Must Mix: Heart to Handle Cocktail

By Chilled Magazine

This cocktail warms the heart with a slow-made syrup composed of macerated sugar and roasted squash.

The mixture is steeped overnight in a sherry vinegar lightly simmered with toasted black cardamom and sage, then strained and served over the rocks. The complex and earthy flavors of a seasonal root combined with warm and aromatic spices is just the thing you need to handle winter’s bitter cold.

“Some days you’re the protagonist and some days you’re the antagonist. The day this cocktail came together, I was definitely the antagonist and was being really hard to handle … voila, a drink was born!”
– Suzie Whitacre

Heart to Handle Cocktail

Heart to Handle

Heart to Handle

Cocktail Courtesy of Mixologist, Suzie Whitacre

Ingredients:

  • 2 oz. Four Roses Bourbon
  • 1 oz. Copper & Kings Brandy
  • 1 oz. Lustau Vermut
  • 1/2 oz. Squash Shrub*

Preparation: Combine all ingredients in shaker with ice, shaken, and strained into rocks filled glass. Garnish is made of a Luxardo cherry, orange swath, and sage leaves.

*Squash Shrub

Day 1: Take 2 cups of roasted squash and 1 cup turbinado sugar and combine to create maceration. Refrigerate overnight. Take 1 1/2 cups of sherry vinegar and lightly simmer with toasted black cardamom & sage leaves in a small pot for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, cool, and refrigerate overnight.

Day 2: Bring vinegar up again to a light simmer. Add squash/sugar maceration and incorporate until sugar is fully melted. Remove from heat and refrigerate overnight.

Day 3: Strain to remove solids. Refrigerate to store.

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