The Bourbon Review

Being a Kentuckian, my favored drink is bourbon. And for the same reason, my favorite soft drink is Ale-8-One, a locally made and regionally available ginger-ale type beverage. Naturally I, and many others like me, have been inspired to combine the two into a kind of highbrow hillbilly delight. This year's Kentucky Derby was a good reason for me to trot out a surprisingly good mint julep made with Ale-8-One; I've also been dabbling with a similar recipe made with sweet vermouth and orange bitters (in place of mint) to arrive at a sort of bastard step-child of the Manhatten drink.

So you can imagine my interest when I stumbled across a new recipe using my two favorite iingredients in a recent issue of The Bourbon Review (The Bourbon Review, LLC, Summer 2009). The drink is called A Late Freeze, and I cannot wait to try it out. My favorite thing about the ingredients? There are only two. This drink, apparently, is all in the preparation:

A Late Freeze

• 6 ounces bourbon
• 6 pack of Ale-8-One

Instructions:

• Boil a 6-pack of Ale-8-One in a saucepan until reduced by half
• Cool, then add one ounce of bourbon for every bottle/can of Ale-8-One
• Freeze until slushy
• Place in blender, pulse
• Serve

Oh, Boy!