Kentucky jam I think every bartender has a soft spot for their first cocktail, you will create hundreds of them throughout your career and most you will forget, but never the first, kind of like sexual encounters. I created the Kentucky jam at my first bartending job at Workshop kitchen and culture, where they have what is called the improv menu, which changes every night and is beautifully put together by the insanely talented Chef Kenny K. Along with the improv menu people are given the option to purchase drink pairings along with each course of their meal. The night I had made this I was still a little unsure of my ability to pair well and my bar manager was to busy to walk me through it and baby me, so I was on my own. I was pairing a cocktail for a chocolate dessert, and I simply did not want to re-use our standard espresso cocktail, so I set about looking for ingredients. I ended up with 2 oz of bourbon with about five muddled raspberries, a large pinch of chai spice, 3/4 oz of black tea syrup, topped with soda and lightly stirred. I later developed a recipe for chai tea syrup, using a recipe for chai tea that my aunt had passed down to me, which she learned whilst living in India. I guard that recipe with my life, but I often make it and give away jars of it to my bartender friends. I adore this cocktail because it does have such a special place in my history, and it's delicious, I made it the other night with gin after realizing I was out of bourbon and it was still amazing, the gin took a backseat and played up all the flavours of the chai unlike bourbon which lets those flavours shine but also adds its own dimensions to it. All in all, I probably will never not have this recipe in my repertoire, and it's one that I think everyone should try at least once.