Walking into a bar on a Friday afternoon something crisp and refreshing is calling your name, but you don’t yet know what that something is. You meet your friends in the beer garden out back, then head in to decide what you want to quench your thirst with.
Walking inside you find that it’s not overly busy and you stand back from the bar to deliberate what you want. You usually drink whiskey gingers but fancy something with a little more zing in it this time around. You look at the beer and cider taps and internally shake your head. You look at the board of drinks specials and neither the cocktails nor the wine take your fancy.
The bartender spots you, remembers you and offers you your usually. You step toward the bar and tell her your thinking of something with a little more zing, a little more refreshing. She tell you that she has just the thing and asks if you want to give it a go? You’ve heard people talk highly of the bartenders here and their cocktails so you say yes. A minute later she’s placing a drink that looks suspiciously similar to a whiskey ginger in front of you. With a smile she tells you that if you don’t like it your regular is on the house. You take one sip and sweet, bitter, whiskey goodness kiss your tastebuds. You smile and tell her that’s exactly what you were after.
Gingered Whiskey
- 1.5oz Powers Irish whiskey
- 1oz Bomani
- 2 Dashes Bittermens Buckspice ginger bitters
- 3oz Tonic water
- Glass: Old Fashioned
- Garnish: Lime Wedge
- Method: Build drink over ice. Stir and garnish.
Why This Cocktail Works
This cocktail is a modified brighter version of whiskey ginger. It’s full-bodied and slightly sweet, with a crisp, off-dry finish. It’s as refreshing and as, if not more, flavorful than whiskey ginger, but slightly more bracing. Both the coffee and the quinine from the tonic simultaneously contrast with and add to the flavor profile of the standard whiskey ginger, the ginger flavor created hereby ginger bitters, not a sweetened ginger ale.
Where and When
Because its roots lie in a simple spirit-mixer cocktail this drink can be drunk anywhere, by anyone without prejudice. These can be knocked back in a beer garden one after the other, sipped quietly on a mid-city rooftop bar, or drunk late night in a pool bar downtown. Where and when you take this cocktail is entirely your choice!
