Name: Smoky Cokey
Total time: 5 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 45 ml Peated malt whisky; 4 drop Abbott's bitters; 105 ml Cola

Smoky Cokey
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Serve in a Highball (max 10oz/300ml)

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₂ oz	Torabhaig Peated Single Malt Whisky
4 drop	Bob's Abbotts bitters
3 ¹⁄₂ oz	Cola (e.g. Coca-Cola or Pepsi)

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Highball (max 10oz/300ml) glass.
Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
POUR ingredients into ice-filled glass.
Briefly STIR.
Express lemon zest twist over the cocktail and discard.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Cocktail of the day:

19th November 2025 is National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day

Review:

Just as it says on the tin – a smoky malt and cola. This simple but delicious drink perhaps doesn't need bitters or even a twist but it's better with these subtle embellishments.

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AKA: Smokey Cokey

Variant:

Floaty Smoky Cokey – with ice cream.

History:

Jack & Coke is a famous combo but until the Smoky Cokey, Scotch whisky was restricted to soda water or perhaps ginger ale. So for his 2014 book, Whisky: The Manual, Dave Broom set out to discover the best mixer for various Scotch whiskies, trying everything from soda water to green tea. His discovery that Lagavulin is delicious with cola is the origin of the Smoky Cokey.

Dave's discovery was picked up by Colin Dunn, Diageo's whisky ambassador who served 35ml of Lagavulin 16 Year Old in a Martini glasses topped with almost flat cola at the 2000 Feis Ile (Islay whisky festival). Collin presented them on a silver tray to his guests on Lagavulin pier.

I remember Collin talking about what he'd by then christened the "Smoky Cokey" at a Diageo World Class event, circa 2016. Dave Broom discovered this delicious combination of whisky and cola but it is Colin Dunn who made the Smoky Cokey a contemporary classic.

More cocktails by Dave Broom

Nutrition:

One serving of Smoky Cokey contains 144 calories

Alcohol content:

1.2 standard drinks
10.86% alc./vol. (10.86° proof)
16.3 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.