What Can I Make With Bourbon? 12 Drinks That Answer It
A bottle of bourbon is the most versatile bottle you can own and most people use it in exactly one drink. Bourbon carries vanilla and oak from the barrel, a caramel sweetness that vodka never gets, and enough weight to stand up to bitters, citrus and cream alike. Below are twelve bourbon cocktails from the DrinkMixr catalog — two ingredients at the minimum, none past six — every one of them opens with its full spec, no account needed.
The two schools of bourbon
Bourbon drinks split into two families, and it is worth knowing which one you are making. Stirred drinks — Manhattan, Sazerac, Boulevardier, Kentucky Colonel — treat bourbon like a fine spirit: spirit, a bitter or fortified modifier, ice, strain. Shaken drinks — Paper Plane, John Collins, Milk Punch — use citrus or dairy to cut the sweetness. Stirring keeps a bourbon drink silky; shaking makes it bright. Pick the family first, then the recipe.
The stirred classics
Manhattan
Bourbon, sweet vermouth, bitters, cherry. The two-and-a-half-to-three-quarter ratio here is whiskey-forward; if the store-bought version ever tasted like flat cherry coke, this is why — the bitters and a fresh orange peel fix it.
What's in it: Sweet Vermouth, Bourbon, Angostura Bitters, Ice, Maraschino Cherry, Orange peel
Open the recipeSazerac
The New Orleans original: bourbon, sugar, Peychaud bitters, an absinthe-rinsed glass and a lemon peel. The rinse is the ritual — it perfumes the glass without sweetening the drink.
What's in it: Ricard, Sugar, Peychaud bitters, Water, Bourbon, Lemon peel
Open the recipeBoulevardier
Equal parts bourbon, Campari and sweet vermouth — the Negroni with bourbon wearing the boots. Bitter, sweet and strong at once; stir it well and serve it up with a wide orange peel.
What's in it: Bourbon, Campari, Sweet Vermouth, Orange peel
Open the recipeKentucky Colonel
Three ounces of bourbon to half an ounce of Bénédictine, a lemon twist. This is what a bourbon drink looks like when you take the vermouth out entirely — herbal, honeyed, and stronger than it tastes.
What's in it: Bourbon, Benedictine, Lemon peel
Open the recipeKentucky B And B
Kentucky B and B: bourbon and Bénédictine warmed in a snifter. Two ingredients, one of them ancient. The digestif note of Bénédictine turns bourbon into something between a nightcap and a dessert.
What's in it: Bourbon, Benedictine
Open the recipeThe shaken and built ones
Paper Plane
Equal parts bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino and lemon. The best modern bourbon drink: bitter, bright, with a nutty undertow from the Nonino. If you can only buy one new bottle for a bourbon experiment, make it the Amaro.
What's in it: Bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino Quintessentia, Fresh Lemon Juice, Ice, lemon twist (optional garnish)
Open the recipeMint Julep
Bourbon, mint, powdered sugar, cracked ice in a frosted Collins glass. The Kentucky race-day classic. Muddle gently — bruised mint turns the drink bitter, and the julep is supposed to taste like a garden, not a lawn clipping.
What's in it: Mint, Bourbon, Powdered sugar, Water
Open the recipeJohn Collins
Bourbon, lemon, sugar, soda over ice. The highball that proves bourbon does not need to be sipped straight to be taken seriously. Fresh lemon is non-negotiable; the bottled kind makes it lemonade.
What's in it: Bourbon, Lemon Juice, Sugar, Club soda, Maraschino Cherry, Orange
Open the recipeAllegheny
A nearly-forgotten pre-war drink: bourbon, dry vermouth, a teaspoon of blackberry brandy and lemon. The berries are background, not foreground, and the drink is better for it.
What's in it: Dry Vermouth, Bourbon, Blackberry brandy, Lemon Juice, Lemon peel
Open the recipeMilk Punch
Bourbon, heavy cream, simple syrup and a scrape of nutmeg. The colonial original of every brunch cocktail: two ingredients thick, one spice on top, and far more drinkable than the name suggests.
What's in it: Bourbon, Heavy cream, Simple Syrup, Vanilla extract, ground nutmeg
Open the recipeTwo modern community picks
Midnight Velvet
Bourbon, coffee liqueur, Baileys and cream with chocolate around the glass. A dessert drink that no restaurant would serve in a glass this small — make it after dinner, not instead of it.
What's in it: Bourbon, Coffee liqueur, Baileys irish cream, Heavy cream, Chocolate syrup
Open the recipeKiwi & Cinder Sour
Muddled kiwi, bourbon, lime, honey and ginger liqueur, with an optional egg white foam. Strange on paper and it works — the honey-ginger pair pushes the kiwi somewhere between a sour and a jam toast.
What's in it: Bourbon, Ripe kiwi, muddled, Fresh Lime Juice, Honey syrup, Ginger liqueur, Egg white (optional)
Open the recipeEvery recipe above opens in full on DrinkMixr, no account needed — measurements, method and glassware included.
What to stock besides the bourbon
To make all twelve you need: sweet vermouth, Bénédictine, Campari, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, lemons, limes, mint, powdered and simple syrup, heavy cream, coffee liqueur, Baileys, absinthe (a rinse worth lasts months), Peychaud bitters, Angostura, blackberry brandy, a kiwi, and nutmeg. Strip it to a real basic bar and you still cover Manhattan, Sazerac, Paper Plane, Mint Julep, John Collins and Milk Punch with nothing but vermouth, Aperol, lemon, mint, sugar and cream.
The one technique note
Stir anything without fruit juice for a full thirty seconds with plenty of ice — bourbon drinks are served colder than spirit-forward drinks made with lower-proof base spirits, because the sugar in vermouth and Bénédictine tastes thicker when warm. Shake the citrus ones hard and fast; bourbon clouds less than gin when overworked, but the aeration matter is the same.
Try it with the bartender
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