Drink · 5 min · 1 coupe
Maple Leaf
Bourbon, maple, lemon. A sour that tastes like a sugar shack. Bitters optional. Don't make an Old Fashioned and squeeze lemon into it.
The sheet · 1 coupe · 5 min
easyWhy tonight. Bourbon, maple, lemon. A sour that tastes like a sugar shack. Bitters optional. Don't make an Old Fashioned and squeeze lemon into it.
What it needs
Nothing confirmed on your shelf yet — this list is the whole ask.
- bourbon
- maple
- lemon
Good if you have them, fine if you do not: angostura.
Method
- Bourbon, lemon and maple in roughly two to one to three-quarters, shaken hard.
- Real maple syrup, not pancake syrup, which is corn syrup with coloring and tastes like it.
- Maple is more assertive than honey, so this needs less sweetener than a standard sour.
- Shake with plenty of ice and strain into a chilled glass. No garnish needed.
An educational pour, not a reprint of a licensed spec. No allergen or alcohol-safety claim.
Cook or pour it, then edit the shelf if you emptied a bottle or used the last of something.
Why each of these is on the list
What the ingredients are actually doing
- bourbon
- Corn-sweet and vanilla-heavy from new oak, so it takes bitterness and citrus without being flattened.
- maple
- Sweetness with a mineral, slightly smoky edge that sugar does not have.
- lemon
- Acid you add at the end, not the start.
Missing one of them? The substitutions are written against those jobs rather than against a chart, so they say what each replacement costs this dish in particular.
Cooks from the same box
If you bought for this, you can already make these
Shares bourbon, lemon
Final Word
A Last Word built on bourbon instead of gin, which makes it rounder and slightly sweeter.
Shares bourbon, lemon
Gold Rush
A whiskey sour with honey instead of sugar. Let the honey down with warm water first or it sits in a lump at the bottom.
Shares bourbon, maple
Maple Old Fashioned
Maple instead of sugar, which is sweeter and more assertive than honey. A little vinegar or extra bitters keeps it from cloying.
Shares bourbon, lemon
Paper Plane
Equal parts bourbon, amaro, Aperol and lemon. A modern classic that is bitter, sour and sweet in exactly equal measure.
Next
Cook it, then tell the shelf what you used.
The ranking is only as honest as the shelf behind it. Empty the cream, and everything that leaned on cream should stop being offered.