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Mix It Up: Cocktails Inspired By Nashville's Growing Scene

This article is more than 7 years old.

Rapidly becoming an American darling and haven for nomads, Nashville is truly a place of contradiction and fascination. Take the Jack Daniels distillery right outside of the city, where drinking is prohibited in town, but the company ships one of the world's most popular whiskeys daily. Then there are Nashville’s favorite cocktail haunts, from the casual juke joint to sultry speakeasys like The Patterson Room, Bastion and The Catbird Seat. There’s the battle of hot chicken (Prince’s or Hattie B’s?), a timeless music scene, and recent tech and fashion boom. It’s hard to keep up with such a rapidly changing city, but easy to be entertained and satiated.

It’s in this region that bourbon becomes Tennessee whisky through an aromatic charcoal process so that millions around the world can enjoy the quintessential “Jack and Coke,” or a nightcap of Tennessee Honey, neat or on the rocks. The distillery sells 57% of its product outside the U.S., with the U.K., Australia and Germany as its top three buyers. From Kentucky to Tennessee, the United States’ bourbon and whisky belt is a playground for cocktail lovers around the world and mixologists to explore inventive ways to mash-up their latest creation.

Last year, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts did just that by partnering with Brown- Forman for a cocktail challenge with bartenders in the U.S., Canada, Bermuda, and Mexico. The challenge? Highlight the classics-- bourbon and whisky-- with Gentlemen Jack and Woodford Reserve as their canvas. The two winners of the Bourbon Bout, Melissa Logie and Jean-Felix Desfosses, both currently mix it up in Canada.

Their winning cocktails, called “The Trailblazer” and “Maple Nut Bourbon Sour” (recipes below) highlight the best of spirits with fresh ingredients like muddled blackberries, black walnut bitters and frothy egg whites.

Fairmont is one brand thinking about how to bring creative fun back into hotel bars with their new global cocktail program, Classics. Perfected.   Curated by their top Tastemakers, 140 drinks were narrowed down to just six, including the Pomegranate Paloma (Casamigos Tequila, Cointreau, pomegranate, lemon and grapefruit juices) and the Perfect Martinez (The Botanist Gin, Cointreau, sweet red vermouth and dry vermouth).

Here’s a list of just some of these cocktails to start off your weekend.

POMEGRANATE PALOMA

1 oz. Om Wonderful pomegranate juice

¾ Fresh grapefruit juice

¼ oz. fresh lemon juice

2 dashes of Angostura Bitters

1 oz. Casamigos Reposado tequila

1 oz. Cointreau

Garnish with half kosher (or coarse) salted rim and half lemon wheel

Serve in Collins glass

MAPLE NUT BOURBON SOUR

(created by Melissa Logie of Fairmont Waterfront)

4 ½ oz. Gentleman Jack

½ lemon juice

½ lime juice

¾ egg whites

2 dashes of black walnut bitters

5 oz. of maple syrup

THE TRAILBLAZER

(created by Jean-Felix Desfosses of Fairmont Le Château Frontenac)

1 3/4 oz. Woodford Reserve Bourbon

10 ml. of Orgeat syrup

4 blackberries, 1 to muddle, 3 for garnish

1 oz. lemon juice

1 oz. pomegranate juice

3/4 oz. egg whites

1/2 oz. Chambord black raspberry liqueur

10 ml. of green chartreuse