Sip adviser: Olly Smith’s whisky cocktails for Christmas
Buenos Aires Telegram
Spruce up your festive drinking this year with delicious concoctions from around the globe. Olly Smith brought back these Christmas crackers from jaunts to Argentina, Canada, New York and….Wales, so you can enjoy a taste of the world’s best whisky cocktails without leaving home Photography by Matt Russell
Buenos Aires Telegram, Argentina
This is a family recipe with a romantic past. The cocktail wizard in my life is my friend Seb Munsch, whose ideas for drinks are as inventive and varied as Dolly Parton’s wardrobe. Seb is married to Inez, and during the Second World War her grandmother, also called Inez, was living in Buenos Aires, where she met and fell in love with a British merchant seaman.
Granddaughter Inez takes up the story: ‘It was via telegram that he proposed to my grandmother. He insists that on that particular day there had been a special offer on the cost of the telegram. After he’d written his message he still had four words left to use, and being a man who wanted to get his money’s worth, on a whim he decided to add “Will you marry me?”. My grandmother’s sense of adventure meant that she didn’t hesitate to say yes. She hopped on a cargo ship to the UK and several weeks later landed in the UK where she began a long and happy life with my grandfather.
After my grandfather passed away my grandmother got the chance to return to Argentina one last time. While she was there she drank cocktails and danced the tango in the streets of Buenos Aires. The Buenos Aires Telegram was created in their honour. My grandmother was partial to a whisky and ginger, and like any true sailor my grandfather always had a tin of Golden Virgina tobacco close to hand, hence the added smokiness.’
Let’s raise our glasses in celebration of the beauty of romance. Cheers to love – and friendship.
Ingredients
45ml (11/2oz) Monkey Shoulder blended malt Scotch whisky
22.5ml (3/4oz) Stone’s Original Ginger Wine
60ml (2oz) freshly squeezed orange juice
2 dashes rhubarb bitters
Ice: Cubed and large cubed
Garnish: Dehydrated orange slice and a smoked glass
Equipment: Cocktail shaker, lighter, woodchip, frying pan, strainer
Method
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice
Add all the ingredients
Shake vigorously to combine and chill
Smoke the glass by lighting a woodchip in a pan and holding the glass over the top
Place a single large ice cube into the smoked glass and strain the cocktail over it
Garnish with a slice of dehydrated orange
New York Flip, USA
Flips are not usually made with cream – but this classic drink is, since New Yorkers are a creative, rule-bending bunch! There’s something innately feelgood about flip cocktails, with their base of egg, sugar and booze. Around since the beginning of the Enlightenment in the late 1600s, flips are great for festive occasions – could be Thanksgiving, Christmas or just a special event in the cooler months, as their rich, glossy consistency is wondrous.
Ingredients
30ml (1oz) bourbon (try Woodford Reserve)
22.5ml (3/4oz) tawny port
15ml (1/2oz) single cream
15ml (1/2oz) simple syrup
1 egg yolk
Ice: Cubed
Garnish: Grated nutmeg
Equipment: Cocktail shaker, strainer
Method
Add all the ingredients except the cream to a cocktail shaker without ice and shake hard to combine
Fill the shaker with ice and shake again to chill
Add the cream then shake briefly
Strain into a chilled cocktail or coupe glass
Garnish with a light dusting of nutmeg
Rosemary Dramble, UK
A variation on the Dramble, which itself is a variation on the Bramble, my Rosemary Dramble has that citrus-lavender-sage woody effect that this common but special herb delivers. I wore rosemary on my wedding day as my ‘garnish’ – it’s known as a symbol of remembrance, and as Shakespeare’s Ophelia hands out flowers and herbs she says: ‘There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance.’ An apt cocktail to raise to absent friends.
Ingredients
45ml (11/2oz) J&B Rare blend Scotch whisky
15ml (1/2oz) crème de mûre
22.5ml (3/4oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice
15ml (1/2oz) rosemary syrup (see below)
Ice: Crushed
Garnish: Blackberry and a small rosemary sprig
Equipment: Long bar spoon
Method
Three-quarters fill an old fashioned glass with crushed ice
Add the Scotch, lemon juice and rosemary syrup
Churn with a bar spoon to chill and combine
Cap with a little more crushed ice and drizzle the crème de mûre on top
Garnish with a single blackberry and a sprig of fresh rosemary
Rosemary syrup
500ml (17oz) water
500g (17oz) golden caster sugar
2 sprigs rosemary
Heat the water and the sugar together in a pan
Once the sugar has dissolved, add the rosemary, then cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes
Leave to infuse for 24 hours
Pass through a fine sieve or muslin and decant into a sealable, sterilized bottle or container
Will store for up to a month
This recipe can be used for any woody herbs, including thyme
Bara Brith Sour, Wales
I love Wales. I spent many happy months in that wonderful country surrounded by the warmth of the locals while filming The Secret Supper Club for Channel 4, among other shows. Speckled bread or bara brith is a brilliant Welsh tea loaf, and its flavours are echoed in the local whisky. Penderyn is a distillery I adore; keep an eye out too for Aber Falls, Dà Mhìle and more. There was a time when Welsh whisky was subdued by the temperance movement, but with a long history dating back hundreds of years, it’s awesome to see so many Welsh whiskies now. I celebrate their rich, vibrant, fruity core – and raise this cocktail to all my Welsh friends for their kind welcome over the years. Lechyd da!
Ingredients
60ml (2oz) Penderyn Portwood Welsh whisky
30ml (1oz) freshly squeezed lemon juice
15ml (1/2oz) Bara Brith syrup (see BELOW)
2 drops Earl Grey bitters
15ml (1/2oz) egg white
Ice: Cubed
Equipment: Cocktail shaker, strainer
Method
Add all the ingredients to a cocktail shaker without ice.
Dry shake for 30 seconds to combine and break down the egg white.
Fill the cocktail shaker with ice and shake again to chill.
Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice.
Bara Brith Syrup
500ml (17oz) water
500g (17oz) golden caster sugar
2 cinnamon sticks
2 cloves
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground mace
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Heat the water and the sugar together in a pan
Once the sugar has dissolved, add the spices, then cover and simmer gently for 15 minutes
Leave to infuse for 24 hours
Pass through a fine sieve or muslin cloth and decant into a sealable, sterilized container
Will store for up to a month
As well as using it in the Bara Brith Sour, try adding this syrup to a cup of tea
Toronto Cocktail, Canada
The best-selling whisky in America is not the local bourbon but Canadian whisky (spelled without an ‘e’) which by law must always be made from Canadian grain (e.g. wheat and corn) and aged for at least three years in charred oak barrels. Blends are popular, but rye whisky gets my vote for its spicy pep – which this cocktail is founded upon. The heritage of Canadian whisky stretches back to the migrants who had a good go at rum with imported molasses in the ports before becoming more reliant on growing grains as they journeyed from the coast. Whisky was often linked to flour mills, as they had the required access to grain; the first legal whisky distillery, Gooderham & Worts, popped up in 1832 in York – present-day Toronto. Today, Toronto is the largest city in Canada, encouragingly home to more than10 million trees. This cocktail is dedicated to the one with the tastiest sap, the maple.
Ingredients
60ml (2oz) Lot 40 Canadian rye whisky
7.5ml (1/4oz) Fernet-Branca
7.5ml (1/4oz) maple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Ice: Cubed
Garnish: Orange twist
Equipment: Mixing glass, long bar spoon, strainer
Method
Fill a mixing glass with ice
Add all the ingredients
Stir gently to combine and chill
Strain into a chilled coupe glass
Garnish with a twist of orange
Sazerac, USA
This is one of a handful of cocktails to be trademarked – Sazerac rye whiskey must be used here, although since it’s owned by the Buffalo Trace distillery, which I’ve had the pleasure of filming in, you might be forgiven for experimenting with Buffalo Trace bourbon. I’m sticking on the right side of the law though, since this is a New Orleans classic. If you get the chance to visit the city, this is a wonderful cocktail to sip in the local bars, and you could even visit the Sazerac House, which is dedicated to this fruity, mellow, silken drink as well as to the history of cocktail culture.
Ingredients
30ml (1oz) rye whiskey – Sazerac is the spirit of choice here
30ml (1oz) cognac
3 dashes Peychaud’s or Creole bitters
2 dashes absinthe
Ice: Cubed
Garnish: Lemon twist
Equipment: Mixing glass, long bar spoon, strainer
Method
Add 2 dashes of absinthe to a chilled rocks glass, then swirl around the glass and discard the liquid
Fill a mixing glass with ice
Add the remaining ingredients and stir gently to combine
Strain into the prepared rocks glass, adding more ice, if liked
Garnish with a twist of lemon
Extracted from World Cocktail Atlas by Olly Smith (Quadrille, £22) Photography ©Matt Russell
Olly Smith is a TV presenter, wine expert and writer. He is a regular contributor to Barley.
