How to Cocktail: Sparkling Whiskey Cocktails

0:07 On today's film and whiskey. We Dive Right Into Summer with three cocktails that feature sparkling water. We also give a full review to Country smooth Bourbon and sipping tea ready-to-drink beverages. That's all ahead on film and whiskey Hey everybody, welcome into the podcast. We are back with another special bonus episode. Bonus episode. Today, we're bringing back our how to cocktail Series. This is Brad at.

0:53 This might be my favorite. Little series that we do and it's probably the one that we've gotten the best feedback from our listeners as well. I think people, especially during the pandemic, they just wanted to learn how to mix their own damn drinks. They know, they couldn't go out to the bar and I've really really enjoyed breaking down some of these super basic whiskey cocktails Who you calling basic Bob your basic. Well, I'll tell you what, man, I'm going to get my basic person on today because we are going to be drinking the whiskey equivalent of white claws today. And I cannot wait my friend but You get it to all that. We're going to be talking today about whiskey cocktails that use sparkling beverages in them. So no, we're not talking about making yourself a whiskey Ginger, or a Seven and Seven like we can we can all do that. But we're going to be talking about whiskey drinks, in particular, that use seltzer water or club soda, or tonic water, those kind of things because, you know, when it's hot outside, in the middle of July, you want something that you can just sip on for a while that you can let an ice cube melt into, you're not going to take an old-fashioned out into the pool with you.

1:57 And so like this is kind of the perfect thing to be drinking for a summer day. Dude, down here in Delaware. We have like you can walk around town with drinks and they just expanded it and in like a week or two, you're going to be allowed to walk around not just with beer and wine but liquor as well. Boom. So come to downtown Delaware and you can walk around on a hot summer day with an old-fashioned. There it is in your hands. And so, one thing that I think we should clear up right away, Brad, is this idea of like, what sparkling beverage do I need to be using because I don't know about you, but if you've ever gone to the grocery store and you've looked at kind of the like Lacroix aisle, where they have stuff like Seltzer and club soda and tonic water.

2:44 It's really hard to know the difference between those sometimes. And then, you know, you look at a recipe for something like a gin and tonic, you know, you got to use tonic water but why can't you use cell? At Sur like what is the difference between those things? And I think it's worth talking about just really briefly like what are the differences between those those varieties of, you know, Sparkling Waters well. More importantly than that. I need before we really get started on this episode, I need to get it on. The record sparkling water is crap like most boys just right, we're dumping Whiskey on it. White claws, crap, like, all of those things are garbage Beverages and I They're disgusting.

3:25 So just just let that be known. Boom, that has always been my opinion on those types of things. Well, I'm glad we got your opinion on record Brad. Now, dammit break down these four different kinds of sparkling water for us. Yeah, so you got some club soda which is artificially, infused with carbon and mineral. Salts Seltzer is kind of the same, but it doesn't really have any extra minerals in it. So yeah, they're pretty much the same when you get into sparkling mineral. Water. It's literally just naturally carbonated water from a spring, or well and then tonic water is carbonated but it contains quinine and added sugar, so it actually has calories. So if you're looking, if you're looking to watch your figure, stay away from that, their tonic that Sonic water. Yeah, I actually reached out to our friends, Scott's our, at the crafted cocktail company.

4:17 Again, just to kind of make sure that I understood the difference is here because even when you break down, okay, one has a little bit of sugar and quiet. 91 has, you know, minerals added, they seem pretty interchangeable but I'm sure that there are some bartenders out there like clutching their pearls when I say that. So I asked Scott like, are these actually are. He's actually interchange their little girl's body. Yeah, man, it's a hipster bartender. They wear pearls, you know, for all of those 90 year old female party wear them ironically bread. Okay? Sorry, sorry, sorry. So I asked Scott and he basically said, look, the big difference is in the amount of carbon and salt sparkling spring Water has natural minerals in it but it usually doesn't have as much Fizz.

4:57 So it breaks down really quickly. You dump a bunch of ice into that. It's not going to stay fizzy for very long Seltzer's. Don't have added salt, like we said soda usually does, he says they are kind of relatively interchangeable but the key thing to keep in mind is that temperature matters a lot. So when you're building a drink that has sparkling whatever in it tonic or club soda, try to chill down your liquor beforehand because it really helps keep the beverage cold and it helps keep it from diluting too much. Getting rid of those bubbles. Now, Scott being the genius that he is, he says that he actually prefers to just use like a CO2 infuser and just charge the whole drink. So he builds the drink first and then injects carbon into the whole thing and that gives him the best bubbles.

5:40 But for those of us who are normal, people who don't have those kind of machines, in our homes, just try to chill down, your liquor beforehand and liquor that we are going to be using today in our mixed drinks. Is country smooth, which just it just has such such a nice summery feel to. It just like just by the name. It's just country smooth Bob. Yeah, so country smooth is a relatively new company. They taught themselves as being the first producer in the USA that has a female founder and CEO which is awesome. The first of all Brad, really beautiful packaging here, really tall slender bottle. I like it a lot. This is called their small batch straight bourbon whiskey. It's aged for at least two years.

6:20 This is sourced whiskey. So it's coming likely from MGP because it says Burgundy Anna, it's bottled in Tennessee and they try to give it that kind of like, you know, down South Country Vibe with the packaging as well. This only clocks in at 86 proof, so it's really mild, really, low proof Brad. I think we should give it a brief review before we jump into using it in our Cocktails. So we've both had it poured out in front of us here. What do you think of this Bob, it honestly has a nice smooth kind of knows which is good because apparently that's the the type of whiskey they were going for with The naming. But if I'm being honest, it smells a little bit young. Yeah. Like that was the first thing that stood out to me. Is that?

7:02 Honestly, if Bob, if we ever start a Distillery someday and we put out a whiskey that's only aged for two years, please tell me that we won't write aged at least two years because like we all know that that means like two years and like two seconds. So I just just say it it's a two-year whiskey that's okay well that's not necessarily true because like if If let's say they got this from MGP and they got 100 barrels and 99 of them were two years and one of them was 12 years legally, you have to label it as the youngest thing in the blend of whiskey. So, like, you know, this, this could be well over two years, but as if it has two year whiskey in it, you have to say it's two years old. Yeah, fun fact, Funtime.

7:45 India maybe it's a two-year with its beer whiskey. Yeah, this definitely does smell Young on the nose and, you know, Brad and I'd say that a lot and it's one of those things. Is where I think you just have to try some younger Whiskey's to know what we're talking about. But there's a very distinct under almost like under ripe but like under matured grain smell to a young whiskey. Not a lot of developed bourbon notes here. It's not super sweet on the nose. You don't have a lot of caramel or vanilla on the nose and then when you get into the taste Brad, I was really surprised by this because I actually found it very kind of saline heavy and quite multi like was really oily though. I wasn't thin, which Really liked for an 86 proof. I thought it'd be super thin but it's a very young tasting bourbon that lean salty instead of sweet and I was not expecting that.

8:35 Yeah, I actually kind of like that about it that they didn't just try to go for the typical like overly sweet two-year whiskey that is too grainy to really enjoy the sweetness. I think that that multigrain feel to it hits just right with the salt now is this my favorite Whiskey in the world. World. No, I think it's just okay but for a mixer I honestly am like super pumped to throw this in with some Club sparkling soda, tonic water. That's what we should have done is just mixed all four of those together. Yeah. Club sparkling soda topic. It's our, it's our Infinity bombing for sparkling water. Yeah.

9:17 I'm right there with you Brad. I thought that the finish on this was actually the nicest thing about it. It was very mild, very gentle. I think it's going to make a Fantastic mixer. So let's go ahead and jump into building some Seltzer or club soda based cocktails here and the first one. When you're talking about whiskey and you're talking about sparkling beverage is a highball. Now, you guys may have heard of the term, a highball glass, its you know, the really tall slender glass that you put a drink that needs a lot of ice into and it's called a highball because there's a cocktail that goes perfectly in that kind of glass, the highball was actually, Named the highball way back in the 19th century.

9:57 It came out of Manhattan. And from there, I just kind of like took off. It became Loosely kind of applied to any drink that had whiskey that was watered down in any way. So, you know, it could be just whiskey. That's water down with plain water, became known as a highball, but the classic drink actually involves club soda. So honestly, Brad here's how you build a highball. You ready? It's I mean, it's really challenging. Hold on a second. Let me sit back. I need I need To be secure for this. You take your highball glass. Okay, yeah, I got it. Two ounces of whiskey, fill the glass with ice and then you top it off with about four ounces of club soda. And that is it it's literally whiskey and club soda.

10:38 Now again, if you realize you nice, Bob and ice. Now, if you really prefer, you know, the flavor of tonic water like sure go for that classic high ball club soda brat. If I'm being honest with you, I don't know that, I would gravitate towards the high ball because, you know, it has the nice kind of bubbliness to it, but it's basically just watering down a whiskey without really adding any flavor components to it. This is quite literally, the Lacroix of Whiskey's. Yeah, Bob my introduction to the highball and not the classic eyeball is we've just been talking about was at my brother-in-law's bachelor party.

11:20 We were at the Bar and it was probably like our third bar. And the bartender says, I just really enjoy them. At this bar, we were talking and chilling and they're really cool. And at one point they came over me like, hey here's a whiskey and water that, you know, somebody didn't want. Do you want, do you want to drink it? Like it was on drinking and I was like, maybe you sure. Hold on, hold on. Repeat that word on Drinkin and drinkin. I don't know. What would you say I'm a drunk? I guess I would say hundra. All I know is UND. Rankin is Definitely not definitely not a word. It's like the anti Drake rapper on the Drinkin drank, so actually brought it over and I started drinking it and was like by God. Why would anyone order this?

12:08 It is one of the most disgusting things ever. Now granted it was literally just Whiskey and Water so I'm sure that a little bit of, you know, Fizz and Spark would, you know, make kick it up a notch but I'm not Arrested Bob, what's next? Yeah. So if you want to kick it up a notch, I mean the obvious thing to do would be to add some sort of flavor component to this. And so the next thing you could try is what's called a bourbon Ricky. Now we're not talking Ricky like it was some guy, you know, named Rick that made this like like like Ricky Bobby. All of the funny thing is the person that made this his last name actually was Ricky R IC ke Y and this really started out as a gin-based drink and then you know people switched to different Liquors instead the bourbon Ricky super, super easy to build Highball glass, two ounces of bourbon, and then you just cut a lime in half.

12:57 Squeeze half of a lime into the glass. Like, you just want the juice of half of a lime and then you add ice and you top it with sparkling water or soda. Now, this is again, this is not a sweetened beverage, so you're definitely going to have more of a like a sour heavily citrus note on this. But Brad, I think I actually would really dig this because I don't like overly sweet Beverages and I think if you're just like looking for something, It can dilute nicely and still have some flavor to it. This might be the way to go if a regular high ball, doesn't sound like your thing. So, this is pretty much like the corona of the highball world. You just throw a lime in it. Put your thumb on it, turn it over. Take that around a little bit and you're good to go.

13:40 Bob I'm unimpressed so far, what's next? Oh God Brad. Come on. These are Classics. Not the funny thing is though, I'm actually with you but I think it really does give you a good picture of like how cocktails have evolved. Over time because you know, like I'm sure when they invented the highball, somebody was like, who would have thought, whoever these two ingredients? Together blowing my mind. I just, I just see the old commercials with the to like drawings of old like 1920s boxers. Oh yeah, genius, bro, you're brilliant. All right, so if you want to do a step up from that, what you're going to want to build is called the whiskey Fizz. Now, I have come to find out again. I'm not a bartender. A Fizz is actually one of like six. Basic categories of cocktails.

14:24 And so the whiskey Fizz is one of the most basic of that category. What you're going to want to do is in the glassware of your choice. I would probably recommend a highball glass again, you want to do like one and a half to two ounces of your bourbon. So we're going to take our country smooth. We're going to add about 2 ounces of that. And then we're finally going to introduce some sweetness into this. We're going to do an ounce of simple syrup. Now, we've talked about simple syrup a lot on this show. Literally you just want to do equal parts sugar to water heat, the water enough to dissolve the GE in it and then let it cool down on your countertop and you've got simple sugar that's all it is. Or if you really want to kick it up a notch, do the exact same thing. But with honey, mmm, I do like a good honey syrup. So two ounces of bourbon one ounce of your simple and then like three quarters of an ounce of lemon juice. Okay.

15:09 So we're going to do like almost equal simple syrup and lemon juice and then you're going to just top that with ice and with club soda. So what you're essentially making is a whiskey sour that you are then adding the fizz As to, which, as we know Brad and I like, I don't think that there is a cocktail on earth that is more immediately. Satisfying than the whiskey sour. Dude, I still to this day. Probably have a whiskey sour at least twice a month in my house, like it is such a satisfying beverage, its velvety and smooth. And honestly, if I was going to go sit on my front porch on a hot summer day with a whiskey sour. I think I would add a little bit of club soda to it.

15:51 Yeah. I think it's a great idea. Now again, the Fizz is a very basic cocktail category you can make, you know, endless variations on this if you were to swap out the whiskey and add gin instead, you'd have what's called a Tom Collins. But this is not a gin podcast, so we're going to skip over that. But if you Jin but even then you have like a category of drinks called the Collins. And so if you were to take what we just made this whiskey Fizz and just add a couple dashes of bitters to it before you topped it with your club soda, then you'd have what's called a whiskey Collins. Which I also think is a great idea, you know, a whiskey sours great. But a couple dashes of bitters really does add just a layer of more complexity to it. So that might be another option you want to try.

16:32 I mean, honestly dude, just make an Old Fashioned and throw a little bit of club soda on it. Yeah, like I'll bet you that would be delicious. Well, a lot of people do make old fashions that way because it helps dissolve that sugar cube better. So, I mean that's an option as well. If you really want to do like a knit, my more adventurous, take on the Fizz, then I would suggest trying what we did with our whiskey sours. And use an egg white. Now, people swear by this, in their whiskey Fizz, like you make a whiskey sour, you add the egg, white, as you know, you shake it vigorously, strain it out. So you get that nice foam and then you top it with club soda and what you essentially have is like this creamy like it's the consistency almost of like a root beer float. You've got like the creamy component to it with the egg white and you still have the Fizz to go with it. Yeah.

17:17 Like I said, it's starting to get muggy out like that. Hot. Hot summer humidity, and I'm not gonna lie. I could go sit out on the porch and throw down a whiskey Fizz, like, nobody's business. Yeah, me too. And that's why I think we're trying to give people like multiple ideas for the cocktail here. Now again, like, am I going to go out and make a highball? Probably not. I want a little bit more flavor a little bit more complexity to it. But a whiskey Collins or a whiskey Fizz that has that egg white in it. I can tell you 100%, I'm going to be trying that this summer or honestly, Bob there's this Really awesome opportunity. If you don't want to, like make all of that on your own, if you want to be lazy, like I often am, there is a new product on the market called Symphony. Yes, and Brad, and let's be honest here. So, we're looking at these products and they are canned, their ready-to-drink beverages, so they're in the vein of the white claw, you know, I know that I've talked about this drink called The Long drink on this podcast before it's a whiskey based drink, but we have received no pronunciation guide. So I'm going to spell this out.

18:21 It's SI p 0 NE y capital O capital O you have the oh is the biggest thing so I'm like oh is it sip? Oni is it? Sip 1e? Like whatever it's like it's like in that movie that thing you do where they try to be clever and people call them the o-neders instead of the Wonders. So I think Brad and I are deciding that it's supposed to sound like sip honey because there's honey in it. So it's sipping e because it also sounds like Symphony like it's a symphony in Mouth. So yeah, we're going with sipping tea, right? Yep, that's it, man. Tipene Sapone, e, sip sip Ernie.

19:02 So anyway we have received these samples of this product called sipping e. Which again, it's a ready to drink and beverage there's two varieties. One is called the sipping tea Royale in, you know Allah Roy, how does it come with the second with cheese on it Royale with cheese. So this one is rye whiskey with honey lemon and sparkling water. R. It is essentially for being honest here. It's a whiskey Fizz, it really is. So it's basically you know it's made with honey instead of simple syrup but it's the same thing. And then what they've done is they've created a second variety which is called the sipping tea Cafe, which is exactly the same thing, right? Whiskey with honey, lemon juice sparkling water, but they had cold brew coffee into it and that one I am like really pumped to try.

19:46 There is a local coffee shop where Brad and I went to college that used to do this in the summer. They would do espresso and Made mixed together. And I was always like, I can't tell if that sounds gross. I can't tell. That sounds awesome. And I never got the like the courage to try it. So now I'm kind of like living vicariously through that through Symphony. So Brad, we're going to pop these up and we got to try the Royale. We're going to try the cafe. I'm going to open this bad boy so we can capture the sound of the can opening here. Oh yeah. She's a fizzing. Hey, Bob, can I tell you a secret? Yeah. I I drank all four of these because we got to dig two men by the way.

20:27 And, and they were eminently drinkable and I blasted through these four without even thinking about it. Like, we get free, whiskey sent to us all the time and I always liked and very careful to save it for the episode were drinking it on, but these ones I was just like, oh, it's in a can so I'm just going to drink it because it's so stinkin tasty. So yeah. Listen, my my initial reaction to this was just, oh, because I tried this Royale and it is, it's fantastic. I mean, it's something that's that you like about white claw but it's made out of whiskey and the lemonade like it's just a perfectly refreshing drink and Again, Brad, you know, since covid started and we have like our home setups. I am recording in an unventilated closet right now. It is hot as hell in here.

21:18 I'm sweating through all of my clothing I just And half this can at once this thing is incredible. Yeah, I think that if I had one tiny drawback, I wish that there was a little bit more of a honey flavor. Like I like, I don't feel like I'm getting enough of the honey Sweetness in there, but dude, this stuff is just off the charts. Delicious. And I think that what really makes it work is the fact that they use a rye whiskey. Yes, there's a little bit of that spiciness there you're so big. Second one we have cuz I gotta try it. Ha ha ha. There's there's just a little bit of that Rice spiciness that mixes with the club soda and the the lemon flavor. That's just it's phenomenal.

22:05 All right, Brad, I'm gonna try this Cafe. What did you think of this one? You know, I feel like you have to be in the right mood for it. I did not care for the coffee flavor, mixed in as well. And I think, maybe if I had had that on its own, Sewn without ever having had the Royale with cheese. It would have been better, but the cold brew coffee. Just took a little away from it, which was like, uber Lee disappointing, because I was really pumped for that. See, I actually really like this a lot Brad because it doesn't have a super strong coffee flavor, but it's just there enough that it kind of reminds you of like, you know, like when you eat tiramisu or something like it just has that like little wisp of that almost Chocolatey, dark espresso taste to it and it really works well with the lemon. I will say, like, if you handed me this and I was like, outside of the pool and I didn't read the label. I'd be really surprised and kind of, like, what is this? But knowing that it's cold, brew coffee. I actually found this way more refreshing and I thought it balanced out way better than I was expecting again. If you're just going for like I can pound eight of these at a barbecue.

23:18 I say go at the Royale but if you want something that's like, Just a little more complex, something that you could sip on, for, you know, 20 minutes as opposed to 10 minutes. I actually really, really like this Cafe dude. If you're at a barbecue you can have a Royale with cheese burger. Hey, there it is. So I will say this, like Brad said, we get a lot of product sent to us. This is a unique product, it is carving out, you know a corner of this ready to drink Sparkling Market that whiskey is just not doing a very good job. Cornering. I know Jim Beam is just starting to come out with products like this. Now I actually would say if you have the choice between like the Jim Beam products in this supports Epiphany like this is like they're a small operation or out of New York City.

24:05 Everything they do. Every can they sell goes back to beekeepers and trying to save honey bees like it's a really cool give back program that they had. And aside from that it's just absolutely delicious product. Now, like they have not paid us to say any of this, we told them we were going to give them a fair and honest review. You Brad. I would give this a wholehearted recommendation. Yeah. I mean, I might have come off a little harsh on the cafe, but if I'm giving the Royale, like a nine and a half out of ten, I'm giving the cafe, like, 1/8 to an eight and a half out of ten. Yeah. Like they're both incredibly delicious. And if you're looking for something to just like spice up, your average summer afternoon on the porch, grab some sipping e if it's pronounced that way.

24:50 Yeah, so once again, we're It's a penny. It's spelled SI p 0, NE y. You can find out more about them at sipping e.com. Pick some up at a local store near you. We want to say thank you to the symphony company. We want to say thank you to Country smooth for sending the whiskey that built these cocktails today, go out and try some of these cocktails. They're really easy to make. We hope this has been informative, we'll be back on Monday with another regularly scheduled episode. But until then I'm Bob book, I'm Brad G and we'll see you next time.