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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Glass:

Photographed in an UB Koto Old Fashioned 30cl

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

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

Prepare:

Select and pre-chill an OLD-FASHIONED GLASS.
Prepare skewered crystallised ginger for garnish.

How to make:

SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
STRAIN into ice-filled glass (preferably over a large cube or chunk of block ice).

Garnish:

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 2026 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

Variations/similar cocktails:

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:

1.5 standard drinks
17.31% alc./vol. (34.61° proof)
20.4 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 38 comments for Penicillin cocktail.
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Caspian Berggren

1st May at 16:29

Once when I was a wee lad, early in my cocktail journey, I made this with simple syrup because I thought "what difference can honey do?" and I thought the drink was kind of meh. Didn’t make it again for quite a while because in my mind it was always a mediocre cocktail. Fast forward a couple of years and I can now see the errors of my way. The smooth honey is what keeps it all together!

OodelallyGolly

8th April at 23:30

I made this with Rubenesque Bourbon for the scotch and Bullit Rye for the peated whisky. I thought this was a lovely drink. Next time, maybe I'll try a different ginger liquor (I used Mr. Stacks, but it was a budget choice and not a quality one), and it might add more "umph".

Mookie

1st September 2025 at 17:00

This really is a perfect drink. I opted to shake the peated scotch in with the rest of the drink, but used an atomizer to garnish with a few spritzes of additional smokey goodness.

Simon Sedgley

23rd July 2025 at 11:35

Our only 'improvement' was to add some Fee Foam for a cheerful head. After all, happily taking one's medicine need not be a contradiction in terms.

Olga K

6th April 2025 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 2025 at 11:56

Is it Ginger Liqueur, or Ginger Syrup?

Simon Difford

22nd February 2025 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.

Dan Hunter

7th July 2025 at 00:01

The spicy summer refresher is lights out my man. Good show.

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!)

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