Gold Rush

The Gold Rush was first created at New York City's late and famous bar Milk & Honey in the early 2000s at the height of the craft cocktail boom. Its immense success and rapid globalization has led many a drinker to assume that it has been around since the pre-Prohibition years, when it in fact is merely a modern-classic drink. Bartenders during this time were freely pouring and experimenting with newly available liqueurs, alternate base spirits were swapped into classics, and the sacred rules of cocktail making were being broken all the time.

The Gold Rush is a very simple drink composed of bourbon, honey syrup and fresh lemon juice. It’s a Whiskey Sour with honey in place of sugar, and also a variation on the classic Bee’s Knees cocktail, but one that uses bourbon rather than gin. As in many other cocktails, this demonstrates the looseness with which cocktail families and variants develop over time. Although any bourbon can be used, a moderately aged cask would be ideal - the slight oakyness compliments the honey without being too overpowering.