Penicilin

I had been looking for a cocktail with smoky whisky for quite some time until found the Penicillin cocktail. When searching for “Penicillin cocktail recipe” with google, you will find various different recipes. The basic ingredients are a blended whisky, a smoky whisky, lemon juice, honey syrup and ginger syrup. Some also have the ginger and honey syrup combined or a sliced fresh ginger instead of the syrup. The ratios of blended to smoky whisky range from “a splash” of smoky whisky to more than 1:1.

The choice of blended whisky is, I think, not that important for this cocktail. I usually use Dimple 15yo, but 12yo Chivas Regal, Monkey Shoulder or Johnny Walker Black Label are also fine. With a higher budget the 15yo Dalwhinnie is a great option, but don’t waste a Macallan or ruin the cocktail with Red Label.

When it comes to the smoky whisky, many recipes use Laphroig 10yo, which I think is a good whisky, but not for this cocktail, because I think not much of the smoky smell and taste remains after shaking. So far, I find the Ardbeg 10 yo to be the best choice for this cocktail (although I didn’t try that many other options yet, but I can’t imagine anything to be much better. 16yo Lagavulin probably also works just fine).

So, first to the ratio of blended vs smoky whisky. With the Ardbeg 10yo, I prefer 6cl blended and 2cl Ardbeg. If you want the cocktail to be less strong and/or more/less smoky, 4cl blended and/or 1cl Ardbeg also work fine.

Even though this cocktail is about smoky whisky, getting the right amount of ginger taste I found to be much more complicated. With ginger syrup or honey-ginger syrup I always found that there is not of the ginger taste.

One option I tried and really liked was to “pickle” ginger in the blended scotch. Therefore, I filled a bottle about half with ginger cut in small pieces and filled it with the blended scotch. You can taste the ginger already after a few days and it basically does not go bad.

The recipe for this version:

2cl lemon juice

2cl honey syrup

2cl Ardbeg 10yo

6cl ginger-blended scotch

Simply shake with ice and pour in a glass (with one big ice cube). Serve with lemon zest or ginger.

In another version I tried some time later, after my pickled ginger whisky was empty, I used muddled ginger instead. Although I read somewhere that this is not how you are supposed to do it, this is my favourite version of the penicillin cocktail. It is easier to make and has quite a strong ginger taste, which can be easily adjusted by the amount of muddled ginger.

The recipe for this version:

2cl lemon juice

2cl honey syrup

2cl Ardbeg 10yo

6cl blended scotch

A few pieces of ginger

Muddle the ginger with lemon juice and honey syrup, add the scotch, shake with ice and pour through a sieve in a glass (with one big ice cube). Serve with lemon zest or ginger.