The Waverly Express - AskMen
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      The Waverly Express

      © Jim Beam

      The Waverly Express

      We Invented Your Go-To Fall Cocktail For You

      A little history with your buzz...

      This drink is about three weeks old. We decided to take a break this week from dusting off the hallowed cocktail recipe pamphlets of old and give you a freshly invented drink that is as delicious as it is devoid of claims to cocktail-historical authenticity. 

      We had some friends over the other week, ostensibly to carve up some pumpkins. (Some of us have kids. Also, pumpkin carving is a fun and mellow activity, especially with The Best of The Band playing on the beat-up ol' kitchen iPod dock), and decided to offer a "house drink" to our guests. Having a house drink means you appear the thoughtful host, and also means you don't have to have a wide variety of ingredients on hand. "Vodka soda" is not a house drink, by the way.

      Anyway, we live on Waverly Street, about a block away from the train tracks that run across town. It's nice; you can hear the train blow through a few times a day, and as that old son-of-a-gun Paul Simon so aptly said, everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance. The sound of a train about a block away can be kind of loud sometimes, but mostly it's atmospheric and pleasant.

      As I was figuring out the cocktail before anyone showed up, digging through the fridge looking for a fourth lemon to get us where we needed to be lemon-wise, a train passed by, crop-dusting the neighborhood with saudade as it went. 

      Ah, I thought for the three-thousandth time. I love that frigging train. So I decided to name the drink after it. The end!

      Hair-on-your-chest factor: 75/100

      This is a drink for everyone. The manliness factor is more or less moot when you're trying to be hospitable to all your guests in a relaxed fashion. Listen, I understand that bourbon is really best enjoyed on the rocks, while seated in a rocking chair, rocking a three-day beard and rocking out to Skynyrd. I agree with that, I've obnoxiously informed people of that, I'm guilty as charged of being that person. But everyone likes a tasty cocktail, even (especially!) jerks like me. 

      Fall is apple-cider season, and I recommend you get the murkiest, tangiest cider you can find. If it was made in a crude wooden press by an aggressively bearded hippie named Ezra, you are using good cider. If you can get it year-round in the juice section at Winn-Dixie, you can do a whole lot better. 

      Because cider is sweet and a bit overpowering in a drink, we recommend using a slightly overproof bourbon so you can really taste the booze. One of our favorites is Baker's 7 Year, which clocks in at 107 proof and tastes rich and approachable, all toasted nuts and silky smoothness. Autumn! Trains! Brown liquor! It's all coming together. 

      If you have a girlfriend who is obsessed with shabby-chic haute-barn living (basically, if you have a girlfriend, she is obsessed with this, just ask her and she'll explain it), feel free to use some rustic glassware like Mason jars. Otherwise, a rocks glass is fine. 

      Add a squeeze of lemon for a little acid, serve on ice, and get nostalgic for a past that probably never even existed. 

      Recipe: Waverly Express

      2 parts Baker's bourbon
      1 part fresh apple cider
      The juice of half a lemon

      Fill a rocks glass or jar with ice. Pour in bourbon, then cider, then lemon juice. Stir. 

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