COCKTAIL · Classic cocktails
Whiskey Smash
PUBLISHED · 19 Oct 2026
A whiskey sour loosened with mint and lemon wedges, served over crushed ice.
A whiskey sour loosened with mint and lemon wedges, served over crushed ice.
INGREDIENTS
- Bourbon60 ml
- Simple syrup15 ml
- Lemon wedges4
- Mint leaves8
- Crushed iceto fill
Muddle the lemon wedges and mint with the syrup, add the bourbon and shake with ice. Strain over crushed ice and garnish with a mint sprig and a lemon wedge.
- CREATED
- 1840s
- CREATOR
- Unknown
- STATE
- United States
- LOCATION
- American South
Smashes first emerged in America, particularly the South, in the 1840s and peaked in the 1850s. Jerry Thomas printed the Whiskey Smash in his 1862 Bar-Tender’s Guide, calling the Smash “simply a julep on a small plan”. The drink faded until Dale DeGroff revived it in 2005 for the opening of Bobby Flay’s Bar American in New York, using lemon, mint, syrup and bourbon.
✳Whiskey Smash