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bourbon

Bourbon Peach Smash

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Photo by Pattie Garrett

Recipe by the Smitten Kitchen, shared by My Saratoga Kitchen Table
Makes 8 servings

This recipe, like most cocktails, is very adjustable to your tastes; use more mint or bourbon or ginger beer, or less of everything, make it the way you like it. You could use more soda or ginger beer instead of bourbon to make it alcohol-free.

Ingredients
*Ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market

FRUIT
● 1 large very ripe peach*, pitted, very thinly sliced
● 1/2 cup sugar
● 1/2 cup water
● 1 to 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar*
● Pinch of salt

ASSEMBLY
● A few macerated peach* slices
● 3 to 4 fresh mint leaves*
● Ice
● 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) syrup from peaches
● 3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces) bourbon*
● Splash of chilled seltzer or ginger beer

Instructions
For the fruit: Place peach slices in a jar, cover with sugar, water, 1-2 tablespoons vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Place lid on the jar, give it a swish/shake until mixed, and let chill in the fridge for 3 hours, overnight, or up to 1 week.

To make a cocktail: Use a fork to remove a few macerated peach slices from syrup and place in the bottom of a glass with a few mint leaves. Muddle them together, smashing them into smaller pieces. Add syrup from peaches and bourbon and stir. Add ice cubes and finish with seltzer or ginger beer.

Getting into the Spirit

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

Lake George Distilling, photo by Pattie Garrett

It’s been quite a summer, with COVID-19, nationwide protests and calls for police reforms, presidential politics, school reopenings, and the fate of the U.S. postal service dominating the news.

Still, we’re surviving, thanks to the best local foods and drinks that our vendors bring each week to the Saratoga Farmers’ Market.

In that spirit, we suggest a brief celebration. Visit the market and fill your basket with what you need for your upcoming meals. Top it off with a bottle of a handcrafted artisanal liquor and the ingredients for a cocktail or two.

The market’s three spirits vendors are Lake George Distilling Company, Springbrook Hollow Farm Distillery, and Yankee Distillers. Collectively, they bring gin, vodka, and whiskey to the market each Saturday, not to mention fruit- and spice-infused spirits, such as Lake George’s Apple Pie Moonshine and its Lake George Lemonade. A simple quarter-cup pour from one of their bottles over two or three cubes of ice makes a hearty but not too boozy cocktail in and of itself.

If you want something a little more fancy, try these suggestions:

Lavender lemonade cocktail, AdobeStock

● Lavender lemonade cocktail. Yankee’s Steve Hamilton recommends either vodka or bourbon for this beverage made with Slate Valley Farm’s lavender lemonade and freshly chopped cucumber from one of the market’s produce vendors. Stripe off some of the outer cucumber skin with a vegetable peeler and chop the cucumber. Place it in a cup with ice cubes, and add one part spirit and three parts lavender lemonade. The lemonade lightens the intensity of the liquor, while the lavender and cucumber impart a floral freshness. I tried this concoction with bourbon and found it delicious.

Gin & Tonic, photo by Pattie Garrett

● Gin-and-tonic with celery. Springbrook Hollow’s Tara Solomon suggests muddling a bit of chopped celery in the classic gin and tonic beverage consisting approximately of one part gin, two parts tonic, and ice. She also suggests allowing the celery to remain in the glass until the beverage has been consumed for snacking. Cucumber makes an excellent alternative.

Iced Mocha, AdobeStock

● Mocha and mint whiskey. Hamilton suggests a malt whiskey for this cocktail, which is made with coffee and chocolate milk from the market’s new Bunker Hill Dairy vendor. It can be made with a take-home version of the mocha drink that Something’s Brewing offers. A little bit of crushed mint adds a flavorful boost.

Just remember, no drinking at the market.

This week’s recipe: Bourbon Peach Smash

Apple Crisp Cocktail

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courtesy of Yankee Distillers

Ingredients:

* denotes ingredients currently available at the farmers’ market

  • cinnamon & sugar mixture
  • ice
  • 1/4 oz. caramel syrup
  • 2 oz fresh apple cider*
  • 2 oz Yankee Distillers bourbon whiskey*
  • dehydrated apple slice*
  • cinnamon stick

Instructions:

1. Rim a rocks glass with cinnamon & sugar and fill 2/3 with ice

2. In a cocktail shaker, combine 1/4oz caramel syrup, 2oz fresh apple cider, and 2oz Yankee Distillers bourbon whiskey with ice

3. Shake to combine, and strain into rocks glass, right up to the cinnamon & sugar rim

4. Garnish with a dehydrated apple slice and a cinnamon stick

Distiller Brings ‘Spirit Of The Grain’ to Saratoga Farmers’ Market

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By Himanee Gupta-Carlson

It’s 9 a.m. at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. Not exactly “happy hour.” But for Matt Jager and the crew who bring vodka, straight bourbon, rye, wheat, and single malt whiskeys from Yankee Distillers to the market, that’s the point. These drinks are not meant to be downed in a hurry but instead sipped slowly.

Such beverages, known as spirits, begin from grains. As such, says Jager, who co-owns Yankee Distillers with Scott Luning, they are “the spirit of the grain.”

A distilled spirit is an alcoholic beverage produced by allowing a fermented liquid to turn to vapor and then back to liquid. Grains are cooked down to a mash. During this process, carbohydrates are broken down to simple sugars. Sugars turn to alcohol as yeast eats away at them, creating fermentation. The resulting liquid is then distilled and aged.

Yankee Distillers’ whiskeys, photo by Pattie Garrett

Jager began learning to distill spirits after completing a master’s in business administration. Yankee Distillers opened three years ago in Clifton Park. Its whiskies have been in barrels aging for most of that time. As a result, last year marked their first significant rollout. The process, says Jager, has taught him patience: “I learn new things every day.”

Distilling has historic roots. New York farmers fermented and aged grains in small batch processes through the late 18th and 19th centuries, creating a vibrant craft industry. Prohibition laws of the 1920s wiped that industry out. In 2005, however, new state laws were passed that are helping distilleries make a comeback. 

For Jager, distillation allows one to experience “the grain in its purest essence.”

For him, that essence involves learning more about the grains and their origins, how they were grown, harvested, stored, and ultimately converted to the spirits that one enjoys now.

State laws require 75 percent of farm distillers’ raw ingredients to be of New York origin. Yankee Distillers uses 100 percent New York grown corn, rye, wheat, and malted grains in its products, and Jager dreams of operating a farm that would grow these crops itself.

Sip a sample at Yankee Distillers table at the Saratoga Farmers’ Market. Or visit their tasting room in Clifton Park.

The Saratoga Farmers’ Market is 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at the Lincoln Baths Building in the Saratoga Spa State Park. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and the FreshFoodNY app.