35 Whisky Cocktail Recipes

Whisky brings oak to the party, and oak changes everything. Years in barrel give the spirit vanilla, tannin, dried fruit and colour, so whisky cocktails tend to be short, stirred and built to be sipped rather than gulped. Style is not interchangeable here. Bourbon is corn-led, sweet and round, and it is what an Old Fashioned or a Mint Julep expects. Rye is drier and spicier and sharpens a Manhattan considerably. Scotch runs from gentle Speyside malts to peated Islay bottlings that will dominate anything you mix them with. Irish whiskey is light and approachable, and Japanese whisky sits somewhere between Scotch and precision engineering. The classics reward restraint. Most great whisky drinks are the spirit plus a modifier and a dash of bitters, stirred cold and served over one large piece of ice. Add sugar sparingly, because the barrel has already done some of that work for you.