Home made rock and rye

Has anyone on here made rock and rye at home? I figure it's probably pretty simple- rye whiskey, sugar (I suppose you wouldn't have to use rock candy), and some diced up fruit chunks. I'm just curious as to how much sugar to use and what the best fruits are to use. I think I'll probably use Wild Turkey 101 rye as my whiskey base if I should decide to go ahead with the project.

BTT

Just made a batch. Ritt BiB, jigger of barrel aged rum, rock candy, cloves, cinnamon, lemon, and orange. I'll let you know what I think of it in, oh, a fortnight or so.

I made some with KCR recently. Very simple one. Rock candy and a slice of orange. It was good, especially mixed with some club soda over ice.

Was planning on throwing it in some tea or cider, but soda doesn't sound half bad either.

Some good ideas here. I think I may also use the KCR and toss some fruit and maybe some black licorice or horehound in it as well. I bought a bottle of the Hochstadter's Rock and Rye, which has honey and horehound in it in addition to the traditional ingredients and it's REALLY good. Heck, I can do it all in one shot and just dump a bag or citrus-flavored Ricola in it!

Bumping this because I am gathering all my ingredients together to make my own rock and rye for the first time. When I went to get rock candy all I could find was the flavored stuff. Reading recipes, the rock candy dissolves anyway. Rock candy is only sugar, if it's dissolved what does it matter if I use rock candy or regular sugar crystals? I am probably going to use some raw sugar, but was hoping someone knew if there was a reason. I'm kind of assuming it's because that's the way they always did it and rock candy wasn't so hard to find way way back.

I think it was to match the advertizing slogan, 'Rock and Rye", which has probably been around as long as we've had rock candy and rye whisky.

I would say you are correct. As far as I know rock candy is simply 10X sugar that's been dissolved into water and then allowed to crystallize. I think the original iterations of Rock and Rye in Philadelphia were home made and it was often fed to children or women when they were ill. Generally rye whiskey (What was readily available in Philly....) was poured into a cup and a stick or two of rock candy was added along with fresh fruit, honey, and horehound (...if available) to make it healthier and more tolerable to a woman or child. I see no issues with using pure sugar. I would avoid brown sugar though as it may impart a weird molasses flavor in the background. It may be interesting to experiment with different ingredients and proportions to strike a balance. I've always thought about using larger amounts of lemon and lime juice with a moderate amount of sugar and honey (using the honey partially as a sweetener and partially as a flavoring agent). I think that would make for an interesting and almost refreshing drink on ice.

It is done! Went with a bottle of Ritt, an orange, a lemon, 5oz sugar, about 10 each whole cloves and allspice, a cinnamon stick, and 4 Luxardo cherries with extra juice from the bottle. I'll let you know how it tastes in a few weeks.

ethangsmith, did you end up making yours back when you started the thread? How did it turn out?

Now that's something I'd put in coffee.