This is another favorite of mine from bluezoo, and thanks to Chad Lobner I’m able to share the recipe for Back Porch Lemonade:
- 2.00 ounces Troy and Sons moonshine
- 1.50 ounces Sour Mix
- 0.75 ounce Ginger Syrup
- Lemon wedges
Muddle the lemons and add rest of ingredients. Shake and strain over a crushed ice filled mason jar rimmed with sugar.
Moonshine is a spirit made from corn that is popular in the Appalachian region of North Carolina, which is near where I live. While North Carolina doesn’t really have the whiskey tradition of Tennessee or Kentucky, we do take our moonshine seriously. I grew up in a “dry county” – one in which it was illegal to sell alcohol – but there were always places people “in the know” could go to find “white liquor”. Quite frequently it was sold in the same jars used for canning, normally made by Mason or Ball.
In most libraries, including the ones in schools, you could find a copy of the original Foxfire Book that included, among other things, instructions on making moonshine. Recently there has been a renaissance in moonshine, led by Troy and Sons distillery in Asheville.
Moonshine can be used in place of tequila for a lot of things, but this is the first cocktail recipe I came across that called for it specifically. There are also aged moonshines that are fine to drink straight.
This is an easy drink to make if you have the ingredients on hand. For those of you who don’t know, “muddle” is a technical term that means “smoosh with a wooden spoon,” although many fancy-pants bartenders have a special muddler.
I love this cocktail. Sweet and sour and refreshing and soothing – it’s a great drink and nearly perfect when it is hot outside. At bluezoo they make a sugar rim that includes black pepper and ginger, but I don’t know how to make that so I just use regular sugar.
Rating: 5/5