A Cocktail To Pair With Donuts?! A Donut To Pair With Cocktails??!!

I get good mail. (Photo by me)

As you may have noticed if you’ve taken a gander at this site, I don’t drink a lot of vodka. But one surefire way to get me to do so is to create a donut that’s meant to be paired with a vodka cocktail, then send me the donuts and the cocktail fixings in one big box. And that’s exactly what the good folks at Belvedere did.

I should clarify. Belvedere’s Heritage 176 isn’t technically a vodka — it’s a “spirit drink,” according to the label on the bottle. That’s because it contains a small amount of unaged malted rye spirit that’s distilled to a lower proof than is legal for vodkas. That spirit is then mixed with Belvedere Pure vodka, which is also distilled from rye and locally sourced Polish water and… that’s it, no additives of any kind post-distillation. The result is a spirit that’s clean like vodka, with a smooth, creamy texture, but it also has a lot more flavor than your typical vodka — not like a white dog whiskey, but rye’s presence is definitely felt.

I should also clarify that the donuts are not donuts, they’re doughnuts, since they come from The Doughnut Project, which unbeknownst to me has been turning out innovative, cutting-edge, and super-tasty donuts — er, doughnuts — in downtown NYC since 2015. And it’s a good thing I didn’t know about them, because my jeans definitely would not currently fit otherwise.

Anyway, back to the enormous giftwrapped box that landed on my doorstep the other day. As you can see from the pic above, it contained two doughnuts plus the fixin’s to transform them into Heritage 176 Old Fashioned Doughnuts, as well as a bottle of Heritage 176 and the other ingredients required to make the Heritage Style cocktail — and two gorgeous rocks glasses just to get me even more on board.

The Heritage Style cocktail. Pretty classy, right? (photo by me)

Apart from a vodka-tini once or twice a year, I am not generally a vodka cocktail drinker. But the Heritage Style, a simple libation made with honey syrup, walnut bitters, and a twist of lemon, was quite to my liking. The rye notes of the vodka combined really nicely with the walnut bitters. And much to my surprise, the cocktail paired beautifully with the donut — er, doughnut — which was similarly flavored: a glaze of lemon and walnut bitters, topped with candied walnuts. I thought the sweetness of the cocktail and the sweetness of the doughnut would combine to put me in a diabetic coma, but for whatever reason I liked the doughnut with the cocktail even more than I liked each of them separately.

The Heritage 176 Old Fashioned Donut — I mean doughnut— from The Doughnut Project.

If you don’t believe me, and you’re in NYC, get on down to The Doughnut Project (10 Morton St.) this Friday-Sunday (12/18-20) and try for yourself — it’s a limited time thing, unfortunately. You can preorder them right here so you don’t miss out. As for Heritage 176, that’ll be around for a while. It’s worth trying with or without the doughnuts… but wouldn’t you rather try it with?