The Minty Bourbon Cocktail That Deserves a Spot on Your Summer Menu

The Whiskey Smash, a vibrant classic cocktail consisting of bourbon, sugar, lemon and mint, should be part of any home bar’s menu, especially in the warm-weather months.

The Whiskey Smash is a very old cocktail. The exact story behind the creation of the Smash as a style of cocktail is nebulous, but in The Oxford Companion to Spirits and Cocktails, historian David Wondrich traces the cocktail category’s origins to the 1840s. Named after the act of muddling chunks of lemon, the Smash is closely related to the classic Julep, as evidenced by the use of fresh mint. Like many popular cocktails of this era, it was made with a variety of base spirits, with the most popular being Cognac, before being revived as a whiskey-based cocktail.

After the cocktail’s rise to prominence, its popularity peaked in the 1850s and then began to wane during the following decade. Well before Prohibition began, the Smash had nearly entirely fallen out of favor among bar patrons. According to Wondrich, the Whiskey Smash’s modern resurgence can be attributed to Dale DeGroff’s updated Whiskey Peach Smash.

Today, the Whiskey Smash is enjoyed as a simple, cool, fresh drink that offers slightly more complexity than a Mint Julep. The drink also provides a basic blueprint for muddling up any fresh fruit that might be lying around.

Why the Whiskey Smash works

Much like the sour, the Whiskey Smash relies on the tried and true formula of spirit, citrus, and sugar. In a cocktail, these flavors perfectly complement each other, and in the right measurements, create a balanced drink. Where the Whiskey Smash deviates from the sour’s formula is with the addition of muddled citrus and mint.

The difference between a good Whiskey Smash and a great one can be narrowed down to one thing: the quality of the ingredients. Since the drink derives so much of its flavor directly from whole ingredients, the freshness and ripeness of the lemon and mint make an outsized impact on the drink. Avoid using limp, scentless mint at all costs.

This simple and refreshing recipe is also tailor-made for experimentation. Try muddling blackberries or any other fresh fruit with the lemon in the first step. Any fresh, ripe fruit can be added to the Whiskey Smash to give it a pop of color and some added complexity.