Cocktail Recipe: Bottom Shelf New York Sour
Photography by Chelsea Larsson
Every December, I participate in a white elephant gift exchange at work. If you’re familiar with white elephant, you know there’s a whole gamut of presents. $25 for one person might mean a nice bottle of wine, but for another it could mean a pillow embroidered with Nicolas Cage’s face.
In order to avoid gag gifts and dismay, I tend to stick to presents that look like they might contain alcohol. This past December, I employed my strategy and opened a wine gift bag expecting to find a bottle of Merlot or Sauvignon Blanc. Instead, I was surprised to find a bottle of Mellow Corn corn whiskey.
It was meant to be a joke. With an MSRP of $14.99, Mellow Corn comes straight from the bottom shelf. But instead of disappointment, I was intrigued.
I’m not familiar with corn whiskeys. From what I had seen, they usually consist of spirits that brand themselves as moonshine. But one thing stood out about Mellow Corn: its label said “bottled in bond”. In order to be bottled in bond, a liquor must be aged in a federal government storehouse for at least four years and bottled at 100 proof. The liquor must also be batched from a single distilling year, which makes it similar to a single malt or small batch whiskey. What this meant to me was that there was more to this whiskey than meets the eye.
A 2014 article written in Punch Magazine confirmed my suspicion and described Mellow Corn as the newest darling in the world of bartending:
Like Fernet Branca and Rittenhouse Rye before it, Mellow Corn has become a bartenders’ pet, a thing they keep on their back bars and work into drinks as much for the principle of the thing as for how it tastes. These products stand as a credo for the bars and bartenders that use them—a philosophy that supports liquid authenticity, lesser-sung liquor genres and time-honored brands that consumers may have forgotten.
Another helpful resource I found for Mellow Corn came from a Reddit review by user Tarquin_Underspoon. The review covers a few topics including the legal requirements for corn whiskey, which are:
Distilled from a mashbill of at least 80% corn;
Distilled to no higher than 160 proof;
Aged in used barrels (aging in new barrels would legally make it bourbon)
Barreled at no higher than 125 proof; and
Bottled at no less than 80 proof.
For Mellow Corn, this means a mashbill of 80% corn, 12% malted barley and 8% rye and then aging in ex-bourbon barrels for at least four years.
Suddenly, what started off as a joke turned into the perfect gift for myself.
If you want to drink Mellow Corn straight, I recommend following Tarquin_Underspoon’s advice and letting the whiskey breathe for a bit first. For my pour, I smelled notes of sweet corn and Nilla Wafer banana pudding. The taste and finish felt like a mix between corn bread and banana chips with a hint of vanilla. Not bad for $14.99.
Mellow Corn also makes a great mixer, which leads me to this cocktail recipe.
The Punch article mentioned that LA based Lock & Key uses Mellow Corn in their whiskey sours, an easy cocktail to make because it doesn’t require a lot of ingredients - just whiskey, lemon, and simple syrup.
But one of my favorite ways to spiff up a whiskey sour is to float red wine on top, which gives you a New York Sour. Despite it’s extravagant look, it’s an easy cocktail to make.
Simply add the whiskey, simple syrup, and lemon juice to a shaker and then strain into an Old Fashioned glass. To float the red wine on top, place a bar spoon in your glass so that it touches the side furthest away with the back of the spoon facing up. Slowly pour red wine on top and it should float on top.
An article in Feast Magazine mentions that your choice in red wine can bring out different flavors.
It’s a very pretty drink, and the sourness from the lemon and the barrel from the whiskey draw out the raw fruit flavors of the wine. Your choice of red wine will determine the overall flavors you get from the drink. Tempranillo offers a lot of plum and dark fruits, Shiraz is full of cherry, California Cabernet exudes currant and black berries and Missouri Norton brings dried fruit, currant and spices.
But because I was using a bottom shelf whiskey, I thought it only made sense to pair it with my finest bottle of Charles Shaw cabernet. This one, in particular, had been aged in my fridge for almost a year as it is my designated cooking wine.
After pouring, garnish with a lemon wheel and maraschino cherry. With the money you have leftover, you can order a pizza to celebrate.
Bottom Shelf New York Sour
Servings: 1
INGREDIENTS:
2 OZ Mellow Corn corn whiskey
3/4 OZ simple syrup
3/4 OZ lemon juice
1 OZ Charles Shaw cabernet (or your red wine of choice)
Lemon wheel and maraschino cherry garnish
Glass: Old Fashioned
INSTRUCTIONS:
Add whiskey, simple syrup, and lemon juice to shaker
Add ice and shake vigorously for 30 seconds
Strain into Old Fashioned glass with ice (or add ice later)
Float red wine on top of drink by pouring wine slowly on the back of a bar spoon. Add ice now if you haven’t already.
Garnish with lemon wheel and cherry
Order a pizza with the money you saved