The Fall Spices You're Overlooking In Your Bourbon Cocktails

Baking spices are often associated with the warming ingredients in classic fall desserts, from a pumpkin pie to apple cider donuts. They're also a crucial category of bourbon's tasting notes, making them a wonderful addition to bourbon cocktails. We interviewed cocktail expert Anton Kinloch, bartender at Lone Wolf and promoter for New York Bartender Week, who suggests considering flavors slightly outside of the most obvious fall flavors for your bourbon cocktails.

"When thinking about fall flavors, cinnamon and pumpkin are the defaults," says Kinloch, before asking, "But what about nutmeg, clove, ginger, allspice? These baking spices (when made as syrups) are incredibly potent and can easily be used in an existing cocktail template."

The spices Kinloch mentions are used in conjunction with cinnamon to blend into pumpkin puree for what is now the wildly popular pumpkin spice mix. Each spice will provide a unique flavor profile that a simple syrup will intensify. Heating the spices will bloom their flavors, while the sugar in simple syrup is a well-known solvent to draw out the flavors of the spices even more. You can follow our recipe for spiced simple syrup for any spice or blend you have in mind. Simply boil water and sugar, lower to a simmer, add whole spices, and simmer the syrup for 10 minutes. You may need a strainer to remove the spices; this set of Cuisinart strainers will come in handy for all sorts of kitchen jobs, as would these glass syrup dispenser bottles with various stoppers for storing your freshly made spiced syrup.

After you've made your spiced simple syrup, there's the question of which fall-inspired bourbon cocktails to make with them. You can turn to the classic bourbon cocktails first: Replace the sugar cube in this smooth old fashioned with a simple syrup infused with star anise, ginger, and cloves. Our recipe for spiced chai old fashioned takes a shortcut by using chai tea bags, containing many of the spices Kinloch recommends. However, you can easily switch them with your simple syrup infusion — or use both.

You can infuse a honey simple syrup with allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon to blend into a cozy hot toddy. Make a simple syrup with cardamom and ginger to sweeten a bourbon sour. Bourbon and apple cider is a tasty pairing that you could elevate in an apple bourbon smash made with apple cider, lemon juice, bourbon, and a spicy maple simple syrup infused with ginger, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. If you're set on a pumpkin pie-inspired bourbon cocktail, you can add pumpkin puree to a simple syrup spiced with allspice, ginger, clove, and nutmeg. Bitters of any kind will balance the sweet and spicy simple syrup as well as any sweet and tangy mixers like apple and citrus juices. For a decadent brunch cocktail, make bourbon milk punch using a nutmeg and maple simple syrup blended with vanilla extract, bourbon, milk, and heavy cream in a shaker.