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macadamia nuts + bourbon + lemon

Every year, my husband and I, along with our best couple friends, make a pilgrimage down to Frankfort and Louisville Kentucky for bourbon. We are about an 8 hour drive one way, but it’s absolutely worth it. My parents (who live much closer) drive down and join us for visiting distilleries, both new and familiar, as well as exploring the towns, sitting around fire pits and enjoying all Bourbon Country has to offer.

This is one of my favorite weekends of the year.

Obviously with bourbon in the flavor pairing, my first thought was a cocktail. Macadamia nuts presented the first challenge to that however. I do love making a fun simple syrup so I debated a macadamia simple syrup, bourbon and lemon juice for a twist on an old fashioned.

Then something in my brain made me wonder if there was a macadamia nut liqueur out there – AND THERE IS.

A bottle of Trader Vic's Macadamia Nut Liqueur, shaped like a droplet, featuring a dark amber liquid and a pirate emblem on the label.

Now, I live in a state with, let’s say, more antiquated liquor laws. If it isn’t carried at the state store, it’s not available for purchase unless you go online. Luckily for me, this is readily available on many websites and I was able to order myself a bottle! And then VERY impatiently wait for it.

This is probably a good time for a reminder that sometimes my first idea doesn’t pan out the way I tasted it in my head. Sometimes the second one doesn’t either and I end up rejecting an original recipe concept altogether. While my end goal is to only share the successful recipes with you all, it’s important to remember that failure is part of any journey. To find successes, sometimes we must fail. Even if I eventually deem myself to have enough experience to move out of “in training” and call myself a “flavor master”, the learning won’t stop. There will always be a new flavor combination to try, there will always be a surprise in how certain things work together.

One really fun aspect of learning this way is that the more I play with flavors and ingredients, the more it feels like I can predict the taste and balance before I create the dish. I will say that this can be a double-edged sword – if I create the dish in my head and then it DOESN’T turn out like I imagined, it can be either great or super disappointing.

A large bowl filled with round, pale-colored macadamia nuts.

I have to admit that this one started off as disappointing. I really thought I’d have a fun twist on an old-fashioned cocktail, with the macadamia nut liqueur adding just enough sweetness to balance out the heat from the bourbon and the sour hit of the lemon juice. Nope. Was it undrinkable? Also nope, but it wasn’t something I wanted to drink again. It also wasn’t something I wanted to share as a success for this combination of ingredients.

I eventually determined that the lemon juice felt like the ingredient that was out of line. I did a little brainstorming with my housemates (i.e, my husband, son and his fiancee) and we came up with trying a version that replaced the straight lemon juice with lemonade.

That choice completely transformed this cocktail for me! Now, instead of a heavier bourbon forward drink, I had a spiked lemonade with tropical notes that instantly transported me to our annual bourbon trip. I could so easily envision sipping this drink outside of a farmhouse distillery or sitting around a firepit after a fun day of seeing the sites.

A glass filled with a yellow drink containing ice, placed on a wooden table with water droplets around it. The glass has a green design featuring fish.

What kind of Bourbon? I went with one of our favorites for a simple mixed drink, which is Buffalo Trace. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an expert on bourbons or whiskeys, but I think Buffalo Trace has a great flavor base for building cocktails! For a mixed drink like this, I would keep it simple on the bourbon choice and not use a super expensive one – save those for sipping because the finer notes will be too hard to pick up on.

macadamia nuts + bourbon + lemon

Now it’s your turn! What would you make with this flavor combination? Tell me in the comments!