Chai Ginger Old Fashioned

Over Thanksgiving, my oldest and his girlfriend were here and I had batched up some of these and they were great to have in the fridge ready to go.

These really are delicious!

Chai Whiskey/Bourbon

I started with a 1.75 of Wild Turkey bourbon for this batch. I poured it into a half gallon mason jar and added 8 chai tea bags, about 8 cardamom pods, 6 star anise, a tablespoon of whole cloves, and 8 cinnamon sticks. I grated about 3/4 tsp of fresh nutmeg into it as well.

I shook the jar vigorously several times and then I used a fine mesh strainer to remove the tea and spices. I then poured in back into the bottle it came out of.

Ginger Simple Syrup

This is a standard simple syrup–1 part water to 1 part sugar. I used brown sugar instead of white sugar, but you can do whichever you prefer. For what I am showing here, I used 3 cups of each and then I chopped up my freshly washed and trimmed ginger root and added it to the still hot liquid. I let it steep for about an hour and strained the ginger out with a fine mesh strainer. Here is how much ginger I used:

For this drink, I used the Aromatic Bitters by The Bitter Bottle (maventable.com). This pulls the drink together into something magical and I highly recommend!

To make a drink:

2 oz infused whiskey

1/2 oz ginger simple syrup (or to taste)

2 good dashes of bitters

Orange Peel

Maraschino Cherry (optional)

Stir and pour over ice. Express an orange peel into the drink and drop the peel in. Garnish with a maraschino cherry if desired.

The infused whiskey would also be delicious with a ginger beer if you wanted a less boozy cocktail.

I gave a bottle of the prebatched old fashioned to a friend as a birthday gift–so cute!