Lynchburg Lemonade

Inspiration for cocktail tastings sometimes comes in mysterious but obvious ways. For example, for this post I was inspired twofold. One by a picture of a beautiful statuesque woman holding a bottle to her pouting lips. As she did so, she placed a passionate caress on the side of the bottle with her full lips. Here's I'm thinking what a lucky guy that bottle was. The second piece of inspiration is the following painting below. As you can see from the painting, the spirit is good old number 7 itself: Jack Daniel's.

Photo Courtesy of FaceOfInsane

So for this post I've decided to make a classic Jack Daniel's drink known as the Lynchburg Lemonade. Here is the recipe:

Lynchburg Lemonade
1 part Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7
1 part triple sec
1 part sour mix
4 parts lemon-lime soda

Combine and stir. Garnish with a lemon slice and cherry.

Disregard the reddish hue that it seems to have. The cherries seem to have been a bit saturated with juices that they have seemed to change the color of the cocktail. Upon tasting it I found it to be a bit sweet until I squeezed the lemon into the drink. The lemon seemed to stabilize the flavor profile of the drink. It was very light with a little zest sneaking up on me due to the Jack. I made one for Mayor Kahuna the other day and he thoroughly enjoyed it. It got me to thinking. I wondered if making the Lynchburg Lemonade with some other similar ingredients would yield a slightly different cocktail. Here is the one that I made at home:

Lynchburg Lemonade (Sisco Style)
1oz Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7
1oz Grand Marnier
1oz homemade Sweet and Sour
Diet 7-up to fill

Combine over ice and stir.

The Grand Marnier gave it a bit of a different sweetness as opposed to using just the Triple Sec. It has a somewhat richer and fuller taste. I find that it works well with the Jack Daniel's. The homemade sweet and sour also gives it a bit of a different tartness that the sour mix on the gun gave it. The homemade version had a natural taste that didn't require a lemon squeeze as in the first cocktail. I prefer the second one I made just because it doesn't taste artificial though I wouldn't say no to an original Lynchburg Lemonade on a hot and balmy day.

What do you think folks. The first? The second? Both? Neither one? Let me know.

Until The Happy Drinking,
Sisco Vanilla