Name: Penicillin cocktail
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Scotch whisky; 15 ml Ginger liqueur; 10 ml Peated malt whisky; 20 ml Lemon juice; 20 ml Honey and water syrup

Penicillin cocktail
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Photographed in an UB Koto Old Fashioned 30cl

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Blended Scotch whisky
¹⁄₂ oz	Ginger liqueur
¹⁄₃ oz	Torabhaig Peated Single Malt Whisky
²⁄₃ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
²⁄₃ oz	Honey syrup (3 parts honey to 1 water by weight)

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill an Old-fashioned glass.
Prepare skewered crystallised ginger for garnish.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into ice-filled glass (preferably over a large cube or chunk of block ice).
Garnish with skewered crystallised ginger.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

7th April 2025 is World Health Day

Review:

A Whisky Sour with honey richness, subtle smoke and enlivening ginger spice. A cocktail to slap the palate awake. Then you can't resist keep sipping it.

View readers' comments

Variant:

The Penicillin cocktail originated as a riff on a Gold Rush

History:

Adapted from a 2005 recipe created by Sam Ross at Milk & Honey in Manhattan, New York City. Sam's original recipe (below) calls for ¾ oz honey-ginger syrup in place of ginger liqueur and honey.

Sam Ross's Penicillin recipe
Glass: Old-fashioned
Garnish: Skewered crystallised ginger
Method: SHAKE first 3 ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass. TOP with Islay whisky.
60ml (2oz) Blended Scotch whisky
22.5ml (¾oz) Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
22.5ml (¾oz) Honey & ginger syrup*
7.5ml (¼oz) Peated Islay single malt scotch whisky

*To make honey & ginger syrup
Peel and thinly slice 100 grams (3.5oz) of root ginger and place in a saucepan with 1 cup of honey and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool and place in a sealed container in a refrigerator to steep for 12 hours. Strain, bottle, and store in a refrigerator. Use within three days.

I created my version of Sam's contemporary classic, using ginger liqueur to avoid the faff of making ginger honey syrup, back in March 2009. With a good liqueur, it retains much of the ginger spice but in a more mellow form than the heat of fresh ginger juice. However, in February 2025, I came across a clutch of excellent cocktails (led by the Toreador del Diablo) made with ginger juice syrup. As to hand, I used this to create another version of the Penicillin:

Difford's Ginger Juice Syrup Penicillin
Glass: Old-fashioned
Garnish: Skewered crystallised ginger
Method: SHAKE all ingredients with ice and strain into ice-filled glass.
45ml (1½oz) Blended Scotch whisky
10ml (⅓oz) Peated single malt scotch whisky
7.5ml (¼oz) Ginger juice syrup
15ml (½oz) Honey syrup (3 honey to 1 water)
20ml (⅔oz) Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)

More cocktails by Sam Ross

Nutrition:

One serving of Penicillin cocktail contains 220 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
17.31% alc./vol. (17.31° proof)
19 grams of pure alcohol

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Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Showing 10 of 34 comments for Penicillin cocktail.
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Olga K

6th April at 10:33

My love at first sip. And a love that lasts a long time, which is rare for me.

Patricio González-Careaga López-Tapia

22nd February at 11:56

Is it Ginger Liqueur, or Ginger Syrup?

Simon Difford

22nd February at 13:22

There are recipes with both above. The main (top of the page) recipe uses liqueur.

Justin Aniello

19th November 2024 at 02:10

Half the lemon and slightly heavier on the ginger made it more to my liking, though I generally reduce any lemon in a recipe

Charlie Forbes

9th September 2024 at 20:47

Lots of different ways to get to this destination (or nearby): also fun to make w/ ginger juice for an extra kick, or with just honey (who has time for ginger syrup - honestly), with ginger preserves and half the honey for the same idea. You can also mule this thing up by lengthening w/ ginger beer for a long, spicy, summer refresher.

Matt

29th July 2024 at 01:25

A great way to enjoy a smoky scotch whisky, and to intoduce friends to the potential. I used ginger syrup instead of honey. I don't get distinct flavors of lemon and ginger, instead I get some brightness and lightness from the citrus, and some spicy bite from the ginger - very nice to lighten and enliven the smoky weight (even though diluted with blended scotch) of the Islay scotch (that's what I use).

Christopher Day

8th July 2024 at 22:16

I've had and enjoyed Penicillin to this recipe for years - BUT all this time never with the separate peated whisky (just increased amount of the 'base' whisky). I have kept some well aged peated single malts but never wanted to use them as cocktail ingredients.

I decided it was about time my bar included a separate decent but mixable peated whisky for such events (chose Smokehead on recommendation from a Scotch friend) & it is truly transformative. The peat turns this from 4-4.5 to a 5/5. Wow!

Christopher Day

8th July 2024 at 22:16

(More the fool me for never sacrificing some peaty single malt to find out all this time!)

Ulysses Grand

17th June 2024 at 03:47

An undeniably tasty drink. The necessity for an ingredient not carried in most bars and one that takes some effort to make yourself keeps it from being a staple. Fortunately I have a hack that doesn’t diminish its greatness. In a tin muddle two thin slices of ginger and .75 oz honey syrup (2:1 honey to water). Proceed with making the rest of the drink.

John CARR

26th May 2024 at 12:28

Another of the classics where you find your preferred combination and expression, and it sings.
The homemade honey ginger syrup WAS worth the effort, though a little Internet based research after the fact indicated that peeling ginger is a tedious steep that can be dispensed with, conferring neither sanitary nor flavour benefits.
Great stuff!

John CARR

27th May 2024 at 11:47

My personal favourite combination of the several I tried was J&B for the main scotch, talisker for the float.

John CARR

21st May 2024 at 10:31

Approximately how long does the honey ginger syrup keep?

Simon Difford

21st May 2024 at 15:18

Good question, John. Max 3 days refrigerated. I've added above.

2 replies

Jim G

10th February 2024 at 00:51

While I really like this cocktail I don't go through the honey-ginger syrup fast enough before it goes bad. I've experimented using the original recipe, using liquid ginger juice to make the syrup instead of roots, the one above with ginger liqueur and honey syrup, and using ginger liqueur and barenjager (replaces the honey syrup). Sadly the one I like best is the original, which requires scrubbing, peeling and slicing ginger root.

John CARR

27th May 2024 at 11:25

The honey ginger syrup is also great as a hot toddy. Add a good shot or so to a mug of hot water, squeeze of lemon to taste, plus a shot of whisky or brandy if you want alcohol version.

Jordan Ishak

20th March 2024 at 04:54

Try freezing syrups so they keep longer, and see if you like it

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