Name: Pickleback
Total time: 2 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Irish whiskey; 30 ml Pickle juice

Pickleback
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Serve in a Shot glass

Ingredients:
1 oz	Irish whiskey
1 oz	Pickle juice/brine/vinegar from pickled cucumber/gherkin

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

POUR ingredients into two separate chilled glasses. Instruct drinker to drink whiskey followed by cucumber chaser.

Review:

Now, we do like a juicy wally (gherkin) with our cod'n'chips but necking the brine in which they are packed is another thing. Our American cousins have some strange habits - drive on the right, carry the ball when playing football and bowl underarm. So these eccentricities should be remembered when I tell you that the drinking of cucumber brine as part of this drink is popular in New York City.

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History:

Created in 2006 at Brooklyn's Bushwick Country Club after the neighbouring business, McClure's Pickles, stored some of their pickles in the bar's basement.

Apparently this inspired bartender, Reggie Cunningham, to serve Old Crow Bourbon with a shot of McClure's spicy pickle brine. The Ruotolo brother took the drink to their Whiskey Town in New York's East Village with Irish whiskey replacing bourbon.

Nutrition:

One serving of Pickleback contains 74 calories

Alcohol content:

0.8 standard drinks
18.18% alc./vol. (18.18° proof)
10.9 grams of pure alcohol

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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Hunter Newsome

9th July 2023 at 20:21

It's a miracle...you chase the liquor with the brine and any burn is immediately extinguished.

G. M. Genovese

5th June 2023 at 16:52

All time favorite of mine. Love at first slup... The Irish (West Cork) is ok here. Bourbon (bonded) is tops for me. Rye (tried with Sazerac brand) seems appropriate (but bonded, and the 'spicier' the better, instead), and was almost as good as with bourbon. I'm using the brine from my jar of Ba-Tampte Half Sour pickles out of Brooklyn. On point. It's all about the spice.