Saturday Swally - Jack Julep

I am going to call this feature 'Saturday Swally'...

What is a swally you may be asking if you are not from Scotland?! Well, swally is a Scottish word for alcohol drinking, coming from swallow I assume. Check the ‘official’ dictionary definition.

The people at Jack Daniel’s got in touch recently and asked if I would like to try making a cocktail with their famous sour mash whiskey. It involved alcohol, so I of course accepted the challenge.

Over at the Jack Daniel's website there are lots of recipes to try with the drink – which would I choose?

I could have gone for a very straight-forward Jack and Coke, or a quite elaborate Lynchbourg Lemonade which sounds very refreshing.

However, I opted for a Jack Julep, made with a few sprigs of mint and a simple syrup to sweeten things up. I love minty drinks, such as mojito, so mixing Jack and mint I knew would be a great taste experience.

I had never made a simple syrup before and I was delighted to see it was, well simple! Boiling equal parts of water and granulated sugar, until the sugar dissolves, then letting it cool couldn’t be easier.

I poured my syrup into a server I usually use for keeping maple syrup for my pancakes, but this was a perfect vessel to keep it stored in the fridge.

When I was ready to make the drink, I muddled together the mint and simply syrup in the bottom of a couple of short glasses. I used the pestle from a pestle and mortar set (I think it’s the pestle, anyone know which is which?) and piled the glass high with crushed ice.

I poured my Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 over the ice and garnished with extra mint. I plunged in my straws and took a sip. I got a bit of sweetness, a bit of mint and of course, the excellent taste of Old No.7 coming through. This was a well-deserved drink on a Friday evening after a long week at work.

If you would like to follow this recipe, I used a tablespoon of the simple syrup with 4 tablespoon of Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7. The amount of mint is purely down to taste, but I used a few leaves in mine.

If anyone else would like to send me alcohol for my Saturday Swally spot – then I certainly have no objections!!

Please drink responsibly.

Disclosure Statement: I have received payment for this post and money to cover the cost of ingredients. Any opinions expressed are my own.