So with world cocktail day coming up -
although a naturally we advocate a year-round dedication to cocktails -
I thought we would take a little look at
the origins of the word cocktails as well as introducing you to the Penicillin,
which is a modern classic.
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As with basically all cocktail related history
probably because whoever was meant to be recording it was drunk,
the origins of the word cocktail are a little bit muddy.
One suggestion made by cocktail historian David Wondrich is that it's
related to the practice of putting ginger up a horse's bum to make
it "cock it's tail" and look perky when showing it to potential buyers
which then translated to pick-me-up drinks involving ginger.
But it was in 1806 that we first see the word cocktail being referred to in the same sense that we
know it now which is spirits mixed with water this is and sugar that being said
cocktails definitely still retain the idea of being a hangover cure. The logic
being that if you were sick from drinking straight spirits the night
before all you had to do was water it down add some sugar and some bitters to
settle your stomach and boom you'd be fine.
Which brings us to the Penicillin cocktail.
The clue is in the name it really does cure what ails you.
This drink is the brain-child of an Australian bartender named Sam Ross
who has gone on to great things in New York. He''s really revered amongst
bartenders because his drinks are really tasty and really simple just like
old-school classics. This one is in the sour category and it mixes up blended
whisky with some honey and ginger syrup lemon juice and then finished off with a
little bit of smoky whisky as well.
People are generally familiar with two types of whisky, one is single malt whisky
and one is blended whisky. Without getting too technical
single malt whisky just comes from one facility and is all malt whisky,
where as blended whisky comes from multiple distilleries and can have some grain
whisky in there as. Well people tend to be a little bit snobbish about blended
whiskey but actually it's great because it's blended to be consistent smooth and
easy going which makes obviously the perfect cocktail ingredient
where does single malts tend to celebrate the differences between each
individual distillery. There is a reason why Johnnie Walker is one of the
best-loved whisky brands in the world it's very smooth and delicious and has
enough of a flavor punch to stand up in this cocktail so I'm gonna use the
Johnnie Walker Black Label. Smoky whisky can come from anywhere but it does
tend to be synonymous with Islay which yes is pronounced the ILA even though
there's a Y on the end there they had a lot of peat on the island and that's
what they use to dry out the malt before making the whisky and it imparts a
really awesome smoky flavor for this cocktail I'm going with Arbeg because
it's really the biggest and smokiness of them all.
So to start I'm gonna squeeze some fresh lemon juice
We only need 20 mls, one lemon should be enough
so into your tin you want to put 50 mls of the Johnnie Walker Black Label, 20 mls of your
freshly squeezed lemon juice, 20 mils of the honey and ginger syrup take the
small part of your shaker tin and fill it entirely with ice and that's the
perfect amount of ice to shake with. you can give it a bit of a smack to seal
it together but really once you start shaking physics will take over and hold
the tins together for you. Shake as hard as you can until the shaker tin
gets all nice and frosty and almost a little bit too much to hold and that's
when you know that the drink is ready pop your tins open, pull a chilled
glass out of the fridge, if you have a big block of ice that's great
otherwise the best place that you have. Use the Hawthorne strainer which is the
one with the little coil to hold the ice back and then pour the drink
through the fine strainer. That'll just catch all of those little shards of ice
that you don't want floating about and ruining the drink. Now with the Ardbeg we
just want to float it on top you want it to stay quite separate from the rest
of the drink so a good way to do this is to pour it over the back of a spoon so
that you sip with spicy and refreshing cocktail through the smoky flavor. About
10 to 15 mls, you can eyeball it if you like smoky whisky then go for your
life and you pop a little bit more in there.
This drink is fine without a garnish but if you do have some of those
delicious little crystallized ginger cubes then pop them on a skewer and pop
them on the top. The Penicillin. So now you know.
As I mentioned the penicillin cocktail itself
is a variation on the classic Whisky Sour, a drink with
multiple permutations instead of going into them just now I'm gonna tell you
about one of Sam Ross's other cocktails the Paper Plane. This is also a modern
classic because of its simplicity and balance this shakes up equal parts of
bourbon, Amaro Nonino, Aperol and lemon juice. The bourbon is a strong the
Amaro Nonino and the Aperol are both bittersweet Italian aperitifs
and the lemon juice is your sour part and it creates a wonderfully balanced cocktail.
Because that's what you need to remember this world cocktail day,
balance is key and cocktails are good for hangovers, maybe.
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and comment below maybe let us know what you did for old cocktail day.