The heck is a derby?

Well according to the interwebs, it's either an annual horse race for 3-year-olds (Google it), or a bowler hat. Neither of those sound like something I'm supposed to be putting in my mouth, but despite every assumption I've gotten from my dictionary deep dive, I did it anyways.

As it pertains to the cocktail world, the Brown Derby is a classic that's stood up to the test of time. Evidently that combination of bourbon, grapefruit and honey just exists so perfectly within this teeny tipple. I'd never had one before this episode and I can very easily see why this cocktail maintains its reputation!

To me, this tastes like powdered sugar, or one of those candy buttons that you get on the wax strips. I don't keep a lot of grapefruits for juicing, but after this cocktail I might as well keep some around. Out of all the citruses I've come in contact with, grapefruit has been one of my least favorites, but this combo might just turn me around. It provides a balanced bitterness and a slightly dry texture to the cocktail without pushing it off the deep end into active acids territory.

The bourbon I used for this one I picked up near my brother's place in Vermont. It's got a very light hint of maple syrup to it which melded together so well with the honey syrup.

I like this cocktail so much that I think I might just make it my default bourbon comfort drink so that I can test flavor components across different bottles and brands.

If you've had a Brown Derby before, I'm curious as to which bourbon or whisky you used and how it tasted. Feel free to reach out if you've got something that you're really hankering to recommend. I'm all ears!