Grilled Storm Tossed Sour

You read that right, a grilled cocktail! This delightful recipe is a variation on a classic old fashioned is a great way to celebrate the arrival of summer.  Grilling the lemons produces a mellower, lightly smokey flavor and pairs nicely with rosemary and the intense salty profile of Storm Tossed Whiskey. Perfect for a nice BBQ gathering in the back yard, or down by the docks.

How to Grill the Lemons

Take a handful of lemons, cut in half. (You will need about 1 lemon per cocktail)

Fire up the grill, low temp is great.

Get some fresh  rosemary and white sugar and mix together (save the leftover mix to make the simple syrup).

Dip the lemon half in the sugar mix, and place face down on the grill.

Slow grill for about 15 minutes on the face, then turn over for some more grilling, (to make sure all the delicious  juice doesn’t leak out). Grill till the lemon is soft with some nice char.

Once the lemon has cooled enough, squeeze all the juice out. Preserve some grilled lemons for garnish.

Rosemary Simple Syrup

3/4 cup sugar
A handful of fresh chopped rosemary

Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces Storm Tossed Rye Whiskey
1  ounce grilled lemon juice
3/4 ounce rosemary simple syrup
1 fresh egg white* (optional)

Procedures

For the syrup, put ingredients in a little pan on the grill with 3/4 cup water. Letting it simmer on the grill adds a nice light smokey flavor to the syrup. Strain out the rosemary and let cool.

For the cocktail, add Storm Tossed Rye Whiskey, egg white, lemon and rosemary simple syrup to the shaker without the ice. Shake it well (this is called a dry shake) to get the egg whites all mixed in and fluffy. Then add ice to the shaker and give it a few more shakes to get it nice and cold. Pour ice and all into rocks glass, garnish with a grilled lemon and sprig of rosemary. Enjoy!

* There is always a slight risk of salmonella poising when consuming raw eggs, but with a wide implementation of updated farming protections in the 1990’s, the instances of salmonella poisoning has dropped to less then 0.012 percent and the risk is even less when consuming just the egg white. An alternative to cracking open an egg, is purchasing a pint of pasteurized egg whites, which can be found in most grocery stores.