How to: Make Cheap Bourbon Taste Like a Million Bucks

By simply accenting the varietals in bourbon with similar ingredients you can easily move a bottom shelf brand up a level. All you need is three simple ingredients!

I stumbled across this genius idea over on Food52 where they take a turn at Cook’s Illustrated’s Kitchen Hacks. All you need are three ingredients you most likely have on hand: vanilla extract (to mimic the vanillin in oak barrels), liquid smoke (to hint the charred barrel) and sherry (to add a more flavorful body). Sound simple enough right? Read the entire piece and see their results after testing it in a few cocktails over at Food52.

The ultimate test will be to see if you can impress/trick your friends when you pull our a decanter and not tell anyone where it came from. What do you think? Would it work?