Christopher Day

This was surprisingly drier than I had first imagined; very refreshing. Having a hankering for just a touch of sweetness but not just that, I ended up adding 1/3oz of Ancho Reyes (red) for subtle sweetness and a little fire and this seemed to work out very nicely.

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

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!

Having just recently picked up Abasolo to try, being a fan of Old Fashioneds and enjoying Nixta I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately I found it unbearably sweet and unpleasant as a result. Not just slightly sweet; really cloying when made 1:1:1 with Abasolo/Nixta/Cocchi Americano; and I'm not someone who is averse to sweet cocktails in general. I re-made it yesterday with 2:1:1 proportions and this was much nicer, though even still I thought could do with a bit more whisky.