I think very much that blends are not necessarily blands. Blends can be of high quality and can be full of robust, delicious flavours.
That is not to say that they make for my favourite sipping spirits. Often, the fancy might strike me for a peaty Lagavulin 16 or the rich flavours of a Macallan Edition no. 1. On those occasions, I turn to the single malts. There are plenty of great single malts out there that are best enjoyed on their own.
When it comes to making cocktails, however, I normally prefer a blended scotch for two reasons. The first reason on is fundamentally one of economics; it is usually friendly on the wallet to use a blended whisky, for most part, and that’s key for experimentation and daily dramming. The other reason is to draw upon the properties of a blend. A blend is by its very nature designed to take a middle path. It is smooth, does not have extreme-leaning flavours, and is relatively consistent across different batches. It simply makes it easier to mix with other ingredients, and do so repeatedly.
That is not to say that one uses a low quality blend to create cocktails, however. While one does not want the flavour of a whisky to overpower all other ingredients of a well balanced cocktail, that should not come at the expense of flavour. One might not want a flavour to completely overpower the drink, but one also does not want to taste swill!
I had the pleasure of tasting the Naked Grouse not too long ago, and I fancied using it for cocktail making thanks to its rich flavours of chocolate, cherry, spice and oak. While many whisky cocktails were created with the vanilla and coconut flavours of bourbon or Tennessee whisky in mind, Scotch can still be very palatable, if quite different, when used.
To stay true to the spirit (ha ha) of the Naked Grouse, I tried to keep the ingredients simple and the drinks classic and uncomplicated. No homemade syrups and infusions, no oddities, just ingredients you can easily obtain at the local supermarket.
The Old Fashioned
When it comes to whisky cocktails, the Old Fashioned is perhaps the most famous, and we have both the cocktail renaissance and Don Draper to thank.
It’s delightfully uncomplicated and doesn’t even really require any bar equipment. A properly balanced Old Fashioned is pleasantly sweet, but not cloying. It has a thick, silky texture and a gorgeous aroma from the bitters, whisky, and orange peel garnish. As the drink itself has only three main ingredients (sugar, bitters, and whisky), the flavour of the whisky takes center stage. It is fortunate that orange, spice and cherry are excellent flavours for a whisky used in an Old Fashioned.
- 2 oz. Naked Grouse
- 1 Sugar Cube (Demarara or any other brown sugar works best)
- 3 dashes Angostura bitters
- 2 Orange Peel
- Put the sugar cube in a mixing glass
- Add the orange peel to the glass
- Add the bitters and half an ounce of the whisky
- Muddle the mixture till the sugar is dissolved, making sure to extract the oil from the orange peel
- Add the remaining whisky into the mixing glass
- Add ice, and stir till ice cold, making sure that all the sugar is dissolved
- Strain into an Old-Fashioned glass with one large ice cube added
- Express the oil from a fresh orange peel into the glass, then use it to garnish
- Many recipes call for building the cocktail directly in the glass. I prefer doing it in a mixing glass for neatness
- You can also use a cherry for garnish, but i prefer the orange peel for the looks
Though the spirit forward Old Fashioned turned out pretty well, I also wanted to test the Grouse’s ability to blend with other ingredients in a “long” cocktail with a rather different style- one with a flavour profile that does not focus quite so much on the whisky itself.
The Whisky Sour
For that. the Whisky Sour is ideal. Though, in this case, it would more properly be called a Highland Sour, thanks to the use of scotch instead of American whisky.
Like the Old Fashioned, the sour has a long history, dating back to the 1800s, and forms the basis for many modern drinks; many can rightly be considered to be variations on a sour. Combining 4 parts spirit, 2 parts citrus juice, and 1 part sugar syrup will usually produce a drinkable cocktail. With a few tweaks, the sour can even be a great one.
The whisky sour is a much maligned cocktail, and it has much to do with its recent history. It has three ingredients in its basic form: whisky, lemon juice, sugar. In the 70s and 80s, to save costs, the lemon and sugar were replaced with commercially made sour mix- a sickly sweet witches’ brew of synthetic ingredients. In the modern era, however, we have gone back to the basics, and the ingredients are once again natural – and delicious.
- 2 oz. Naked Grouse
- 1 oz. Fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 oz. Simple syrup
- 1/2 egg white (optional)
- 1 strip lemon peel
- Add in all the ingredients into a mixing tin
- Dry shake (without ice) all the ingredients for about 20- 25 seconds
- Add ice and shake the drink till ice cold
- Double strain into a sour glass (or old fashioned glass), over ice cubes
- Garnish with a lemon peel
- I prefer adding the egg white to give it a silkier mouthfeel, but you can skip that entirely if you wish. In that case, skip the dry shake
- The typical garnish for this is a cherry/ orange wedge combo, and you can use that instead.I prefer the sharper fragrance of the lemon peel
Overall, I’d say that The Naked Grouse performed fairly well in the two classic cocktails. It’s definitely a step up from using other blended scotches at its price range- the cocktails were flavourful and smooth. If you’re making some classic whisky cocktails, you should consider the Naked Grouse as a serious option as your spirit base.
Quite enjoyable indeed.
