Bourbon Cooler

From the look of this drink, you really have no way of telling how it tastes. It looks juicy and that you're likely to get a cranberry or sloe gin sweetness. Actually the Bourbon Cooler is pretty spicy and dry. This comes from it being mainly a Bourbon & Soda with dashes of orange bitters and peppermint schnapps. It all adds up to a more intensified bourbon flavor, with the peppermint and baking spices of orange bitters accentuating what bourbon already tastes like.

Even after sipping a while, it is hard to fathom this cocktail. Why the pineapple spear? Why is is pink? That's grenadine, by the way. But why? Coolers, as the category goes, are a loose form of highball drink that usually has a small component of peppermint schnapps to give you that chilly afterbreath. They almost always have soda in them as well. The pineapple spear reminds me of the Japanese Fizz, and there is something to taking an American whiskey and making it seem more exotic in a cocktail. That's what the Tiki movement is all about, after all.

• 3 oz. bourbon
• 1/2 oz. grenadine
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 3-5 dashes peppermint schnapps
• 3-5 dashes orange bitters
• sparkling water
• pineapple spear

Combine all ingredients except pineapple in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled Collins glass. Top with soda and stir gently. Garnish with the pineapple spear.