Toasty Tuesday: 35 Maple Street
At the Dovetail bar in downtown Macon, I have a pretty impressive arsenal of ingredients to wage war on the hum drum bar experience. 35 Maple Street’s products are some of my finest weapons.
See? We obviously love these guys.
We started with just the Bib & Tucker and then got the Uncle Val’s Botanical, Uncle Val’s Restorative, and the Masterson’s Rye. Next came the Kirk and Sweeney 12 year. After two bottles of each flew off the shelves, we sprang for the Kirk & Sweeney 18 and 23 years, the Masterson’s Barley, and the Uncle Val’s Peppered Gin. Now, almost the whole line of 35 Maple Street’s products is at my disposal. I’m not disappointed in any of them. They are each unique, delicious, and easy to use in a variety of cocktails.
The very first cocktail I contributed to Dovetail’s menu used the Uncle Val’s Botanical gin. A play on a classic Bicyclette, I call it the Peach Fix. It was one of our best sellers for two seasons.
The Peach Fix
Ingredients:
1 1/4 oz. Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin
1/2 oz. St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
1/2 oz. Dolin Blanc Vermouth
1/4 Fresh-squeezed lemon juice
6 dashes peach bitters (I used Fee Brothers, but now that it’s summer, it might be time to make my own!)
Directions:
Build in a shaker. Shake. Strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
When I first started out behind the stick, I was determined to master the Manhattan. It should be no surprise that I utilized Masterson’s Rye. I have old Southern men come in and specifically request my Manhattan now.
Masterson’s Manhattan
Ingredients:
2 1/2 oz. Masterson’s Rye
3/4 oz. red vermouth
1 hard dash Peychaud’s bitters
1 hard dash Angostura bitters.
1 inch-diameter flamed orange rind
Directions:
Pour all liquid ingredients in a stirring vessel. Stir until chilled. Strain into a martini glass. Flame an orange rind over the cocktail, rub the oils on the rind onto the rim of the glass, and drop the orange into the glass. When you hand the gentleman the ticket at the end of the night, tell them you have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
The Kirk and Sweeney line is my go-to recommendation for a sipping rum. When I feel like going tiki, a whole bottle of this stuff will disappear into the bellies of customers whose eyes are rolling into the backs of their heads due to deliciousness overload.
What I love most about all of these spirits is the stories that inspired them. The Masterson’s line is named after William “Bat” Masterson, who was, according to 35 Maple Street, a “gambler, buffalo hunter, army scout, gunfighter and newspaperman” around the turn of the century. You can taste the legacy of the wild west in these whiskies.
Uncle Val’s is named after Zio Valerio, the uncle of August Sebastiani, the president of 35 Maple Street. Uncle Val had an extensive garden where he grew the sort of botanicals his nephew is using in his gins – lavender, sage, juniper, roses, and cucumbers.
“Kirk and Sweeney was a wooden schooner, best known for smuggling rum from the Caribbean to the Northeast during the early years of Prohibition.” And “Bib & Tucker” was early America’s version of “suit and tie,” but this bourbon makes you want to loosen up that tie and have another easy-drinking, light, chestnutty round.
The recipes I’ve given you are intended as a jumping-off point. There are hundreds of ways to use these spirits; hundreds of ways to honor the history behind them; and hundreds of ways for you to enjoy them. In short, try, buy, experiment, and let us know what you come up with!
Maybe you’d like Dovetail to age some cocktails in this little guy?
For more information on any of 35 Maple Street’s products, their website is an excellent resource. Here is a direct link to the page with their tasting notes.
http://www.35maplestreet.com/trade/
If you’d like to delve deeper into the history of this company, you can read up on the The Other Guys Wine Company. 35 Maple Street is a division of this family-owned operation.
Thanks for reading, y’all, and happy sipping.
