bourbonismyspinach

This is a spiced and smoked variation of the Ginger Rogers, not meant for the weak at heart, those who order whiskey sours, or who can’t handle a bit of fire. Laphroaig 10 year is the backbone of this particular cocktail. If you are a Scotch drinker you’ll know that this is an intensely peaty, smokey distillate, and if you mix drinks, an interesting spirit to work with:

• 1.5 Laphroaig 10 year
• .5 ginger coriander syrup
• .25 Cointreau
• dash Lemon bitters
• sliver of orange rind

Chill a coupe or cocktail glass, toss the Scotch, syrup, and Cointreau into an ice filled shaker, shake until there are ice chips. Wash your glass with lemon bitters, making sure to only barely coat the inside as too much of a strong bitters, like lemon, will overpower and unbalance this cocktail. Strain, making sure to get the ice chips floating, burn the orange peel and rub around the rim of the glass, then drop it into the cocktail.

The ginger coriander syrup needs to be a thin one so that you get the flavors without sweetening the cocktail too much: 3.5 cups sugar to a half gallon water, with an ounce of chopped ginger and 4 tablespoons of whole coriander on a boil for 15-20 minutes will produce a good product. Add the sugar at the end of the process so that more of the coriander and ginger flavor can steep into the liquid.

Any thoughts on this? Would you use a different scotch, a different coriander ginger ratio for the syrup, or a different bitters?