mint on the punch bowl and you'll have something that will keep your summer party guests raving!

1½ oz Catoctin Creek Mosby's Spirit
1½ oz freshly squeeze orange juice
¼ Triple Sec or orange liqueur
2 large sprigs of fresh mint
Large pinch of superfine sugar (do not use powdered sugar)
Orange zest
Additional mint for garnish

Preparation:

• In a rocks glass, muddle the mint and sugar until the mint is broken up into tiny pieces.
• Next, shake the Mosby’s Sprit, triple sec and Minneola orange juice with ice*.
• Add ice to the rocks glass and strain the drink into the glass. Stir.
• Twist the orange zest over the glass to release oils and drop it into the glass, then add a fresh mint sprig to garnish.

* Batch the Mosby’s Spirit, triple sec, and orange juice ahead of time to easily serve several cocktails. Do not add ice until ready to serve. At that point, add ice, stir well and then pour into glasses.

Recipe and photo courtesy Emily Landsman and the Jewish Food Experience and used with permission.

Another Chad Robinson original.  This one was featured at Alfie's for our #WhiskyWedneday Roundstone Throwdown against bartender Fabian Malone, who featured the ever popular Dude, Where's My Bikeshare?

1½ oz Roundstone Rye
½ oz Curaçao
½ oz salted honey syrup*
½ oz lime juice

Add ingredients and ice to a shaker tin until cold and strain into a chilled cocktail coupe. Garnish with a lemon peel.

*Salted Honey Syrup: Add 1 gram of salt per 150 grams of water and allow the salt to fully dissolve. Heat the salt solution in a small saucepan and add 150 grams of clover honey. Fully incorporate the honey and the salt solution until you have a uniform syrup. Allow to cool and store for up to a month.

(This, by itself, tastes just like Honey Nut Cheerios)

Recipe courtesy Chad Robinson.

Hooray!  Summer is here!  And summer is a great time for refreshing cocktails from whisky, gin and moonshine!  Check these out!

Lavender Lemonade

2 oz Watershed Gin
1 oz fresh pink lemonade
a few dashes of lavender bitters by Embitterment (D.C.)
garnish with a sprig of lavender

Summer Suzie

Inspired by M. Carrie Allen of the Washington Post.

2 oz. Watershed Gin
1 oz chamomile tea
½ oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz honey
garnish with a lemon peel

Whisky Sour

2 oz Roundstone Rye
1 oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz simple syrup
garnish with a maraschino cherry

Virginia Buck

A Buck (such as the Kentucky Buck cocktail) is a genre of cocktail perfect for summer. It consists of a combination of citrus and ginger beer.

2 oz Roundstone Rye
1 oz strawberry lemon simple syrup*
top with ginger beer
garnish with a lemon twist

*strawberry lemon simple syrup: chop up a few fresh strawberries and lemons and put them in a crockpot with a simple syrup mixture (equal parts water and sugar) for about 3 hours.

You might need to add extra lemon juice because the strawberries are very sugary by themselves!

Mosby's Mule 2 oz Mosby's Spirit
1 oz ginger beer
½ oz lime juice
garnish with a wedge of fresh lime

 

Summer is nearly here, and strawberries are in high season!  Our friends at Great Country Farms brought us a bunch of freshly picked strawberries today, and asked us to make them a cocktail!  So I came up with the Strawberry Mosbito, a fun play on the mojito, except with our own Virginia moonshine.

1½ oz Mosby's Spirit
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
Mint leaves
Strawberries
Sparkling water

In a cocktail shaker, muddle the mint, three strawberries and lime juice until well mixed and mashed together.  Add ice and the Mosby's Spirit to the shaker, and shake vigorously.  Strain the contents into a tall glass of ice, top with sparkling water and garnish with mint, strawberries, and a lime wheel.

Inspired by the phrase, "A very blue puppy cries"—Appalachian Valley, Blue Ridge Mountain, Piedmont, Coastal Plain.

1½ ounces Catoctin Creek Watershed Gin
1½ ounces honeysuckle, blueberry, allspice, hibiscus and sugar tincture
¾ ounces Dolin Vermouth Blanc
2 shakes Angostura orange bitters
1 chocolate mint to garnish

Combine gin, tincture, vermouth and bitters in an ice-filled Boston Shaker. Shake vigorously and serve in a chilled champagne coupe. Garnish with a leaf of mint.

Recipe courtesy of Hunter Johnson, Lucky, Roanoke.

Todd Thrasher’s riff on the Old Fashioned plays homage to his home state with the Virginia figs and local rye.

¾ oz fig simple syrup*
2 oz Catoctin Creek Roundstone Rye
liberal dash of orange bitters
orange peel to garnish

Combine fig simple syrup, bitters and rye in a mixing glass, stir and strain over fresh ice. Garnish with orange peel.

Fig simple syrup:

1 quart sugar
1 quart water
1 quart dried Virginia figs

Heat water over medium heat, add sugar and whisk until dissolved. Add figs, reduce heat to a low simmer for 20 minutes and remove from heat. Let cool. Strain through a fine chinois. Refrigerate.

Recipe courtesy Todd Thrasher of Bar PX, and used with permission.

We had the pleasure of hosting Jill Vitick, of Vitick's Switchel, in our tasting room this month.  Jill brought in several jars of switchel, which is an old colonial farm drink.  A mixture of honey, maple, or sorghum, vinegar, and other spices, switchel was the "Gatorade" of its day:  a cool, refreshing energy boost after a hard day's labor.

Of course, we turn things like this into cocktails!  Here is our cocktail with her sorghum switchel.

1 oz Roundstone Rye
½ oz Sorghum Switchel
¼ oz barrel aged maple syrup
dash of black walnut bitters
garnish with an orange twist

We had the pleasure of hosting Jill Vitick, of Vitick's Switchel, in our tasting room this month.  Jill brought in several jars of switchel, which is an old colonial farm drink.  A mixture of honey, maple, or sorghum, vinegar, and other spices, switchel was the "Gatorade" of its day:  a cool, refreshing energy boost after a hard day's labor.

Of course, we turn things like this into cocktails!  Here is our cocktail with her maple switchel.

1 oz Mosby's Spirit
½ oz Maple Syrup Switchel
¼ oz simple syrup
¼ oz lime juice
Ginger beer
Lime peel

Combine Mosby's Spirit, switchel, syrup and lime juice, and top with ginger beer. Garnish with lime peel.

Here is a fantastic brunch cocktail from DrinkTonight, one of my favorite Instagram accounts based in DC.  They feature fantastic cocktail recipes with various local spirits. Find them on Instagram at www.instagram.com/drinktonight.

Introducing your favorite new brunch cocktail. Another unique, delicious recipe courtesy of our friends over at @12bottlebar, The Benchley is similar to The Algonquin — rye, dry vermouth, and pineapple juice. Add some flavors from Sriracha and you have yourself a drink that is savory, sweet, strong, and everything you want at brunch. I added lemon juice from their recipe for some acidity to balance the pineapple, but if you omit its closer to their recipe.

1½ oz Roundstone Rye
¾ oz dry vermouth
¾ oz Pineapple Sriracha Syrup
Juice of a half lemon

Combine all over ice and strain into a rocks glass with ice. Lemon peel garnish.

Recipe and photo by DrinkTonight, and used with permission.

2 oz Watershed Gin
1 oz sage simple syrup*
1 oz unsweetened grapefruit juice (fresh squeezed is best)
sage for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice.  Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with a sage leaf.

*Sage Simple Syrup

Combine 1 cup sugar with 1 cup of water and several leaves of sage.  Cook on low heat for a couple hours, strain and save in the fridge for up to two months.

This cocktail comes to us from Kevin W Collins on Instagram as @kevinwcollins, who spends his time crafting cocktails using many locally provided spirits.  We're grateful for people like him!

The Thyme Collins is very similar to our previous Watershed Thyme Gimlet, but with the presence of the soda water, a light and refreshing drink for the heat of summer.

2 oz Watershed Gin
¾ oz lemon juice
½ oz thyme simple syrup*

Stir to combine the strain into Collins glass over ice. Top with club soda and garnish with fresh thyme.

*Thyme simple syrup

Combine 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of water, and several sprigs of thyme. Cook on low heat for 2-3 hours. A crockpot works fabulously for this.

Recipe and photo courtesy @kevinwcollins and used with permission.

This cocktail comes to us courtesy @fletcher_whiskeydog on Instagram, one of our favorite accounts for all things whiskey and cocktails.  He writes:

After doing some planning today for the next cocktail challenge, I thought it'd be fun to mix up the winning recipe from the first challenge. The "Middleman", submitted by @timmergund, is one crisp, refreshing cocktail! I used @catoctincreek cask strength 2-year rye, which really cuts through a cocktail nicely. Cheers y'all!

1½ oz Roundstone Rye Cask Proof
¾ oz Velvet Falernum
¾ oz fresh lime juice
¾ oz Green Chartreuse
2 dashes orange bitters

Shake and strain and serve with lime wheel garnish.

Photo courtesy @fletcher_whiskeydog, recipe courtesy @timmergund, and both used with permission.