Missouri Mule

 I am currently making roast chicken with roasted carrots & onions plus some sauteed spinach.  Having used the zest of one lemon to make an herb butter to roast the chicken with I got ambitious and decided to search kindred cocktails for a drink using Lemon Juice and Bourbon.  The result? The Missouri Mule

Apparently created for President Truman the drink is named after his home state and the Democrat's mule mascot.

Missouri Mule

3/4 oz Bourbon (Bulleit)
3/4 oz Laird's Apple Brandy
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Cointreau
Shake then serve up in a chilled glass

The resulting cocktail smelled predominantly of campari & lemon and those were the main things i tasted in the drink.  Sweet cointreau, lemon juice and campari all worked to hide the bourbon and applejack in the background.  This made the drink rather monotonic in my opinion, and while a refreshing summer or fall cooler to be sure, my own tastes harken towards stronger or bitter-er drinks.  I added a tad bit of bourbon after tasting the concoction and that helped a bit.  If i ever make this again I most certainly will experiment with adding various bitters to small samples.

Summation is that this is an interesting drink that balances campari lemon juice and triple sec well which is fortified with bourbon and applejack.  I most certainly will try it again, but some tinkering is needed next time.