Lost Lantern Gentle Giant Signature Cocktail: W.B. Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store
We’ve done something new for the launch of the Lost Lantern Single Distillery Series, which debuted on April 26th. For the first time, we’ve created specialty Lost Lantern cocktails themed around each release. But by “we,” we really mean “Drew created them.” Drew Record is our California state manager, and has deep experience in hospitality and as a mixologist (and bar owner and many other things besides). We are excited to share our first Lost Lantern specialty cocktails, and asked Drew to explain how each one came to be.
First up is the signature cocktail for Lost Lantern Gentle Giant Balcones Distilling Texas Single Malt: W.B. Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store. Now here’s Drew:
In the early 1880’s Dr Pepper’s Pepsin Bitters were being sold by Charles Alderton in Waco, Texas and by 1885 Dr. Pepper was being sold commercially as a soft drink, beating Coca-Cola by almost a year. So why would we take inspiration for a whiskey cocktail in a temperance drink? Because more than a few folks in Waco have been known to slip a bit of Whiskey into their Dr. Pepper and we thought why not? Our syrup is a blend of black plum, currants, ginger, pink peppercorn, molasses, and sarsaparilla. This is used to make a simple soda which complements the rich character of the Lost Lantern Gentle Giant, from Balcones Distilling… located in the heart of downtown Waco, just a few blocks from the Dr Pepper Museum.
Lost Lantern Gentle Giant Signature Cocktail: W.B. Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store
Some of my favorite cocktails of all time are the simplest ones. Think of the first drinks you ever ordered at a bar. It probably had two ingredients. Whichever spirit you wanted and some bubbly mixer, and that is probably how you called for it too. Think whiskey ginger, vodka soda, gin & tonic (gin tonic if you were ordering in Spain). Eventually you started branching out and getting things with three ingredients, or gasp, more. As cocktail menus began to look more like shopping lists at a fancy grocery store sometime in the early 2000’s, we saw bartenders playing with all sorts of flavor combinations. In exchange for this unfettered creativity though, we sacrificed quick ticket times.
I am sure you all have a memory of waiting on a mustachioed young man, painstakingly crafting your cocktail while you died of thirst listening to whichever suit and skinny tie wearing band was popular that week. I myself am guilty of indulging in some of the worst trends of the day and I deeply apologize to my former bar teams for how many things they had to fresh muddle and how many bottles they had to pick up to make a single drink. As I realized that you didn’t have to give up efficiency in order to present unique flavors, much of the prep started moving to the kitchen. Ingredients got combined. Batches were made. Steps were simplified for the bartender. Making a complex syrup could take hours behind the scenes, but the resulting cocktail only seconds.
W.B. Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store: The Story
In that vein, when I started creating a cocktail for Lost Lantern Gentle Giant, I wanted to create a delicious syrup that was reminiscent of our favorite Waco soda pop, but using a bunch of fresh ingredients.
Whenever we developed a new recipe at my last bar, we broke it down into a base recipe and then its variations. We wanted to ensure that it could be consistently replicated for the life of that cocktail (which would remain on the menu for 6 months until the next menu came out) and also give us a base to experiment from as we looked for the best way to present the flavors we had imagined in our crazy development meetings. Because of this we had some great formulas to start with and would then start tweaking from there.
I know not every kitchen is stocked with the same pantry and I don’t want you to have to buy a bunch of different stuff to try and make this syrup. What I would rather do is give you a jumping off point and then allow you to mix and match your way to your favorite cocktail. Below you’ll find a basic spiced plum syrup and then I’ll explain how I eventually reached my favorite Dr. Pepper-inspired syrup.
W.B. Morrison’s Old Corner Drug Store
Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
2 ounces Lost Lantern Gentle Giant Balcones Distilling Texas Single Malt
3/4 ounce *Spiced plum syrup
3-4 ounces soda water
Steps:
- Combine Lost Lantern Gentle Giant and syrup in a cherished highball glass and stir.
- Fill the glass with ice. Top with soda water, stir to combine.
- Garnish with a dried plum, currant, cherry, or even a saladito.
Spiced Plum Syrup
Yield 14-16 ounces. Keep refrigerated for up to a week’s use.
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
½ cup molasses
4 plums, chopped
1 cup prune juice
1 cup plum wine – can substitute any cooking wine you have; remember this is a choose your own adventure
1 tablespoon plum wine vinegar – can substitute white wine or champagne vinegar
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 cinnamon sticks
½ tablespoon whole pink peppercorns – if using black or white peppercorn reduce to ½ teaspoon
1 pinch salt
Notes:
A note on substitutions in the base recipe: think about the flavors you’re working with before you make the swap. Plum wine is highly aromatic, but dry. So when you substitute a cooking wine you already have, what is going to match? Something floral like a pinot grigio would be good here, also a nice dry rosé could work as well. For vinegar we usually have a lot more options in our pantry. I would use the vinegar you like the best for a fresh spring salad. While you aren’t necessarily going to taste the vinegar in the final syrup, that brightness and acid is crucial to helping balance all those sweet things you added. If you tend to like things a bit on the more acidic side then feel free to add an extra tablespoon, especially if you are using your favorite champagne vinegar or something truly special. If you can’t find pink peppercorns, use black or white. Just use less of them. You want it to be Dr Pepper, not Dr PEPPER.
Steps:
- Combine all ingredients in a large pot (the same one you’d use to make grandma’s gravy recipe for Sunday supper) and stir until sugar dissolves.
- Bring to a low boil and then reduce heat to low, stirring frequently.
- Reduce liquid by about a third or until the syrup coats the back of a spoon. As the syrup reduces make sure you increase the frequency of stirring. Remember the chance for burning a syrup increases the less liquid volume is in the pot.
- Remove from heat, strain through a mesh filter and discard cinnamon sticks and peppercorns
- For a smoother syrup texture blend mixture and strain solids, repeating desired texture achieve
As you’ll see above, we added quite a bit to the above spiced plum syrup to get our final Dr Pepper flavor but don’t let the ingredient list scare you. This is really a chance to be playful. Build your base syrup first and taste as you go. You might love it just as it is. Great!