Ah, the sweet taste of vindication! Just a few months ago, Carlos was razzing me about the bacon-infused vodka I made, joking that if he got mixed up with this stuff he probably would not be let back into his favorite bar in Chicago. Then–lo and behold!–the latest issue of a cocktail magazine he gets shows up on his doorstep, with a feature article about drinks from bacon-infused bourbon!

A quick internet search turned up these other bacon-flavored drinks out there.

PDT in NYC has a has an Old Fashioned on their menu with bacon-infused bourbon.

Jimmy’s Cocktail Hour website has a similar Old Fashioned he calls “pig in a bucket.”

Meanwhile, the future of bacon-infused cocktails is being written by Canadian-born Jamie Boudreau, who has been hailed as a “molecular mixologist,” but who call himself instead the “cocktail whisperer.” On his website, spiritsandcocktails.com, he serves up a Bohemian Cocktail that pairs cherry cordial and cherry bitters with bourbon infused with bacon that was smoked over cherry wood (pictured). According to the the Seattle Times, the new three-page drink menu at the bar Tini Bigs, where he currently mixes it up, “features bacon-infused bourbon with chocolate finished off with an orange twist that was lit under a lighter to bring out a ’smokey orange’ flavor.”

Yes, next on my agenda is making some of my own bacon-infused bourbon! Can you imagine? The bacon is used to make the bourbon that’s then used to make the bacon that’s used to make the bourbon . . . in a continuous cycle. If I keep this up, both bourbon and bacon will be able to trace their ancestry to this first batch in January 2009. In reference to recent events that may come close to this in their ability to contribute to the happiness and wellbeing of humanity, maybe I’ll christen this my 2009 Inaugural Bacon and 2009 Inaugural Bourbon. Sounds a little classier than Obama Bacon or Obama Bourbon.

Update 1/28/09: A little more searching around the internet on the subject of “fat washing” (no, this is not something you do at a spa or in a washing machine) turned up other infused liquors: Don Lee at PDT also makes a rum infused with hot buttered popcorn. I say lay that on for the next Ebertfest!

Tags: bacon, bourbon, cocktail, infusion

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 9:02 am and is filed under Drinks, Feature, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.