The Mahatma Recipe
A ruby bourbon sour: grenadine for sweetness and colour, lime for bite, Peychaud's for a faint anise lift, dressed with dried roses and thyme.
- Category: Popular
- Glass: Martini glass
- ABV: 18%
- Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- Bourbon60 ml (2 oz)
- Grenadine22 ml (0.7 oz)
- Fresh lime juice22 ml (0.7 oz)
- Peychaud's bitters2 dash
How to Make It
- Add all ingredients to a shaker with ice.
- Shake hard until well chilled.
- Double-strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
- Garnish with dried rose buds and a sprig of thyme.
Garnish
Dried rose buds and a sprig of thyme
What it tastes like
The citrus acidity leads, fruit notes come forward and it carries a floral top note.
The technique
Shaking. Anything with juice, syrup, egg white or cream gets shaken: the shaker chills the drink and adds roughly 20% water, and that water is what takes the edge off. Twelve to fifteen seconds, until the tin frosts over. Under-shaking leaves the drink harsh because it never got enough dilution.
Glass and ice
The conical martini glass. Made for drinks served without ice — the stem keeps your hand off the bowl and the cone funnels the aroma upward.
Ingredient notes and substitutes
- Bourbon
- American whiskey made from at least 51% corn and aged in new charred oak. The corn gives sweetness, the barrel vanilla; swap in rye and the drink turns noticeably spicier.
- Grenadine
- Pomegranate syrup. Most supermarket bottles are dyed corn syrup with no pomegranate in them; reducing pomegranate juice with an equal weight of sugar takes ten minutes and changes the drink completely.
- Fresh lime juice
- Freshly squeezed lime. Bottled lime tastes cooked and flat; one lime gives about 30 ml. If you have none, half lemon and half grapefruit juice comes closest.
- Peychaud's bitters
- The New Orleans bitters — anise and rose, and red in colour. It is what a Sazerac tastes of, and swapping in Angostura makes it a different drink entirely.
The Story
A contemporary whiskey sour variation in the line of old grenadine-sweetened sours such as the Jack Rose.
Frequently asked questions
- How is a The Mahatma mixed?
- It is shaken and served in a martini glass.
- How strong is a The Mahatma?
- Roughly 18% ABV as served — in fortified-wine territory — plan it as a single drink.
- Can a The Mahatma be made without alcohol?
- Simply leaving the spirit out does not work — the body and the bitterness go with it. The 86 alcohol-free recipes in the catalogue are built to hit that balance from the start.
- Is a The Mahatma hard to make?
- Easy. No bar kit required — a measure, ice and a jar will do.
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Alcoholic drink recipes are intended for those aged 18 and over. Please drink responsibly.