Happy Friday and day 2 of the Masters. I usually don’t watch too much golf, unless it’s one of these major tournaments, and even then it’s more of an excuse to fuck off from work for most of the day. I enjoy playing a game of whack fuck every now and then though. Though it’s mostly for the socialized day drinking and operation of motorized vehicles while doing the aforementioned daydrinking.

Speaking of which, let’s get to it! The Masters has it’s own signature cocktail! But unfortunately, I already made it last….June? That wasn’t very smart of me now was it. Not wanting to do a repeat cocktail (of which, I’ve already done once which inspired me to keep track of what I’ve made for ease of reference and recipe recall) I went looking for something appropriate to make for the early spring season. Perusing the bar, I went looking for something involving the new bottle of Bulleit rye I picked up, as well as some pineapple juice I had in the pantry. I came across the Hawaiian Stone Sour and was immediately intrigued.

I’ll post the recipe here, but I did make some changes. Mainly half the simple syrup. An entire ounce of simple syrup here seems too much. I also asked my bartender friend what other ways I could improve this, and he said the same thing about the simple syrup ratio, as well as bumping up the whiskey, and backing down on the pineapple to 1, as well as the half lemon.

Another bit of wisdom passed on from my friend was how wrong the 20 second shake called for here is. He says 20 seconds is “waaaaay to fucking much. Hard shake for 6 seconds”. The rationale being that “Small home cubes don’t require a long shake at all. Smaller cubes have less surface area and therefore melt faster which is why you shake less with smaller cubes”.

To be honest, I never really shook my drinks a prescribed amount anyway. I usually only shook until the shaker got cold enough for me to feel, and then I would stop. So hooray for shaking properly without even realizing it!

Anyway, here is the Hawaiian Stone Sour:

Pour all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Cover and shake vigorously for 20-30* seconds. Strain into an old-fashioned glass over fresh ice. Garnish with a pineapple wedge and a cherry, and maybe even a paper umbrellas if you have them! Serve immediately.

*6 seconds max.

** No cherry garnish as I did not realize I only had the syrup left and no maraschino cherries. I took a barspoon of the syrup and topped with that instead

First off, look of this screams tropical. There’s something about just the look of a pineapple based drink that makes you want to sip one on the beach isn’t there? The aroma is light and fruit forward with the pineapple leading the way. The maraschino “garnish” also adds a little bit of a background smell as well. It works and adds to the beach/tropics vibe this drink has going for it.

The sip is light, and not boozy at all. It starts out all pineapple, with a hint of sour from the lemon juice. After a few seconds, some of the rye flavor starts to work its way onto the palate, but just flavor only. So you get the spicy, slightly smoky flavors of the rye, but none of the boozy mouthfeel. It’s a great compliment to the pineapple and lemon flavors. The flavors stay mixed like that throughout the remainder of the sip, and finishes very smooth with no linger mouthfeel. Making this a very easy drinker. Even now when it isn’t peak summer yet.

I’m glad I went with the rye here. I think this drink needs the extra peppery forward flavor rye brings. Versus the vanilla or caramel notes a bourbon would have here. I mean if you only have bourbon, go for it, but I think rye is the move here. Especially if you’re adjusting the sweeteners down like I did. It lets the base spirit shine just that much more, for a robust, complete cocktail.

(Banner image found here)