Penicillin Cocktail

The penicillin cocktail is a modern classic! With Scotch in flavors of honey, lemon and ginger, it has a unique, upscale vibe.

Are you a Scottish lover? Here is The Mixed drink for you: the Penicillin cocktail! This modern classic cocktail showcases the peaty flavor beautifully. The combination of Scotch with lemon, honey and ginger results in a kind of high-end version of Whiskey Sour. While this will appeal to even non-Scotch fans (me), you’ll need two bottles of Scotch… for it to be a drink for the die-hards. Ready to mix?

Not a Scottish lover? Do the gold rush instead.

What’s in a penicillin cocktail?

While it may sound like a centuries-old classic, this drink is anything but! The penicillin cocktail was invented in 2005 by bartender Sam Ross of the famous Milk & Honey Bar in New York. It’s basically a whiskey sour made with Scotch and a ginger and honey syrup. The drink’s name suggests that it’s a panacea that plays on the usual ingredients found in herbal remedies (lemon, ginger, and honey).

Ross took elements of Gold Rush, another famous cocktail invented at the same bar, but substituted bourbon for the scotch and added ginger. As a finishing touch, he hoovered a layer of single malt scotch on top to add a peaty hit to each sip. It’s a strong flavor, but it’s particularly intriguing. The ingredients of the penicillin cocktail are:

• Mixed Scottish
• Scottish single malt
• lemon
• honey syrup
• lemon juice

A little twist: shredded ginger + honey syrup

The typical penicillin cocktail uses a syrup made from honey and ginger to sweeten the drink (rather than the plain syrup commonly used). This is a special honey syrup enriched with ginger. Since we already had honey syrup on hand, here’s what we did to simplify this cocktail:

• honey syrup is an ingredient in other famous cocktails like Gold Rush, Brown Derby and Bees Knees.
• This cocktail uses honey syrup and crushed ginger, instead of making a special honey ginger syrup. This way you can use the honey syrup bundle to make other cocktails!

How to make honey syrup

Honey syrup is a simple syrup made with honey instead of granulated sugar. It’s really easy to whip up a batch: and it adds rich depth to cocktails of all kinds. Here’s what to do:

1. Add equal parts honey and water to the saucepan and heat over medium-high heat.
2. Stir until honey has dissolved (don’t let simmer!), about 1-2 minutes. Cool to room temperature before use. Store in the fridge for 1 month.

Two types of Scotch: Blended and Peated Single Malt

You need two types of scotch to make a penicillin cocktail. It’s a small investment, so if you’re not a Scotch lover, here’s your getaway! Go for the Gold Rush instead: it uses bourbon and has similar flavors.) Here are the two types of Scotch you need:

• Mixed Scottish: Blended Scotch has a mild flavor: almost like bourbon, but with a spicier finish. As the name suggests, it comes from the assemblage of two types of whisky: cask aged malt whiskey and grain whiskey.
• Peated Single Malt Scotch: Single Malt Scotch is a malt whiskey that comes from a distillery. Peat whiskey is made by distilling peat moss into dried malted barley, the traditional way of making Scotch in Scotland. It imparts a grassy, ​​mossy flavor to the alcohol.

Editor’s Comment: Personally, unlike my better half (Alex), I’m not a big Scotch drinker. I can’t drink straight scotch, let alone the grassy smoke of peaty scotch. But the penicillin had enough sweetness and citrus to balance the flavors. It’s not my favorite cocktail but I enjoyed drinking it and it’s certainly one of a kind. For a Scottish lover like Alex, it was within reach.

How to make a penicillin cocktail

Once you’ve made the honey syrup and scooped your scotch, the rest of the penicillin cocktail is a breeze! All you need is a shaker: no other fancy tools needed! Here are the basic steps (or jump straight to the recipe):

• Confusion: Mash the ginger root in the bottom of a shaker.
• Shake: Pour the remaining ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice and then shake until very cold. Don’t have a cocktail shaker? Use a mason jar with a lid instead.
• stump: Strain the drink into a lowball glass. Don’t have a cocktail strainer? Use a fine mesh strainer instead.
• Garnish: Add ice and a slice of lemon or candied ginger.

Step it up: add clear ice!

Penicillin tastes best with a large ice cube that fills the entire glass. How do you find that? Make clear ice! Clear ice is crystalline ice that lacks the turbidity of regular ice. You can also cut it into beautiful shapes that look like they came straight out of a trendy bar. It’s easy to do: all it takes is 24 hours and a small cooler. Here’s how to make transparent ice cream.

When to serve a penicillin cocktail

The Penicillin Cocktail is a cocktail reserved for Scotch lovers! To impress, serve as:

• Happy hour drink
• Late night drinks
• Evening drink between boys or between girls
• Aperitif at aperitif time

More Scottish cocktails

do you like your scottish Here are some of the best Scottish cocktails to try:

• Godfather The Godfather combines Scotch with Amaretto: a great introductory drink in Scotch!
• Rob Roy A Manhattan made in Scotch! This avant-garde cocktail is a sophisticated way to enjoy a good Scotch.
• Scotch Sour A whiskey sour with a blend of Scotch, tastes tart and peaty on the finish.
• Blood and Sand A unique classic Scotch cocktail! Full of complex flavors, it contains blood orange juice and cherry liqueur.
• Rusty Nail A cocktail of Scotch and Drambuie that takes the 1960s everywhere! We’re adding some sparkle to this classic slow sipper.