Name: Penicillin Cocktail
Ingredients: 2 ounces blended Scotch, such as Famous Grouse; ¾ ounce honey-ginger syrup (recipe follows); ¾ ounce fresh lemon juice; ¼ ounce Islay single-malt Scotch, preferably Laphroaig 10YO; Candied ginger

Photo of two glasses of Fred Yarm with slices of candied ginger as garnishes.

Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton

No new drink of the twenty-first century has gone further in terms of fame than this complex, spicy, smoky turn on a Whiskey Sour. The Australian Sam Ross created it while at Milk & Honey, just a year after he emigrated to the United States from Melbourne.

“We got one of the earliest shipments of the Compass Box line in New York—Asyla, The Peat Monster, and two others,” recalled Ross. “I was playing around. I did a riff on the Gold Rush, which was one of our big sellers,” using Asyla. “Now, our ginger juice is sweetened, so it acts like a syrup. I split the sweetening between the two, the ginger and the honey. And it was great. Then I grabbed The Peat Monster—might as well play around with the smoky whiskey. I poured a float on top. That smoke stayed on the top. I preferred to never serve it with a straw. I want that smoke in the nose and that spicy sweet cocktail underneath. I went to bed that night not thinking much of it.”

By 2014, the Penicillin was so well known that some young bartenders assumed it was an old classic from way back.

Ingredients

2 ounces blended Scotch, such as Famous Grouse

¾ ounce honey-ginger syrup (recipe follows)

¾ ounce fresh lemon juice

¼ ounce Islay single-malt Scotch, preferably Laphroaig 10YO

Candied ginger

Preparation

Step 1
Combine the blended Scotch with the honey-ginger syrup and lemon juice in a cocktail shaker three-quarters filled with ice. Shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with one large cube. Top with the Islay Scotch and garnish with candied ginger.
Step 2
To make the honey-ginger syrup, combine 1 cup of honey with one 6-inch peeled and sliced piece of ginger root with 1 cup of water in a small pot and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Refrigerate overnight, then strain, discarding the solids.