Last Monday, I posted some recipes from Crown Royal for #MapleMonday. One was a lemonade, and the other was an iced tea.This week, I'm using those recipes as a starting place to create some new cocktails.
First, I revised the iced tea. I thought about using herbal tea or one of the many flavored teas I have - Maple Vanilla or Ginger Peach would have been good.
But I kept thinking about iced coffee.
I mean, really, doesn't that sound good? Iced coffee with maple ... mmmm. and a touch of cinnamon.
After all, I was supposed to twist their recipe, and changing the tea to coffee seemed like a logical twist, right? Well, I thought it was. So I proceeded.
I didn't think the orange garnish they used in the tea would work in the coffee, but I wanted to add just one more flavor to the party, so I added some almond extract to the whipped cream. It was perfect.
Maple Iced Coffee
Strong brewed coffee*, sweetened to taste, chilled
Almond-flavored whipped cream**
Cinnamon sugar
Cinnamon stick and/or sugar cane swizzle stick, for garnish
Fill a glass with ice. Add the Crown Royal Maple Finished Whisky, then add the coffee. Stir to combine. Add a dollop of whipped cream on top, then sprinkle the whipped cream with the cinnamon sugar.
Garnish with a cinnamon stick and/or a sugar cane swizzle stick.
Serve
*I used decaf, but regular coffee is fine, as well.
**There are flavored whipped creams available in cans, but I whipped my own cream with a little bit of powered sugar and just a touch of almond extract.
It's Not Lemonade
As much as I like lemonade or plain old orange juice, lately I've become quite fond of orange/pineapple/banana juice - it doesn't seem as acidic as plain orange juice, and the flavor is a little more complex. The first time I bought it, it was in a bottle in the refrigerated juice section, but lately I've been buying the frozen concentrated juice.If you can't find orange/pineapple/banana, a mix of orange and pineapple juice would make a good substitute.
So, when I got the lemonade recipe from Crown Royal for last week's post, I thought an interesting twist would be to use the orange/pineapple/banana juice instead. To be brutally honest, at first I wasn't quite sure if I'd like the combination of maple and orange, but then I realized that the two play together really well at the breakfast table, if you drink orange juice with your maple-syrup-covered pancakes.
This would be a great drink for a Sunday brunch - something different than the usual Mimosas or Bloody Marys. In a tall glass with a lot of ice, it would be great as a refreshing summer cocktail, too.
Adjust the amount of liquor to taste, and the size of the glass.
The Fruity Maple
1 ounce Crown Royal Maple Finished Whisky
Orange/pineapple/banana juice
Lemon slice, for garnish
Fill a glass with ice. Add the Crown Royal Maple Finished Whisky. Top with the juice to fill the glass. Stir, then garnish with the lemon slice.
Serve.
I received products from Crown Royal for making cocktails.
