The Travelling Scot

This cocktail is cross-posted on Rod Phillips’ blog over at liquorplus.ca.  He’s started up more sippable fun with a new weekly feature called Thirsty Thursday, and this was the cocktail recipe I sent his way for this week’s installment.  Make sure you bookmark him and check back weekly for more tasty cocktails!

This cocktail was originally developed for a Thursday Drink Night where the theme was Scotch.  (I did post the original back in January), but decided to tweak it a bit.  The ingredients are a little bit tropical, a little bit New World, and a little far-flung in general, hence the name of the cocktail!

The starting point was the citrus/scotch pairing in the Blood and Sand, but that’s about where it stops (its not an equal parts cocktail).   Some sweetness was added through the sortilage, and the pink grapefruit juice adds some tart without too much pucker.  When tweaking the recipe, I also added a small amount of elderflower syrup and a few drops of my homemade grapefruit bitters to add a little more brightness.  The Angostura helps tie everything together.

The cocktail itself is classic in style, but is a little bit on the sweeter side.  My goal was to develop a Scotch-based cocktail that was accessible enough for non-cocktail drinkers, but had some complexity to it to make in an interesting sip.  I also switched out the Arran Malt whisky for Blended Scotch in this version to make it easier to make at home.  For those  in Victoria here who want to make it at home, all the ingredients are available locally, with the exception of my homemade grapefruit bitters, however, Bitter Truth makes a version which Carmen at Charellis has been bringing in.

The Travelling Scot:

• 1.5 oz. Blended Scotch
• 0.5 oz. Sortilage (maple syrup-Canadian Whisky liqueur)
• 1.0 oz. pink grapefruit juice
• 0.25 oz. Elderflower syrup
• 4 dashes grapefruit bitters
• 2-3 dashes Angostura bitters

Shake well with ice, strain and serve up in a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with a grapefruit twist