While Long Island’s North Fork is known for its breweries and vineyards, its distilleries are also gaining traction, one being Matchbook Distilling Company, where spirits are in abundance. The appointment-only distillery, which distills gin, whiskey, and vodka, doesn’t sell cocktails but does offer recipes for guests to try at home.
“Sometimes the prudent move is to keep it simple,” says Chad Arnolt, head of development at Matchbook Distilling Company, located in Greenport, NY. “Everyone loves whiskey and ginger, the classic combination, an evergreen sipper. For this one I worked in a bit of locale with local ginger, local honey, and local whiskey made Out East at Matchbook.”
Greenport Buck’s ingredients include Metamodernity Cherry Wood Rye, which has notes of almond-cherry sponge cake soaked in cognac and is distilled at Matchbook Distilling Company, ginger honey, lime juice, and soda water topper.
To make the cocktail, combine lime, rye, and ginger honey (which can be made by chopping a few knobs of fresh ginger, throwing them into a blender, covering with honey, blending, and straining out the pulp) in a cocktail shaker with an ice cube and shake vigorously until the cube dissolves. Then, pour what’s left into a tall iced glass, and top with soda water.
He describes the cocktail as “a spicy ginger buck with a local twist.”
“Most whiskey bucks are made with any variety of ginger soda pop. Making your own really makes all the difference,” he says. “That, along with using young ginger, local and fresh. Finally, our cherry wood rye is made with malted rye smoked with cherry wood and finished in a barrel refurbished with local cherry wood, for that extra rich tannic pop.”
Matchbook Distilling Company is located at 230 Corwin St., Greenport. It can be reached at matchbookny.com or 646-879-8075.
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