A Bright Beacon Of Bourbon — The Kentucky Sunshine

I promised to post two bourbon cocktails this month because September is National Bourbon Heritage Month. So here we go …… the Kentucky Sunshine comes from Marvin Allen, a respected bartender at the Carousel Bar in New Orleans.  I discovered this drink while reading his book Magic In A Shaker.

The Kentucky Sunshine

2 ounces bourbon (you’re using some from Kentucky, right?)
Juice from 1/2 lemon
.5 ounces agave syrup or nectar
1 egg white
3-4 dashes chocolate bitters (I used Bittered Sling)

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker without ice, shake with the energy of a solar flare, add ice, shake again, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Finding agave syrup or nectar shouldn’t be hard.  I got some at Trader Joe’s.  Finding the bitters could be tough.  They are not indispensable to the drink, but they will enhance it.

Doesn’t this combination of ingredients seem bizarre?  I certainly thought so when I read the recipe.  However, having met Marvin Allen, I put my liver in the hands of a cocktail magician.  Regardless of what the weather is really like,  in the words from the Jimmy Cliff tune, once you have this cocktail it will be a bright, bright, bright sunshiny day (now the photo caption makes sense, doesn’t it?).