Happy Hour at the Glass Flamingo is a new series of cocktail recipes and ruminations from the backyard bar of longtime Sip contributor and senior spirits reviewer Brett Konen. After moving to Bellingham, Washington, in 2021, the garage in her new home provided enough space for the author to more fully indulge her passion for home bartending. The Glass Flamingo’s bar is an old door pulled from the garage rafters; repurposed paint cabinets house spirits and barware; a neon flamingo glows from the wall when cocktails are pouring, and the bar’s namesake lawn ornament greets newcomers at the entrance.
The cocktail: The Equinox
The Northwest flavors: Scratch Distillery Blackberry-Sage Liqueur (Edmonds, WA); Koenig Distillery Seven Devils Straight Bourbon Whiskey (Caldwell, ID); Scrappy’s Lavender or Aromatic Bitters (Seattle, WA); blackberries and sage, homegrown
What you’ll need:
1½ ounce bourbon, such as Koenig Distillery’s Seven Devils
1 ounce Scratch Distillery Blackberry-Sage Liqueur
½ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 dash Scrappy’s Lavender or Aromatic Bitters
One fresh (if summer) or frozen (if fall) blackberry, plus a small sprig of sage, to garnish
How it came to be:
Around the time of this year’s autumnal equinox — the official beginning of fall, and more broadly the barrier between summer and winter — I was naturally thinking about the transition between the seasons. It may have been still warm and glowing from the bountiful light and heat of summer, but as the days began to get shorter, I was already a little apprehensive about the coming darkness, too.
As light turns to dark, it’s all too easy to miss the point of perfect balance in the middle. But balance there is in the fall, and so this cocktail was developed to embody — and celebrate — the best of both worlds.
The star of the show is Scratch’s Distillery’s Blackberry-Sage Liqueur, which captures that balance with juicy blackberries picked just as summer itself is at its ripest, then coupled with the beguiling herbal notes of sage, that garden evergreen that always reminds me of those coziest of savory recipes eagerly pulled from the recipe box the moment the weather begins to turn brisk.
The autumnal equinox has long marked the second of three traditional harvest festivals, and corn is one of our key harvest staples — in fact, the full September moon is known across North America as the Corn Moon. (It is frequently also called the Harvest Moon, but this term actually technically applies to the full moon closest to the equinox itself, which can sometimes also occur in October.) The harvest festival heritage of the equinox is represented in this cocktail by the corn base of Koenig’s Seven Devils Straight Bourbon Whiskey, as well as by the spirit’s woodsy smokiness imparted by the barrel and reminiscent of a harvest bonfire.
Meanwhile, the fresh-squeezed lemon in this recipe remains stubbornly reluctant to let summer go; it recalls the easy-sipping lemonades of our longest summer days, and its color and brightness adds a little golden sunlight to the mix.
Finally, the bitters: This cocktail can be made in two ways, and I recommend choosing based on which side of the equinox you’re on. If you’re on the summer side, still with more daylight than darkness, keep it light and floral with a quick dash of Scrappy’s Lavender Bitters, the aromatics of which intermix entrancingly with the fresh sage. However, if you’ve surpassed the autumnal equinox and are officially headed in the direction of winter, as we are right now, add a dash of warming wintery spice with Scrappy’s Aromatic bitters — the author’s personal favorite preparation, which she’s chosen to take as a sign that she is readier for the coming darkness than she might have initially believed.
Whichever way you go, the end result will be sweet, rich, earthy and herbaceous, with a jewel-like plum color reminiscent of dusk — the perfect balance between light and dark, just like the occasion it’s named for.
How to make it:
1. Add all liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker, add ice, and shake thoroughly.
2. Strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube.
3. Spear the blackberry and sage sprig on a toothpick to garnish.
4. Enjoy, preferably accompanied by cozy harvest-season comfort food and friends.
