Skip to main content

Get ready for Labor Day weekend with these crowd-pleasing whiskey cocktails

Three whiskey cocktails, from an alternative spritz to a cherry sour

autumn The White Mountain
The White Mountain Area Claire Gentile/Getty Images

As Labor Day weekend marks the end of summer and the beginning of fall, now is the time to get out your darker spirits. Many people like to enjoy lighter drinks in the summertime, with plenty of spritzes and bubbly concoctions. And for winter, you’ll want something hearty and warming. But coming into this transition period, it’s a good excuse to get a bit experimental with your cocktails.

Why not keep the last of the summer vibes with a spritz, but embrace the incoming fall by making it a bourbon spritz rather than an Aperol one? And now is a great time to get out your whiskeys and to try out drinks like a cherry sour or a bourbon Gold Rush.

Recommended Videos

Below we’ve got three whiskey cocktails perfect for fall, from the brands Maker’s Mark, Jos. A. Magnus & Co., and Fox & Oden.

Bourbon Spritz

Maker’s Mark

Ingredients:

  • 1 part Maker’s Mark Bourbon
  • 1 part Aperol aperitif
  • ¾ part of freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • Splash of simply Syrup
  • Prosecco
  • Orange Peel

Method:

Fill a wine glass with ice and layer in Maker’s Mark, Aperol, lemon juice and syrup. Top with Prosecco and garnish with an orange peel.

Cherry Whiskey Sour

Fox & Oden

Ingredients:

Method:

Combine Fox & Oden bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup, and cherry juice in a cocktail shaker with 5-6 cubes of ice. Shake well until combined. Strain out the ice and return the cocktail to the cocktail shaker without ice. Add egg white and shake as vigorously as possible for an entire minute to build foam. Pour slowly into a coupe glass.

Honey Bourbon Gold Rush

Jos. A. Magnus & Co.

Ingredients:

Method:

Stir honey and water in a cocktail shaker until the honey is dissolved. Add bourbon and lemon juice. Shake and strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with a lemon slice and cherry.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet is a cocktail enthusiast based in Berlin, with an ever-growing gin collection and a love for trying out new…
We’re loving these fancy non-alcoholic cocktails from Death & Co
See how one leading cocktail bar is embracing Dry January
non alc cocktails death co pineapple express  2

With the first week of the new year already passed by, lots of people are settling into Dry January. It's become a trend for people to forgo alcohol for the first month of the year (following a typically over-indulgent holiday period) and increasing numbers of people are choosing not to drink at all.

But ditching alcohol doesn't mean you have to give up on enjoying cocktails. These recipes from New York cocktail bar Death & Co show some of the creative ways that you can enjoy non-alcoholic drinks, from using NA spirits like Seedlip, to making use of cold brew coffee concentrate and interesting flavored syrups. Fans of the espresso martini, negroni, and gin and tonic who are looking for a non-alcoholic alternative for Dry January or beyond will appreciate these options!
Pineapple Express

Read more
Make non-alcoholic versions of these classic cocktails for Dry January
Iconic cocktails, minus the alcohol
cherry-gin-cocktail

If you're doing Dry January this year then you don't just have to stick to water and sodas all month -- you might want to look into some of the options available for non-alcoholic cocktails too.

While there are plenty of great drinks options which use ingredients like fruit juices, shrubs, and sodas, one great option for the cocktail lover is to look into non-alcoholic spirits. Options like Fluère Spiced Cane, a rum alternative, or Damrak Virgin, a gin alternative, are distilled to have the flavor and drinking qualities of a spirit but without the alcohol. That makes it dead easy to swap these into classic cocktails, so you can enjoy a classic drink without the booze.
Non-Alcoholic Fluère Espresso Martini

Read more
Brighten up the dark nights with these colorful winter cocktails
Enjoy some rosy colors in these dark months
colorful winter cocktails disaronno pink velvet3

Part of the fun of making cocktails is creating something which not only tastes good, but which looks good too. Adding the right garnish or using the right glassware for a drink will help enhance its flavors and scents, but it's also a nice way to create a feeling of luxury, or of enjoying something special. And with the cold, dark months of winter here, it's nice to brighten up your evening with a colorful cocktail. That doesn't mean you need to mix neon creations reminiscent of the 80s, but using ingredients like deep red cranberry juice or a red bitter aperitif like Campari, or even a fun red candy cane as garnish, can add a note of visual interest to your drinks as well as enhancing the flavor.
Sagamore Spirit Winter Mule

Ingredients:

Read more