It’s not really that surprising that I got given some cocktail related stuff for Christmas. Amongst them was The PDT Cocktail Book by Jim Meehan. I have a FNC, the Green-ish Deacon that originated from this book, but I’d never read the book, I reckon that I read enough about cocktails on the web and really don’t need any more encouragement.

This book is a beauty. It’s very simple in the way that the Savoy Cocktail Book is (as the introduction says it was supposed to be) but a little more bossy. As a general rule the Savoy Book states Italian or French vermouth, gin, vodka etc. Whilst the PDT gives the brand names of the drink. So Plymouth Gin, Punt e Mes, Rittenhouse Bonded Rye Whiskey and so on. It’s much more aimed at people in the industry and at home no-one (however hard we try!) is going to have a bar as well stocked as that, so the first thing I did reading through it, was look at the cocktails, I had ingredients for. I’ve found in trying new cocktails that it’s always a good way to start as most people have distinct preferences in spirits, no point trying to get a whisky/ey drinker that doesn’t drink cocktails into a rum cocktail, try them with a whiskey sour, manhattan or old fashioned first! Warm them up to the idea of cocktails and go from there.

The same idea applies to regular cocktail drinkers, most of us have a go to cocktail, for me it’s the manhattan or martini so I always have gin and whiskey in the house, and it’s useful to have more than one cocktail that you can make using the ingredients you already have.

So I found this, the Improved Whiskey Cocktail. Except I still don’t have any absinthe, let alone the Vieux Pontarlier Absinthe listed in the recipe. So I used the Pernod that I do have.

The cocktail is an amped up Old Fashioned. This is something that I’d give to Ryan and ask him what’s in it.

The Improved Whiskey Cocktail (slightly adapted from The PDT Cocktail Book by Jim Meehan)

What

2 oz Rittenhouse Bonded Rye Whiskey

.25 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

.25 oz Simple Syrup*

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Pernod for rinsing the glass

Lemon twist for garnish

How

1) Add all ingredients except Pernod to a mixing glass filled with ice and stir.

2) Strain over ice into a chilled, Pernod-rinsed rocks glass

3) Garnish with a lemon twist.

*this is easy to make, equal amounts sugar and water, heat to dissolve the sugar, let it cool, use. Alternately, mix sugar and water, leave for an hour or so, the sugar will dissolve by itself.