Cocktails

Scotch Old Fashioned

Sugar and bitters season rather than cover the whisky, making spirit choice and dilution especially important.

Recipe by Bottle of Scotch

Ingredients

• 60 ml Scotch whisky
• 5–7.5 ml demerara or simple syrup
• 2 dashes aromatic bitters
• Orange peel

Method

1. Stir Scotch, syrup and bitters with ice until chilled and lightly diluted.
2. Strain over one large cube in a rocks glass.
3. Express orange peel over the surface and garnish.

Choosing the Scotch

Mature, oak-led Scotch is a sensible starting point. Choose a whisky whose smoke, fruit, oak and sweetness remain in proportion to the other ingredients. An expensive or rare bottle is rarely necessary when heat, sugar, dairy or strong mixers will obscure fine differences between bottlings.

What the Scotch changes

Sugar and bitters season rather than cover the whisky, making spirit choice and dilution especially important. Changing the whisky can change perceived smoke, fruit, spice and oak. Heat and reduction also change aroma and remaining alcohol, so it is inaccurate to assume that all alcohol disappears immediately during cooking.

Practical notes

Measure the whisky rather than pouring directly from the bottle. Move hot pans away from an open flame before adding spirits. For cold drinks and desserts, keep the Scotch quantity controlled so texture, dilution and balance remain predictable.

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