Ruby Lightning - Cocktail

About five or six years ago a friend and I went to check out avec. I showed up early and while I waited, I asked for a dealer's choice and the bartender made me this fantastic whiskey sour and port cocktail. I asked for the ingredients, but I had to recreate the proportions later. It's really refreshing and the sourness really cuts through the tannins and rich sweetness. I came up with the name Ruby Lightning because it had ruby port for the color, and the tartness reminded me of some sour candies that use themes of electricity to describe the taste. When I first told some friends about it, one of them told me that it sounded like a stripper's name. But also said at a good name for a cocktail should also pass as a stripper's name. 

It's become a tradition for me to make this drink each year around the time it starts to get warm. It's a great alternative to a whiskey sour. This drink gets me excited to enjoy longer days and warm weather.

Recipe: 1 cocktail

1.5 oz bourbon (Four Roses Small Batch)
0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
0.75 oz honey syrup*
scant 0.75 oz ruby port
lemon peel garnish (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a glass with ice and stir until chilled. As pictured, crush some ice and mostly fill a stemless champagne glass with ice. Pour the cocktail in and top the remaining with more crushed ice. Garnish with a lemon peel.

*To make this honey syrup. I mix equal parts water and honey by volume. Bring to a boil while occasionally stirring then cooled. When chilled, skim any foam that forms.