This unique cocktail is a tall spicy cocktail designed by Travis Fourmont, cocktail ambassador at Great Lakes Wine and Spirits. It’s a bourbon and ginger based cocktail with a spooky, bloody look that will be perfect for this year’s Halloween parties.
Fourmont designed this drink to be made with Corner Creek Bourbon, a wheat, rye and corn mash bourbon made in Bardstown, Kentucky. This fruity, fresh and light bourbon is a perfect match for the St. Germain liqueur that its paired with.
St. Germain is a liqueur made from the flower of the elderflower plant. These flowers are a small white flower that blooms densely in the spring and summer months, they produce a rich sweet smell that transfers into any drinks they are put into. The flower is used in many foods and drinks and its liqueur’s popularity has grown recently. The St. Germain elderflowers are picked from the hillsides of the French Alps and the exact process from plant to liqueur is kept a family secret.
The Elder tree, under which the elderflower grows has many roots in Anglo-Saxon folklore. It was once believed that if you fell asleep under an Elder tree in full bloom you would be taken into the world of the fae where you would be protected from any evil spirits. It was also thought that if anyone cut down an Elder tree that a witch would replace it and wreak havoc all around.
The Skeleton Key cocktail looks as creepy and deathly as it sounds, and here’s how to make it:
Ingredients
- 37.5 ml Corner Creek Bourbon
- 22.5 ml St Germain liqueur
- 15 ml fresh lemon juice
- 90 – 150 ml ginger bear
- 8 dashes Angostura Bitters
Preparation
- Into a collins cocktail glass filled with ice pour the bourbon, liqueur and lemon juice.
- Fill the glass up with ginger beer.
- Top off the drink with 8 dashes of Angostura Bitters.
- Serve with a straw.
Equipment
- Collins cocktail glasses
- Straws