Mixing cocktails, making friends at Bullock

Cocktail-making class at The Bullock Distillery in Charleston, WV

West Side distillery offers fun monthly class, happy hour

Looking to shake up my evening routine, I accepted a last-minute invite to join friends for a cocktail-making class at The Bullock Distillery at 121 W. Washington St. in Elk City last Thursday night.

Not only did I get to learn how to make – and then subsequently enjoy – three creative cocktails, but I also walked away with a few new friends and a nugget of news for you. (More on that in a minute!)

Mixing my own cocktail at The Bullock Distillery

For those who don’t know, Bullock hosts a monthly cocktail class where participants can sign up to tour the distillery in the back and then mosey up to their own individual bar setup in the distillery’s gorgeous storefront.

Once there, Bullock mixologist Royce Tanner guides the group as she explains how to make the evening’s three specialty cocktails. After each demo, they’ll pass around all necessary ingredients so each person can mix their own drink, following the take-home recipe cards provided.

With your own libation in hand, you can then sip it while chatting with others in the class and snacking on hors d’oeuvres like cheeses, meats, crackers and mini cupcakes, in our case.

Each month’s class features three “never before seen” cocktails, and here are the custom creations we made that night:

• Johnny Jump Up: an intensely flavored gin cocktail blending aromatic blackberry sage simple syrup with bright lemon juice and lavender bitters
  

• The Honey Bee: a crisp and floral interpretation of a citrusy Bees Knees made with vodka, honey lavender syrup, lemon and lavender bitters
  

• Forsythias: a smoky-sweet take on a classic Old Fashioned built with bourbon, banana bread syrup and black walnut bitters served in a toasted walnut-smoked rocks glass

Toasting our Honey Bees at The Bullock Distillery

While I enjoyed all three drinks, one of the highlights for me was getting to take the recipe cards home so I can now perfect them to my own individual taste.

For example, I loved the blend and balance of flavors in the Johnny Jump Up and Forsythias, but both were too sweet for me. (I’ll cut the flavored syrups down in my modified versions.) The Honey Bee is already an excellent cocktail – and was most people’s favorite of the night – but I’m dying to add an egg white to better bring together its sweet-tart notes and add that gorgeous creamy froth on top.

I can already see these tweaked drinks becoming part of my at-home repertoire, plus I got to enjoy an evening of education, food, drinks, friends and fun for $50. That’s a steal of a deal in my book.

For more information on upcoming classes, check out the contact information included at the end of this column.

Bullock Distillery also offers daily Happy Hour

While I knew about Bullock’s monthly cocktail classes, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the distillery also serves its own lineup of impressive craft cocktails prepared with spirits and other ingredients made or grown right on site.

Everyone gets their own bar setup

I mistakenly thought its storefront was just a place to buy spirits and merch, but you can now grab a seat at the bar to enjoy a drink or two there as well.

Even better, any cocktail, 2-ounce spirit pour or spirit flight is $2 off during happy hour, which runs from 5 p.m. to close Monday-Saturday.

While I love sipping Bullock’s award-winning Karst Water Select Straight Bourbon Whiskey (alone in a rocks glass, nothing but the truth) cocktails are definitely your play here.

You can’t go wrong with a traditional Sazerac, Old-Fashioned, Bloody Mary or Espresso Martini, but may I suggest something on the more creative side?

The Greenbrier Garden features Jupiter Gin, strawberry basil simple syrup, lemon, rosemary, sage and thyme with lavender bitters, while Delia Mae’s Revenge blends LeBlanc Vodka with tart cherry juice, agave simple, lemon juice, smoked salt and sorghum bitters.

The Chrysalis is made with absinthe, peach hibiscus simple, lime juice and ginger beer, and a Mothman Mule mixes White Dog Moonshine with molasses simple, lime juice and ginger beer.

A Moonstruck Smoke features Tanner’s Select Bourbon blended with barrel-aged maple syrup, lemon and smoke, while The Bullock Noir brings bourbon, brown sugar-vanilla simple and espresso bitters together in a dark and mesmerizing sip.

Cocktails range from $10-18 each, with four-spirit flights offered between $10-25.

• IF YOU GO: The Bullock Distillery at 121 W. Washington St. on Charleston’s West Side is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. (Happy hour specials run 5 p.m. to close those days.) For more information, call 681-205-2770 or visit the distillery’s Facebook page.

Steven Keith is a food writer and restaurant critic known as “The Food Guy” who writes a weekly column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail and has appeared in several state, regional and national publications. Follow him online at www.wvfoodguy.com or on Facebook, X, Instagram and Pinterest as “WV Food Guy.” He can be reached at wvfoodguy@aol.com.