Make Your Own

Cocktails made using local spirits make up the best of the best. Here are some recipes from local distillers for you to enjoy at home. Get your bar set up and take aim at being a mixologist with these fabulous cocktails.

HOT COMMODITY
BY RICH LOCKWOOD,
MOTOR CITY GAS DISTILLERY

  • 4 oz. hot cocoa (unsweetened)
  • .75 oz. Motor City Gas Bourbon Cream
  • 1 oz. Midnight Oil (peat-smoked bourbon)
  • .75 oz. vanilla simple syrup
  • 1 dash hazelnut bitters

Garnish with whip cream topped with dark chocolate shavings and a Motor City Gas whiskey-soaked cocktail cherry

LEAKY CAULDRON
BY RICH LOCKWOOD,
MOTOR CITY GAS DISTILLERY

  • 2 bar spoons flavored butter (melt butter with brown sugar, clove and nutmeg to taste)
  • 1.5 oz. Belly Up Bourbon
  • Top with hot water
  • Stir
  • Garnish with cinnamon stick

BITTER TOM’S
LAKE ORION

  • 1 1/2 oz. Bitter Tom’s Bourbon
  • 1/2 oz. green charteuse
  • 1/2 oz. lemon juice
  • 1/2 oz. ginger syrup
  • 2 dashes orange bitters

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Top with fresh ice and garnish with a sprig of mint.

UP IN SMOKE
BY RICH LOCKWOOD,
MOTOR CITY GAS DISTILLERY

  • 4 oz. hot Ceylon black tea
  • 1.5 oz. Royal Oaked rye whiskey
  • .5 oz. buckwheat honey
  • .5 oz. fresh lemon juice
  • Light a fresh rosemary sprig on fire and drop it into an empty cocktail glass
  • Cover glass for 10 seconds to smoke the glass
  • In separate cocktail shaker stir hot tea and honey until dissolved, then mix in other ingredients and stir again
  • Pour into smoked glass over top of burnt rosemary

VALENTINE DISTILLING CO.
FERNDALE

  • 1 1/2 oz. (shot and a half) vodka
  • Fresh cucumber slices
  • Mint sprigs
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  • Soda water
  • Teaspoon of sugar

Pour vodka, cucumber and mint into a pint glass and use a muddler or the bottom of a heavy wooden spoon to crush everything together. Add ice and lime juice and shake. If you have a strainer, pour it through into a fresh glass with fresh ice and top with soda water. Garnish with mint sprig.

LAVENDER LEMONADE

  • 2 oz. Valentine vodka
  • 1 oz. lavender syrup (simple syrup simmered with lavender, then strained)
  • 1 oz. lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice then shake and strain over fresh ice in a short glass. Garnish with a lavender sprig or lemon wedge.

NAUTI TODDY
BY RICH LOCKWOOD,
MOTOR CITY GAS DISTILLERY

  • 1.5 oz. Royal Oaked rye whiskey
  • 1.5 oz. Geniévre syrup (water, Earl Grey tea and honey, to taste)
  • 1 oz. fresh cranberry juice
  • Top with hot water
  • Stir
  • Garnish with rosemary sprig and lemon wheel

 

MOTOR CITY GAS DISTILLERY
ROYAL OAK

  • 1 1/2 oz. of Motor City Gas, Belly Up Bourbon
  • 4-5 blackberries
  • 7-8 mint leaves
  • 3 oz. high-quality lemonade

In a rocks glass muddle blackberries, mint and bourbon. Add ice to rocks glass (fill to the top) and add lemonade to rocks glass (fill to the top or to taste). Pour contents of rocks glass into a shaker and shake for six seconds. Pour back into the rocks glass and garnish with a mint corona or lemon wheel.