We recently got schooled on just how delicious and complex really good maple syrup can taste, as well as how it’s actually made. If you’ve not already read our article on our findings, then you should give it a quick read so you can really appreciate what you’re putting in your maple syrup cocktails. As well as appreciating the importance of buying a good one. After all, why would you buy a delicious bottle of booze to go and mix second rate maple syrup into it?!
Read – ‘What is Real Maple Syrup? The Truth About How It’s Made’
However, it’s the cocktails you can make with maple syrup that we’re concerned about here. This selection of recipes shows just how versatile maple syrup can be. Not only is maple syrup sweet, the really good stuff is actually not sickly sweet. It’s sweet, but delicate and complex. This allows it to play in both the ‘sour’ style cocktails that you might expect to be on this list. Using maple syrup as a straight replacement for sugar to balance the tartness of citrus fruit. However, its more delicate and subtle character also allows it to work in stirred ‘up’ cocktails like the Tuxedo and the light and refreshing Highball. We’ve even got a few non-alcoholic options for you to try, so everyone can get involved and enjoy this delicious sticky liquid!
01. Get Up and Rum
The hints of coffee and chocolate found within the complex flavour profile of Jakes’s Maple Syrup pair perfectly with the rum, coffee and banana here.
While rich and luxuriant, this drink is also not overly sweet and so leaves you wanting more. You may never go back to your fruit Daiquiris of Piňa Coladas again!
Your choice of rum here will have a significant impact on the final drink, but the recipe is flexible enough to handle your preference.
02. Irish American Old Fashioned
The best of Irish combines with the best of North America to produce this incredibly smooth, bottle rested Old Fashioned.
The Old Fashioned is such a simple formula, Whiskey, sugar, bitters. Yet it’s this simplicity that allows for so much experimentation and customisation.
This Irish American Old Fashioned recipe takes advantage of the mellowing and rounding effects of bottle resting. However, if you want to make this recipe to serve right now, you can. Simply cut the amount of water in the recipe in half and stir all the ingredients together with ice in a mixing glass til it’s ice-cold and perfectly diluted.
03. Maple Mai Tai
We’ve taken inspiration from the two most famous versions of the Mai Tai cocktail and given them a maple make over!
With notes of coffee, chocolate and toffee apple, Jake’s Maple Syrup sits perfectly at the centre of these ingredients. Binding their flavours together and taking them in a deliciously new and pleasing direction.
04. Maple Orange Espresso Martini
Maple syrup, vodka, fresh orange and espresso, combine to deliver a truly unique Espresso Martini experience. Rich and unctuous and yet also somehow bright and elegant.
As with all simple recipes, the key to success is down to good technique, attention to detail, and also using the best possible ingredients.
This recipe came to be when we were asked to create some bespoke recipes for Jake’s Maple Syrup. We didn’t really understand the difference between maple syrup and really good maple syrup. Its complexity and hints of coffee and chocolate told us it needed to take the starring role in an Espresso Martini riff, and so the Maple Orange Espresso Martini was born. If you like an Espresso Martini, then we think this is a version you need to try!
05. Toffee Apple Whisky Sour
The classic Whisky Sour recipe is the base for this dangerously moorish yet elegant version.
Pressed apple juice and Jake’s Maple Syrup are introduced to the classic ingredients to deliver a softer and more uncutuois experience than the original. This is both a ‘serious’ cocktail and a true crowd pleaser.
06. Trees Knees
A twist on the classic gin cocktail the ‘Bee’s Knees’. In this updated version, honey is switched out for Jake’s Maple Syrup to create a bright and crisp cocktail that’s as complex as it is refreshing.
It may only be three ingredients, but do not underestimate this little drink. Both Jake’s and gin pack plenty of flavours, delivering a final drinking experience with a multitude of layers.
07. Tuxedo (1903)
The Tuxedo cocktail, a great name, a delicious historical recipe. If you like your stirred cocktails, this is a must try! Although it calls for a few different ingredients, they are all very typical ingredients you will use in plenty of other recipes.
This classic recipe is from around the same time that the Dry Martini was starting to become drier in style and transforming into the drink we know today. Early Martini recipes from the late 1800s through the early 1900s, as well as the recipes like the Martinez, and the Tuxedo all included sweet ingredients, more like a Manhattan than a Dry Martini.
08. Wood Fired Highball
This simple and refreshing highball recipe highlights the quality of two elegantly complex additive free ingredients that represent the beautiful lands from which they’re from.
Kilinga Bacanora is an agave spirit from Alamos, Sonora, in the North of Mexico. Distilled with agave grown on family land that are roasted in underground clay and volcanic rock ovens to deliver a delicate smoky flavor.
Jake’s Maple Syrup is made from maple trees grown on family land in Vermont. You think you know what maple syrup tastes like until you try the complexity of Jake’s single estate maple syrup. It has a delicate sweetness with hints of coffee and chocolate that perfectly complements Kilinga Blanco with its hints of caramel sweetness from the long slow roast.
A little lemon and highly carbonated water deliver a perfect balanced recipe that’s both refreshing, as any highball should be, but also shows off the flavours and craft of its two principle ingredients.
09. Woodland Blast
The best juice recipe ever? I mean, probably! Fruity. sharp, sweet, incredibly refreshing and packed full of flavour. It’s blackberry and apple at their very best.
Jake’s Maple Syrup is rich but delicate sweetness helps to bring out all the delicious flavours of the other ingredients rather than overpower them. Just remember, the quality of your ingredients are vital to the success of this recipe.
It’s the perfect way to wake up your senses, or those times when you want to enjoy a drink that feels like a treat when you’re not drinking booze.
10. Jake’s Wake Up Call
It’s your morning coffee, made better. Banana, espresso, oat milk and of course the elegant luxury of Jake’s Maple Syrup.
To enjoy this drink at its very best, make sure all your ingredients are nice and cold, so make the espresso first. Frozen bananas add flavour and also the rich satisfying texture.
We love the cereal notes from oat milk in this recipe, but switch in your preferred milk as you like. Goooooood morning!
11. Pancake Old Fashioned
Our Pancake Old Fashioned is a recipe that’s as American as, well, pancakes and maple syrup. American pancakes are infused into Woodford Reserve Bourbon Whiskey, then stirred down with a dash or two of orange bitters and high quality maple syrup, served with a handful of pecans on the side to complete the experience.
The delicious cereal notes of the pancakes complement the grains in the whiskey, delivering a soft, almost creamy finish. Maple syrup replaces the sugar in a classic Old Fashioned, however, you don’t want to use just any old maple syrup here, it needs to be high quality like your whiskey. If you’ve never experienced the difference, do yourself a favour!
12. Woodland Mimosa
A step up from your classic Mimosa. Forget orange juice, you need this bright and flavourful maple, apple and blackberry version.
A perfect balance allows each and every ingredient to’ pop’ on the palate, delivering a vibrant yet elegant champagne cocktail with an eye-catching look.
As always, don’t forget to show us what you made by tagging us!
@Candra_Drinks #MakeBetterDrinks #CandraDrinks
