Once again, we’re calling all bartenders, professional and cocktail enthusiasts to put your mixology skills to the test and submit your cocktail recipe to Pendleton® Whisky’s Midnight Cocktail Challenge! The contest has been underway for a few months now, and if you’ve been keeping track, then you’ve seen some creative and delicious cocktail recipes.

We’d like to take this opportunity to shine a light on the first two monthly winners that have found their way to cocktail fame.

First up is February winner, Suzanne from Apex, North Carolina. Suzanne’s cocktail, Benton Fraser’s Day Off, is for the more experienced cocktail enthusiast, or for anyone that likes a sweet and refreshing challenge:

1 oz Pendleton Midnight Whisky
1 oz ginger shrub (recipe to follow)
Juice of 1Ž2 of a clementine or mandarin orange
3 drops Bittercube Cherry Bark Vanilla Bitters
Club Soda
Ice Cubes

Ginger Shrub
2/3 cup fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
1 cup cider vinegar
2/3 cup granulated sugar

To make the ginger shrub, stir the ginger, vinegar and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until the liquid starts to simmer. Immediately remove from heat and let cool completely. Pour into a Mason jar and let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. Strain out the ginger in a mesh colander and refrigerate the liquid. Makes 1 1Ž2 cups.

To make the cocktail, shake the first four ingredients in a Mason jar or cocktail shaker. Pour over ice cubes and top with club soda.

March’s winner, Jason from Carlsbad, New Mexico, has a deliciously simple take on a whisky cocktail, which he calls the Pecos River Sunset.

1.5 oz Pendleton Midnight
1.5 oz Disaronno
3 Frozen Rocks

Place frozen rocks in a rocks glass. Pour Pendleton Midnight and Disaronno over the rocks, swirl around and enjoy!

Think you can top these two recipes in the quest for America’s next great whisky cocktail? Submit your recipe today at www.midnightcocktailchallenge.com for your chance to win cocktail fame and fortune!