Head to the Silver Dollar Saloon at The Ranch at Rock Creek to quench your thirst with a classic cocktail.
The Grand Fashioned
½ lime
½ blood orange, peeled and quartered
3 dashes Angostura bitters
2 ounces Grand Marnier
In a cocktail shaker, squeeze juice from lime. Add the orange quarters, and muddle together. Pour in Angostura bitters and Grand Marnier. Shake and strain into a glass with ice. Garnish with a blood orange wheel.
Pintler Punch
Named after the Pintler Mountain Range near the ranch’s southern border, Pintler Punch is all about balance — between salty and sweet, bubbly and still. The perfect thing for a parched cowpuncher after a day of riding the Montana range.
1 orange slice
4 basil leaves
1½ ounces Neversweat Bourbon with muddled peaches
Juice from ½ lemon
2 ounces iced tea
¼ ounce agave nectar
Fill a rocks glass with ice. Muddle the orange slice and three basil leaves in your cocktail shaker. Add peach-infused bourbon, lemon juice, and iced tea. Measure ¼ ounce agave nectar, or 1½ teaspoons. Cover the shaker and give it all you’ve got. Strain over ice and garnish with a basil leaf.
* To serve straight up, add ice to the glass and shaker. Toss the ice from the glass before you strain the cocktail.
Homestead Hot Toddy
This drink is filled with exceptional ingredients, a touch of history, and some local charm.
1½ ounces Montana whiskey
1 ounce Montana honey
2 lemon wedges
4 ounces hot water
1 cinnamon stick
There are several Montana distilleries producing top-notch whiskey. For this traditional hot beverage, we’d pour 1½ ounces of Pure Malt Roughstock Whiskey or Headframe Neversweat Whiskey into our toddy mug. Add 1 ounce of Montana honey. We love Kate’s Honey from nearby Hall, Montana, produced by honeybees that gather pollen from wildflowers and clover on pastures throughout Granite County. It’s a staple in The Ranch at Rock Creek’s Mercantile and Saloon. Add 4 ounces of hot water and squeeze in 2 lemon wedges. Stir and garnish with a cinnamon stick.
Read our feature on The Ranch at Rock Creek in the October 2015 issue.