Name: The Northern Sapsucker Cocktail
Ingredients: 3 oz Whiskey; 2 oz Unsweetened Apple Juice; 1/2 oz Cinnamon-Infused Crown Maple Syrup; 3-4 oz Frozen Cranberries; 2-3 dashes Cardamom Vanilla Tincture; 1 cup Brandy; 1 ea Vanilla Bean Husk; 1/8 tsp Cardamom Seeds

A Wandering Journey

This week’s cocktail is brought to you by Nancy Val, a freelance food writer and recipe developer from Long Island. She shared this story and recipe with me over email, and I was very excited to share it with you!

(Jump to the recipe)

brown cocktail in a rocks glass with ice cubes, rosemary sprigs, and cranberries

Copyright A Bar Above, generated with AI

It Started with a Husk of Vanilla

The cocktail was inspired by an old husk of vanilla and a bit of brandy. Tempted with an infusion, Nancy threw in a bit of cardamom and waited a week. The result was a deliciously infused brandy that begged to be made into a cocktail.

Next up, she happened upon a Christmas gift she’d received – Crown Maple Syrup infused with cinnamon. Add a local whiskey to the mix and a cocktail was very quickly starting to take shape!

Gorgeous cocktail in a rocks glass, garnished with cranberries, rosemary, and apple slices

Copyright A Bar Above, generated with AI

No Citrus in Sight

So far the cocktail was boozy and sweet but lacked balance. Usually you’d toss in some lemon juice and call it a day, but Nancy was determined to keep it local and citrus just doesn’t grow in New York. She ended up adding frozen cranberries(which are broken down a bit by the freezing process, making them a bit easier to muddle.)

The cranberries added the acid she was looking for, but the drink was still very boozy (after all, there isn’t a lot of liquid in the cranberries to dilute!) So she finished off the drink with one more very local ingredient – unsweetened, local apple juice. It added another layer of fruity flavor while avoiding over sweetening the drink. Not to mention being a prefect flavor match for the spices and cranberries!

top down view of a whiskey cocktail with apples, sprigs of rosemary, and cranberry

Copyright A Bar Above, generated with AI

Finishing the Cocktail

No cocktail would be complete without its garnish! Nancy finished this one off with the aroma of the Northeast outdoors – with a sprig of rosemary. As she described it, “piney, woody, gingery… ginger!” Inspiration hits again, and she tossed a bit of candied ginger on the end of the Rosemary sprig to add a bit more flavor, aroma and fun.

I’m not sure I can do any better than Nancy’s own description:

“Behold. An original craft cocktail. Tasty and comforting. Suggesting the warmth of coming indoors to a lit fire after returning from a walk through a wooded path of newly fallen snow.”