In honor of Canadian Thanksgiving (Monday, October 9), this cocktail features Canadian whisky and Canadian maple syrup. And lemon juice—almost certainly not from Canada, but I’m confident our Canadian neighbors don’t mind. 

Here’s a fun way to look at it: The Maple Leaf is what would happen if the Manhattan and a Whiskey Sour had a love child … and then that love child had a love child of its own with a Maple Old Fashioned. 

Drinks evolve, after all. 

Candidly, the original recipe (known simply as “the Maple Leaf”)  isn’t Canadian, because it calls for bourbon and doesn’t specify a source of the maple syrup. It’s more likely the name ‘Maple Leaf’ only reflected the use of maple syrup instead of sweet vermouth in this Manhattan riff. And we all know Canada has no monopoly on either maple syrup or maple leaves.

I’ve used the original bourbon-based recipe as well, and I found it slightly sweeter than a Manhattan—very enjoyable. This version is lighter, given the rye spiciness of Canadian blended whiskies, and is delicious either up or over a large cube of ice in a rocks glass. 

THE CANADIAN MAPLE LEAF
Ingredients:
2 oz Canadian whisky
½ oz Maple syrup
1 tsp Lemon juice (freshly squeezed) 

Directions:
Combine all of the ingredients in a shaker with plenty of ice and shake 10-15 seconds until chilled. Strain into a chilled small Martini glass or coupe, and garnish with a twist of lemon zest and/or a Luxardo Maraschino cherry.

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