Smoky Cokey

Difford's Guide
Discerning Drinkers (29 ratings)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 fl oz Torabhaig Peated Single Malt Whisky
4 drop Bob's Abbotts bitters
3 1/2 fl oz Cola (e.g. Coca-Cola or Pepsi)
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How to make:

  1. Select and pre-chill a Highball (max 10oz/300ml) glass.
  2. Prepare garnish of lemon zest twist.
  3. POUR ingredients into ice-filled glass.
  4. Briefly stir.
  5. Express lemon zest twist over the cocktail and discard.
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AKA:

Smokey Cokey

Strength & taste guide:


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.

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.

Nutrition:

144 calories

Alcohol content:

  • 1.2 standard drinks
  • 10.88% alc./vol. (21.76° 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.

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Bacardi's birthday image

Bacardi's birthday

The founder of Bacardi was a Catalan wine merchant called Facundo Bacardi Massó, who left Spain for Cuba in 1830.

Valentine's Day image

Valentine's Day

You can't have failed to notice that 14 February is St. Valentine's Day, a time of year when a sum equivalent to the GDP of a small country is spent on

Fernand Petiot's birthday image

Fernand Petiot's birthday

On this day in 1900, Fernand Pete Petiot was born in Paris, to parents who owned a guesthouse - he would come to fame, correctly or otherwise, as the inventor

Margarita Day image

Margarita Day

There are days for most things in the US, but Margarita Day is a subject very close to our hearts. Because, no matter who invented this classic cocktail,

World Bartender Day image

World Bartender Day

We're celebrating what the Oxford English dictionary defines as a person serving drinks at a bar, but we know as creative, hard-working folk who satisfy

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