Kentucky Colonel – Recipe from David Embury’s ‘The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks’

No less an authority than the late G. Selmar Fougner, author of the famous Wine Trail series, vouches for the proportions of this drink as 1 part bourbon to 2 parts pineapple juice. The Kentucky colonels of my acquaintance would be more likely to reverse that proportion. Another and, to my mind, better version of this drink is 1 part Benedictine to 3 parts bourbon, stirred and decorated with a twist of lemon peel.

I tried the second version of the Kentucky Colonel first, naturally, I was going to completely pass on the other but will tackle this tomorrow. In hindsight I probably should’ve made this more Old Fashioned style, stirred over ice in an old fashioned glass, this wasn’t bad though.

I’ve come to like all the cocktails which see a base spirit tamed down with stirring and a liqueur, at the right ratio, which is, and with the correct base spirit it really enhances everything good about both. I used Makers 46, and the sweetness from this paired nicely with the Benedictine, and as makers is slightly softer in flavour it allows all the herbs and spices to come through from the Benedictine complementing each other wonderfully.

In future I’d go one step further, add bitters and a twist of lemon or orange and use the Benedictine in place of sugar for a proper Old Fashioned style drink.