Photo by Carlos Andrés Varela

Expand your whisky horizons with a pair of new cocktails

It’s easy to get trapped in a rut.

You’re at the bar or at home making drinks and you fall back on your old reliable. Maybe it’s the classic Old Fashioned your pops taught you how to make, or that simple gin & tonic you know is almost impossible to screw up.

In celebration of World Whisky Day on May 19 – yes, the world is a little better place when we give Scotch whisky it’s own day – get creative and try one of these two new whiskey cocktails designed to shake up your old school drinking habits.

The Dead Ringer

Created by New York City bartender Patrick Smith, The Dead Ringer enhances 10-year-old Jura single malt Scotch whisky’s subtle smokiness with a bar spoon of absinthe and an enlightening hint of sweetness of Grand Mariner. Not a drink to be rushed, you’ll want to savor every drop of The Dead Ringer, which brings out all the finer notes of Jura 10, which is aged in American white oak bourbon barrels before spending tie in Oloroso sherry casks.

Recipe:
1 bar spoon of absinthe

1/4 oz of Grand Marnier

1/4 oz of Amontillado sherry

1/2 oz of honey syrup

3/4 of a lemon

1 1/2 oz of Jura 10

Shake and fine strain into a coupe

La Dame de Coeur

An outstanding way to boost a classic Scotch, the La Dame de Coeur gloriously combines 12-year-old Dalmore single malt Scotch whisky with two kinds of bitters and vermouth. The Dalmore 12 is fabulous neat, but you’ll love the La Dame de Coeur for the way it amplifies the Scotch.