1 teaspoon molasses

1 tablespoon hot water

2 oz Kentucky bourbon

Ice

4 oz club soda

a pinch of ground clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg

Stir molasses and hot water together to make an ad hoc simple syrup.

Add bourbon, swirl.

Hold up to light, and experience anxiety at the brown color, turbidity, and lack of transparency. If lucky, note slight greenish tinge.

Add ice.

Fill glass with club soda, and add pinches of spice.

Drink!

—

Inspired by an upper-south molasses cookie that I recall as a ‘lilypad’ and which I associate with a childhood visit to Mount Vernon. Which, I know, is in Virginia.

We ended up not being able to go to a friend’s Derby party, which bums me out a little, having donned the white linen and all. One hopes this might well make up for it.

It strikes me that this can also be made most profitably with rum. Note that the spices and liquors involved were all readily available staples of the day over 200 years ago. As you drink it, you may experience symptoms of time travel.