Whisk(e)y has played a major role in the cocktail world from the baroque, the classical, pre-, during, and post-prohibition eras, and in the new cocktail renaissance.  It is the main ingredient in 6 of the first 10 cocktails listed in Jerry Thomas’ How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant’s Companion, first released in 1862. Harry Craddock’s The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) contains recipes for over 750 cocktails, more than 15% of which use whisk(e)y.  Four different styles of whisk(e)y appear in the first 10 items listed as a bar’s must-have items by Harry Johnson’s The Bartenders’ Manual.  David Embury mentions whisk(e)y first in his list of acceptable cocktail bases in The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948).  From the very early days of mixing concoctions to soothe one’s soul, whisk(e)y was one of the artists’ preferred mediums.

     In the last 30 years, several circumstances have further advanced the presence of whisk(e)y on the cocktail menu, i.e., the whisk(e)y boom of the late 1990’s, Mad Men reawakening our love affair with the Old-fashioned, a fever-pitched search for El Dorado in the form of the lost “pre-prohibition cocktail” (which led to one of the finest examples of flimflam since the likes of PT Barnum), and even the meteoric growth of the craft distillery in the USA.  Nowadays, its rare to find a cocktail bar that doesn’t feature at least one riff on one of the “classic” whisk(e)y cocktail.  And there’s nothing we enjoy more than exploring these fantastic libations, both new and old.

     In our quarterly “Whisk(e)y Cocktails” feature, you’ll find recipes and inspirational ideas for your next concoction.  Occasionally, we’ll even feature the classics and delve into their rich and often misunderstood history.  There’s a wealth of stories, myths, and tall-tales describing the origin of many whisk(e)y cocktails, and some of them are even true…