Recipe: The Thanksgiving Boulevardier

Searching for an aperitif to round out that fantastic Thanksgiving dinner you have been planning?  Try this twist on the Boulevardier, a classic cocktail based on the Negroni, but with whiskey instead of gin as the base spirit.

The traditional Boulevardier recipe calls for 1 1/2 ounces of bourbon and an ounce each of Campari and sweet vermouth.  But Thanksgiving can involve more drinks than the average meal so I dialed back the bourbon just a touch to 1 ounce.  I also replaced the sweet vermouth with Kina l’Aero d’Or (more on this fantastic aperitif wine here).  And I added 1/4 ounce of lemon juice to balance out the sweetness just a touch.  Stir these ingredients together, strain into a rocks glass, express a lemon peel and add the peel as garnish, and you get something like this:

A post shared by Geoffrey Wyatt (@capitalcocktails) on Nov 22, 2017 at 5:01am PST

The cocktail works nicely as a Thanksgiving aperitif because the tangy flavors of Campari and lemon combine in a way that pleasantly previews the cranberry sauce to come.  And as noted above, the drink isn’t so strong that you could not have a couple of them if the dinner takes a little bit longer to get to the table than anticipated, as is often the case at Thanksgiving.

Here is the recipe:

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Thanksgiving Boulevardier

Looking for the perfect Thanksgiving aperitif?  Try this twist on the classic Boulevardier cocktail to round out that fantastic dinner you have planned.

Course Drinks

Cuisine Spirit-Forward

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 5 minutes minutes

Servings 1 cocktail

Calories 245kcal

Author Geoffrey Wyatt

Ingredients

• 1 oz. bourbon I used E.H. Taylor
• 1 oz. Campari
• 1 oz. Kina l'Aero d'Or quinquina
• 1/4 oz. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• lemon peel

Instructions

• Combine the bourbon, Campari, quinquina and lemon juice with ice in a mixing glass and stir.
• Strain into a rocks glass.
  
• Add a large ice cube.
• Express lemon peel over the glass and add the peel as garnish.
  

Happy Thanksgiving!