Cherry Bourbon Milkshake – a Bourbon Women SIPShake

Still summer, still hot as hell, and still craving bourbon so I’ve designed a boozy Cherry Bourbon Milkshake – the SIPShake for Bourbon Women and their SIP Summer Series sessions in August. It’s fun, it’s fast, and its got bourbon and ice cream – a delectable combination of flavors.

So mix up a batch of these – the recipe makes two – and head over to  the Bourbon Women YouTube channel or FaceBook page for the livestream Aug 20-22. It’s a frozen delight perfect for hot summer afternoons and preparing the palate for bourbon tastings.

Flavor Combinations

Bourbon and vanilla go together – vanilla is one of the main flavor and aromatic components of bourbon, and adding bourbon to an ice cream milkshake just makes good sense. It enhances your awareness of that vanilla in the bourbon.

Cherries are often used as garnishes for bourbon cocktails not only because they’re pretty, but more often because using cherries brings out both cherry and stone fruit notes in the bourbon itself. That hint of a cherry smell or taste you get with that lovely cocktail cherry with a bit of bourbon in your mouth wakes up your mind to those cherry notes inherent in the bourbon.

One of the easiest food pairings to do with bourbon is dried fruit and one of my favorites is dried cherries. Add in a little chocolate and you have a completely different experience of the bourbon in your tasting glass.

Sorbet or Milkshake?

When developing the cherry bourbon milkshake I was torn between a sorbet base – just fruit and sugar – and using a cherry ice cream. In the end, I split the difference because I wanted the intense cherry flavor, but I also wanted the creamy mouthfeel that you get with a milk-based cocktail rather than one focused on a sorbet.

That brought out a lot of the vanilla in the bourbon and toned down the heat from using a high proof bourbon in the cocktail.

I did go with a 100 proof cocktail or higher for this because we all know women prefer higher proof whiskey, and I know from experience that Bourbon Women want to taste the bourbon in their cocktail. Paired with the creaminess of the milkshake, the bourbon’s heat makes it compelling to sip.

Still Missing Something

Now, the cocktail did need just a little bit of tang added to it to balance out the all the sweetness, so I added a small amount of lemon simple syrup. If you don’t have time to make that, a little simple syrup with a touch of lemon juice will achieve the same effect.

So take a few moments to find those frozen cherries in the freezer and pop a little ice cream and bourbon in the blender as well.

Mix up a couple and sip away. It’s a lovely boozy bourbon milkshake to sip on while learning about bourbon and tasting your way through flights. Just remember to sip on some water to clear your palate between sips and flights.

If you’ve got some friends not sold on bourbon, this milkshake may convert them (although you might hold back and use a slightly lower proof). They might sit through the entire SIP Summer Series if you distract them with this Cherry Bourbon Milkshake.

In case you want another fun bourbon and ice cream cocktail, check out this Bourbon Affogato. And if you’d rather talk cherries, this Coffee Cherry Smash is a fast, easy summer cocktail featuring cherries.

Some other frozen treats for the summer you might enjoy:

• Root Beer Float Julep
• Bourbon Affogato
• The Sazerac Slushie

Cherry Bourbon Milkshake – SIPShake

Heather Wibbels

To get your virtual SIP Summer Series started Heather has a boozy bourbon milkshake with plenty of bourbon, frozen sweet cherries, and vanilla ice cream to sip on as you wait for SIP to start. It’s a frozen delight perfect for hot summer afternoons and preparing the palate for bourbon tastings. And she makes it just like bourbon women like their cocktails –strong! Added bonus that your non-bourbon friends will likely sip through the entire virtual session without complaining after one of these.

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Course Dessert, Drinks

Cuisine Bourbon Cocktail

Servings 2

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 4 ounces 100 proof bourbon
• 3/4 oz lemon simple syrup** (or ½ oz simple syrup and lemon juice from 1 lemon wedge)
• 1 cup vanilla ice cream
• 2 cups frozen sweet cherries
• Garnish: mint sprig/cherries

Instructions

 

• Put ingredients (except for garnish) in a blender in the order listed above. Blend on high until smooth. Pour into two fancy glasses and garnish with fresh mint and cherries. Add straws, and make sure you’ve got the Bourbon Women Livestream turned on.

Notes

**Lemon Simple Syrup:

• 3/4 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 cup sugar
• Peels from the fresh lemons you just juiced – just the peel, no pith

Combine the juice and sugar in a small saucepan on medium heat, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and it’s at a very low simmer. Add the lemon peels, stir, and let sit for about 5 minutes on low heat. Turn off the heat and let the whole mixture steep for 45 minutes. Strain out the peels, bottle and refrigerate the lemon simple syrup. It will keep about 2 weeks, a little longer if you add some vodka to it.

Keyword adult milkshake, boozy milkshake, bourbon women, cherry, ice cream, lemon, millkshake, mint, vanilla ice cream

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