Sharkbait’s Cocktail of the Week: Pan Am

Happy Friday! I trust we’re all not cripplingly hungover from the return of football last night?

Good.

Admittedly, I got a late start on drink selection this week. So when I sat down to choose a drink, I was in need of something simple. I found my answer in the trusty Walorf Astoria book. That is where I found the Pan-American. A drink consisting of rye, lemon and demerara sugar. Seems like a slam dunk of a drink right?

Hang on.

As you’ll see below, this calls for 1/2 a lemon, quartered. My initial thought is that seems like a lot of lemon. But, this is from the Waldorf bar. I’m just some rando on the internet making drinks. They know what they’re doing. Let’s mix!

Pan-American

1/2 Fresh lemon, quartered

1 Barspoon demerara sugar

2 oz. George Dickel rye whiskey

Add lemon and sugar to a mixing glass. Muddle to release oils and juice. Add whiskey and fill with ice. Shake well and pour entire contents into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Serve with straw.

Housekeeping note: I used Rittenhouse for the rye, and light brown sugar instead of the demerara. So, was that too much lemon?

YUP! That is exactly what I expected. That is A LOT of lemon. It completely overpowers the rye and sugar. I mean I love a rye and lemon, but holy damn is that a lot. The Waldorf book calls this a sipper. That’so putting it mildly.

Sometimes it’s good to trust your instincts and that is what I should have done here. I sipped it down and added some more light brown sugar and more rye to try and salvage this cocktail.

With the extra rye and sugar, the flavors start to come out. It starts out heavy on the lemon, but then the the sweet, slight molasses flavor curbs the citric acid a little bit, which allows for the spicy rye to start shining through. The sip ends heavy on the lemon again.

Overall, the combination of flavors really does work very nicely here. Although I still get a lot of lemon. I may not have added enough sugar and whiskey to save this iteration completely. I would make this again, but cut way down on the lemon. The original recipe is borderline undrinkable.

(Banner image found here)