What You’ll Find Inside: Spring Issue 2024

Happy summer, spirits lovers. I hope you like cocktails because we are leaning in hard on the art of concocting luscious libations. First, we’re taking classic whiskey cocktails and arming you with creative—and delicious—substitute spirits for when the bourbon runs dry. (Heaven, help us.) In our special edition of “What I’m Drinking,” travel-and-spirits writer Brad Japhe shares three secret-menu whiskey cocktails from iconic bars across the world.

Next, we’ve got a spritz, a smash, and a julep-Collins mashup—all brimming with the fruits of summer: blackberries, blood oranges, and, as our cover reveals, watermelon. Our resident whiskey-pairing writer, G. Clay Whittaker, takes one for the team, experimenting through a few watermelons to get to some winning flavor profiles. So get your shakers, jiggers, and bar spoons ready, folks.

And if you’re going to throw a party with your new cocktails, consult our bourbon-spiked summertime grilling guide for party-fare ideas, from a bourbon burger and a bourbon-mango barbecue chicken to bourbon-glazed salmon and a bourbon-caramel grilled pineapple dessert.

There’s more food in Huntsville, Alabama, as well as cocktails, culture, and, of course, space—space camp, space thrill rides, space history, and space crafts and artifacts at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center; space-themed parks and breweries; and, of course, the home of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. They don’t call it Rocket City, USA, for nothing. Next, we tour other cities, small towns to be exact, and explore how their distilleries have acted as engines of economic and cultural growth. Bourbon has a similar impact on people, cultivating relationships and community— three members of BIG Bourbon Club share their personal stories, and four veterans from four branches of the military share their mission to positively impact the post-service experience for their military brothers.

And while bourbon may change people, people also change bourbon. We introduce you to two incredible women who have put their own unique marks on the spirit: LeNell Camacho Santa Ana, proprietor of LeNell’s Beverage Boutique, curator of Black Unicorn Whiskey, and the focus of this issue’s “A Day in the Life” column is a legendary spirit in her own right. While Nancy “The Nose” Fraley’s preternatural tasting and nosing abilities are highly sought-after. Her portfolio of clients is a veritable guidebook for the informed whiskey connoisseur.

We hope this issue of Bourbon+ accompanies you to the beach, your backyard grill, and your at-home bar, earning the badges of sand in the binding and pages crinkled from smoky heat and dotted with colorful drops of new cocktail flavors—a well-loved issue for your vivacious summer adventures.

Cheers to summer!

Cover Photo by Stephen DeVries
Prop Styling by Katie DeLoach; Food Styling by Loren Wood

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