How to Make a Strawberry Fix, the Fruity Bourbon Cocktail Perfect for Beating the Heat

Working behind a cocktail bar for the last 15 years, you tend to hear certain sentiments repeated, and one of them is the idea that “mixology” is some kind of art. This is usually offered from behind a grateful smile, and the smart bartender doesn’t correct or otherwise disabuse a guest of this praise, but in our hearts, we know it’s not quite right. It is less of an art than a craft, which is to say that tending bar—or, more specifically, making delicious drinks—is not the product of ineffable creativity, like painting or composing, given by providence to some lucky souls more than others. Inventing drinks might be but not making them. Making them is a just series of principles, expressed through technique. Learn them, and literally any one can do it.

Nowhere is this on display as vividly as with the Strawberry Fix. It is a remarkably simple drink, so simple, it doesn’t even warrant its own name; “Strawberry Fix” is strictly descriptive, which is to say, it is a “Fix”—an old term for a fruited cocktail sour on crushed ice—with strawberries. There’s no house-made reductions or antique clarifications, no esoteric liqueurs or specific collections of herbs: It is bourbon, lemon juice, simple syrup, and strawberries, served on crushed ice, and invented, if that word even applies here, at Milk & Honey in New York City.

So why is it so good? The Strawberry Fix works because of its simplicity, not in spite of it—because when you get other flavors out of the way, what you get is a celebration of the absolute gorgeousness of a ripe summer strawberry. The whiskey sour template is great for this—the explosive fresh tartness of lemon juice matches perfectly against the sweetness of simple syrup, and while you might think something like vodka would be even more out of the way, the low broad flavors of oak and vanilla support the brightness of the strawberry and give it something to bounce off. From the first sip it’s delicious—strawberries and bourbon have a particular fondness for one another, the former’s plush juiciness fleshing out the latter’s deep resonance (see the Kentucky Buck for more examples of this)—but as the crushed ice melts, so the strawberry plays a bigger and bigger role, the fruit’s irrepressible sweet/tart profile flooding into the space between the flavors that the dilution creates. Before long, the drink is a bourbon-tinged love letter to strawberries and is all the better for it. By the time you finish one, it’s just about time for another. 

That’s why it’s the perfect drink for the summer. Because some days you don’t want to run to the liquor store to stock up on Italian liqueurs or be stuck in the kitchen measuring out xanthan gum to the tenth of a gram. Sometimes you want to mix up a quick and easy and elementally delicious summer drink, so you get back outside to the barbecues and old friends and sunny patches of grass and enjoy the simpler side of life. Try one out and see.

Strawberry Fix

Add strawberries to the bottom of a shaker tin and smash with a muddler. Add the liquids and ice and shake hard for six to eight seconds. Empty ingredients into a rocks glass and garnish with a strawberry, if you want to.

RELATED: The Best Bourbon Cocktails to Make at Home

NOTES ON INGREDIENTS

Bourbon: This is good with all bourbons, though I’ll say I find the flavors a little more seamless with the “sweeter” styles, like Buffalo Trace, Four Roses Small Batch, and Michter’s. But even the spiciest high-rye bourbons taste great, and the difference disappears in a few minutes of crushed ice dilution. Use whatever you like.

Lemon Juice: This should go without saying, but use fresh lemon, please. When the drink is this simple, there’s nowhere for sub-par ingredients to hide.

Simple Syrup: Aptly named. Simple syrup is equal parts sugar and water, and is that easy to make: Combine, say, a half cup each of sugar and water, and stir until the sugar dissolves (room temperature works, but the hotter the water, the faster the sugar will dissolve), which will make about ¾ cup simple syrup. Put it in the fridge and it’ll last a month. Throw it out when the liquid gets wispy (molding) or starts to smell like acetone (fermenting).

Crushed Ice: This is the only slightly annoying part of the drink: It tastes best with crushed ice. You want to start with ample dilution and then dilute even more over time. You can buy it, at a stocked liquor store or at any Sonic Drive-In nationwide. You can make it by wrapping ice in a dish towel and smashing it with a rolling pin. Or you can just wait a little longer—if you want to use fridge ice, fine, just shake maybe 10 to 12 seconds instead of six to eight, and shake hard enough that the ice breaks up a bit in the tin. Let time to the rest. 

Technique: Originally, the Strawberry Fix was made by muddling the strawberries in the bottom of a glass and then pouring the whiskey sour on top. With respect, I think this is dumb—just muddle the strawberries in the tin and shake the whole thing together. It’s supposed to taste like strawberries, not be neighbors with them.