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Maple syrup, fresh ginger, lemon, soda. The Free Pour drink for autumn evenings — warm-toned, sharp, the drink that pairs with a roast chicken better than wine does.

Maple syrup is the most distinctly North American ingredient in cocktail-making — used by Indigenous peoples (the Algonquin, Iroquois, and Ojibwe in particular) long before European contact. The combination of maple and ginger comes from Quebec's traditional medicine practice (a cold remedy); the cocktail application is recent but the flavor pairing is centuries old.

Ingredients

• Grade A Dark Maple Syrup½ ounce
• Fresh Ginger Juice½ ounce
• Fresh Lemon Juice¾ ounce
• Soda Water4 ounces
• Ginger Slice1 each
• Lemon Wheel1 each

Directions

Combine maple syrup, fresh ginger juice, and lemon juice in a highball glass. Add ice. Top with chilled soda water. Stir gently. Garnish with a thin slice of fresh ginger and a lemon wheel.

Notes

Use real Grade A maple syrup (the darker, the better — Grade A Dark is what you want, not the supermarket pancake stuff). Fresh ginger juice is best; if you don't have a juicer, grate ginger into cheesecloth and squeeze. Powdered ginger doesn't work.