The Bushwacker - A renowned, boozy, milkshake like cocktail perfect for finishing off the summer.

The finished Bushwacker, smooth and creamy, with a milkshake like consistency. Garnished with a few extra neon red maraschino cherries, just because.

It took many an iteration, but I have finally come up with a bushwacker recipe that I would put up against the best of them. This one comes out perfectly creamy, and doesn't have that overtly icy texture that so many others do. 

Recipe: Bushwacker

Ingredients: 

• 4 oz bushwacker base(recipe below)

• 2 oz Half and Half

• 8 oz ice(roughly a mounded cups worth)

• Chocolate Syrup (optional)

• Maraschino Cherry (Optional) 

Build: 

1. Prep a hurricane(or similar sized) glass by drizzling chocolate syrup on the inside, if you choose to do so. 

2. Add Bushwacker base, milk, and ice to a blender and blend until smooth. 

3. Pour into prepped glass, garnish with a cherry(or cherries), if so inclined, and serve. 

4. Optionally, add a float of your choice on top for an extra punch (coconut rum, dark rum, 151, banana rum, and chocolate Crown are all good options)

5. Side note, if you can put the glass and/or blender in the freezer for an hour or two ahead of time, that will help get and maintain a creamier, more milkshake-like consistency.

Recipe: Bushwacker Base (Yields 3)

• 2 oz Coffee Liquor - I use Grind, but you can use whichever you prefer

• 2 oz Gold or light aged Rum

• 2 oz Amaretto Liquor

• 2 oz Coconut Vodka - Sub Coconut rum if you cant get the vodka

• 2 oz Dark Creme de Cacao

• 2 oz Coconut Cream

• 1 tsp Xanthan gum

Build:

1. Add all ingredients to a blender, and blend until smooth. 

2. Transfer to an appropriately sized squeeze bottle and store in the freezer until ready to use, minimum 8 hours, a full 24 is ideal. The good news is that you can make this way in advance, as it stores in the freezer almost indefinitely. 

History: How the Bushwacker came to be.

A staple of bars along the Gulf, the Bushwacker may now call the beaches of Florida and Alabama its home, but to find its birthplace, we have to hop on a boat and travel a little further south to 1975 St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Originally developed by Angie Conigliaro, a bartender at the Ship's Store & Sapphire Pub, the Bushwacker was named after Bushwack, an Afghan hound belonging to one of the regulars. The Bushwacker started life in response to a request from bar manager Tom Brokamp for a blended coffee liqueur drink, smack in the middle of the frozen cocktail boom, and quickly became the Sapphire Pub's signature cocktail.

Just a few years later, the Bushwacker would find its way stateside when Tom Brokamp, the manager of the Sapphire Pub, decided to move to Pensacola and started serving up his version of the Bushwacker at the Sandshaker Lounge. From there, as they say, the rest is history, and the Bushwacker spread across the beaches of the Florida Panhandle and Alabama like wildfire.

Today, 50 years after its invention, the Bushwacker has withstood the test of time and continues to be celebrated with countless festivals and recipe variations, wowing those who imbibe just as it did all those years ago.