Liquid Breakfast

No other holiday inspires more innovative drinking and alcoholic derring-do than St. Patrick's Day. But if car bomb cocktails and lime-colored beer aren't your speed, slow down this year with an inventive St. Patrick's Day cocktail that's meant to be enjoyed one sip at a time.

When asked by the 400-year-old Irish distillery Bushmills to create a cocktail inspired by the traditional St. Patrick's Day pairing of whiskey and eggs, Jackson Cannon–the mixologist at Boston's Eastern Standard–saw a chance to try out a new technique he's been experimenting with at the restaurant: infusing spirits with bread.

To do this, Cannon starts by pulverizing a piece of hearty wheat bread into a dram of whiskey. "It's amazing how quickly the whiskey attacks the bread and pulls out its flavors," he says. When the drink is shaken (for a long time) with an egg and orange juice, it becomes a frothy, breakfast-flavored concoction–and a perfect St. Patrick's Day eye-opener.

Bushmills in the Afternoon
Adapted from Jackson Cannon, Eastern Standard
Makes 1 drink

1/2 slice (about ¾-inch thick) of artisanal wheat bread
2 ounces Bushmills Irish whiskey
1 egg
1/2 ounce honey syrup (1 part honey dissolved in 1 part warm water)
1/2 ounce fresh orange juice
Dash of Reagan's Orange Bitters No. 6 (or other orange bitters)
Freshly grated cinnamon, for garnish
In a glass, muddle the bread with the whiskey for 1 minute, then pass the mixture through a tea strainer into a cocktail shaker, pressing on the bread to extract all of the whiskey (you should get about 1 1/2 ounces). Add the egg, honey syrup, orange juice and bitters and shake vigorously for 30 seconds. Fill the shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 30 seconds to 1 minute longer, until the drink is frothy and well-chilled. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a small pinch of freshly grated cinnamon.