It's Time To Start Pairing Pumpkin With Your Favorite Bourbon Cocktail

The summer season is coming to a close, and we're struggling to swat away our daydreams of cozy sweaters and hot toddies. We're looking forward to mixing up our cocktail routine this fall, and a nice bourbon and pumpkin cocktail seems like the perfect place to start. We recently had a chance to exclusively talk about the topic with Camille Wilson, Author of "Free Spirit Cocktails" and Content Creator of The Cocktail Snob.

We asked Wilson whether she thought a pumpkin syrup or a puree would work better. "I think a syrup is always the best way to impart a specific flavor into a cocktail," Wilson told Tasting Table. "That's because it's easy to control the intensity of the flavor and you can buy it at the store or make it at home."

Convenience and control are both good qualities in a bar ingredient, but that's not the only reason pumpkin syrup is a better choice. "Syrups, since they're lighter than purees, tend to combine better with other liquid ingredients." Getting the texture right is super important in cocktails since the mouthfeel can make or break your drink. While a creamy pumpkin puree cocktail does sound interesting, it's going to be much more difficult to get the puree to play nicely with the other ingredients compared to a pumpkin syrup. The easiest option would be to get something like a Torani syrup, though you can mix up a pumpkin spice simple syrup or even a pumpkin spice liqueur and still get all the flavors you're looking for.

Now that we have our ingredients, what should we make? "My vote would be for an Old Fashioned," said Wilson. "It's a classic cocktail that's easy to remix by substituting just one or two ingredients. And it's pretty easy." Easy sounds good to us, and we're always down for a nice spirit-forward sipper. "For the classic recipe," Wilson continued. "You can swap in pumpkin syrup for simple syrup." If your pumpkin syrup isn't sweet enough to fully replace the simple syrup, you could also pair your bourbon Old Fashioned with maple syrup on top of the pumpkin for a true fall favorite.

Not a big fan of the Old Fashioned? Not a problem. "I also think a pumpkin whiskey sour would taste great," Wilson exclusively told Tasting Table. "I think the sweetness of the pumpkin would complement the tartness of the lemon really well." It would be a similar setup here, where you substitute out the simple syrup for pumpkin syrup. If you're not getting the full pumpkin experience, consider boosting the pumpkin spice flavors with "spices like cinnamon, ginger, clove, and nutmeg."