Italian Buck.

Posted on 2nd October 2026 by Andy

Buckle up!

Italian Buck.

The drinks I post here largely move with the seasons. Tiki and sours in the spring and summer then moving into more aromatic, deep and comforting in the autumn and winter months. Mostly. But right now here in Amsterdam in early October it still feels more like summer (nice but also kind of scary). What to do, what to do? Confused me turned to my library of cocktail books and found the answer to my dilemma in Jamie Boudreau’s Canon Cocktail Book from 2016 named for his Seattle bar*. Jamie’s very own Italian Buck is an interesting concoction based on the “buck” class of mixed drink which broadly means anything that is a spirit lengthened with ginger beer or ginger ale. Since the creation of the Moscow Mule (which is a buck) the name “mule” has become more popular but the two are basically interchangeable. Where Mr Boudreau went off piste was to use a base of two Italian amari, and two very good and fairly available ones at that. An ounce each of Montenegro and Cynar balance out each other’s peculiarities rather well and combined with a little lime juice and ginger beer create a long drink that has both the fizz and hydration we love in the summer and the bittersweet autumnal flavours that the season demands. I’m often asked about the difference between ginger ale and ginger beer. Simply put they similar but ginger beer is just more powerfully gingery and often a little sweeter. Or that ginger ale is just ginger beer lite. Also ginger ale is traditionally more Canadian/American and ginger beer more Jamaican/British/Australian although these days you can find both just about anywhere. Why the ale/beer part which confuses many due to their lack of alcohol? Well, they were originally made using a fermentation process just like beer. I sometimes make my own ginger beer – which is fun and easy to do** – but this time I happened to have a few bottles of Bundy I thought I’d use. It’s pretty good stuff if you can get it but if not Old Jamaica (or really any Jamaican ginger beer) or Fever Tree are good alternatives. In his buck Jamie went for the more powerful punch of ginger beer (without specifying which) but just three ounces of it. I preferred it with a little more as described below but be sure not to drown it. Jamie also has it shaken and strained but if you are feeling lazy just build it in a well iced glass and give it a good stir. A garnish of lime or mint are equally valid in my view although the creator called for the former. The Italian Buck might not be ideal for the bitter averse but we really don’t hang out with those types do we? So reach up to your amari shelf and buck your way ever so gently from this Indian summer into autumn.

Italian Buck.

1oz/30ml Amari Montenegro.

1oz/30ml Cynar.

0.5oz/15ml fresh lime juice.

3-4oz/90-120ml good ginger beer.

Build in a Collins glass with plenty of ice and garnish with a lime wedge or a sprig of mint.

Toast ginger.

*As of 2026 Canon is still there whilst so many others have come and gone.

**There are plenty of good recipes online.

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The Purple.

Posted on 4th September 2026 by Andy

Purple reign.

The Purple.

The inspiration for the creation of a new cocktail can sometimes be strange but you need to open to such strangeity (being strange and thinking constantly about cocktails helps). The way I came to create The Purple might be an excellent example. I few weeks back I was watering my beloved orchids and clumsy ole me knocked one over which snapped off a branch of beautiful flowers. Sad Andy decided he’d better come up with a cocktail to make use of the soon-to-die flowers* and thus The Purple was born. The term is a bit of an old fashioned turn of phrase used for the rich and royal. “Born into the purple” meaning to be of great privilege and wealth. Running with this concept I decided to set myself a challenge. Limiting your option often (counter-intuitively) opens yourself up to more creativity and I decided to make something with ingredients available 100 years ago which also had an upper-class vibe to them and, yes, it also had to be at least vaguely purple. I decided to go with a split base of London dry gin and cognac. Check! Lemon juice shines well with those spirits but how are we gonna pupleify our new old creation? First thoughts were with crème de mure or similar but I’ve beaning leaning on those kind of liqueurs rather heavily recently and after a bit of trial and error settled on Heering, a rather delightful old Danish liqueur that I’ve been wanting to use for a bit more than just a Singapore Sling. Luckily an equal parts combination of the above ingredients hit the mark best for me. Could I have made it more purple? Yeah, probably. Should we sacrifice flavour for appearance? Not so much. I could also have purpled it up with a few dashes of Ango but it turned out to dominate the drink too much so I dialed it back to just a dash each of Angostura and orange bitters which balanced nicely and left us with an easy to remember formula of 1:1:1:1:1:1 + a dead orchid. Up, double strained into a nice stemmed glass. Classy non?

The Purple.

1oz/30ml Cognac (VS or VSOP).

1oz/30ml London dry in of choice.

1oz/30ml fresh lemon juice.

1oz/30ml Cherry Heering.

1 dash Angostura bitters.

1 dash orange bitters.

Shake with ice and double strain into a chilled Champagne coupé. Garnish with the flower of a martyred orchid. Or not.

Toast orchids.

*The broken branch and flowers will stay in good condition in a small vase or glass of water for at least a couple of weeks.

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Bum & Ritters.

Posted on 31st July 2026 by Andy

Tery Vasty!

Bum & Ritters.

One of my favourite cocktails is the Bin & Gitters which I wrote about here some six years ago and recently thought to make a rummy version of because, after all, one good spoonerism deserves another. Once rum  is subtitutificated for gin we are left with lime juice, sugar syrup and a heavy float of bitters all over crushed ice. Which already sounds very Tiki. Leaning into this I experimented with switching the sweet component for some more interesting syrups and liqueurs and along the way enjoyed many a tasty beverage. However many seemed to close to existing drinks including my own Frigate Bird. I finally settled on ginger syrup which has a nice relationship with rum and also my taste-buds. Ginger might not be for everyone and I would encourage you also to play around with the sweet until you find a syrup, liqueur or, better still a combination which pleases your taste-buds. This is also an opportunity for those early in their cocktail journey to get used to the cocktail creation game which is, in any case, largely facilitated by riffing on existing recipes. And, should you find such satisfaction please feel free to report your version in the comments below. There’s not much more to say about this and it is the middle of summer so instead of sitting indoors writing more needless twaddle I’ll be toddling off to do some nice summery things. See you all next month!

Bum & Ritters.

2oz / 60ml dark Jamaican rum (I recommend my own blend but whatever).

1oz / 30ml fresh lime juice.

1oz / 30ml ginger syrup.

Shake with ice and strain into a Fouble Old Dashioned glass packed full with crushed ice.

Float 3 – 8 dashes of Angostura bitters on top (depending on how daring you are). Stir slightly. Or not. I did a bit this time in the picture above.

Serve with a straw as it’s best enjoyed from the bottom up.

Toast William Archibald Spooner (1844 – 1930).

 

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Three Sheets (to the Wind).

Posted on 3rd July 2026 by Andy

Blowin’ in the wind.

Three Sheets (to the Wind).

Summer having (very) arrived I felt an almost instinctive compulsion to create a new Tiki drink. Looking back over these pages I saw that it was a surprisingly long time since I last did so, especially considering my love for the genre. Off we go then! When inventing a new drink there are a few things to consider which assist greatly in the creative process. Firstly a theme to hang it on and if possible a name – although this often will come later. If you start there certain ingredients tend to suggest themselves. I’m already going Tiki and I thought to dive into the Naval sub-genre yet without making yet another Navy Grog variation, productive as that is. From this starting point I thought of the term “Three sheets to the wind” which is slang for someone being pretty drunk as a cracking name for a cocktail. It certainly appears to have some seagoing etymology and I always assumed that it meant with all the sails raised you would be fairly flying along with the wind at your back. But it turns out that it is even better than that. Apparently:

“To understand this phrase we need to enter the arcane world of nautical terminology. Sailors’ language is, unsurprisingly, all at sea and many supposed derivations have to go by the board. Don’t be taken aback to hear that sheets aren’t sails, as landlubbers might expect, but ropes (or occasionally, chains). These are fixed to the lower corners of sails, to hold them in place. If three sheets are loose and blowing about in the wind then the sails will flap and the boat will lurch about like a drunken sailor”

Having come this far some ingredients are indeed beginning to suggest themselves. Yes, as you probably guessed already, Navy strength rum will be our base for our new drink. My second tip on creating a new cocktail is to loosely base it on an existing classic. Beginners often start with great enthusiasm try all sort of strange concoctions only to be baffled why they don’t work (I know I was). The truth is that all the killer combos were worked out long, long ago. I love a Mai Tai and also find it a superb template for experimentation. Basically it is two parts spirit (yes, usually but not necessarily rum), one part of lime juice (or maybe another sour citrus) and one part sweet. And that sweet component, as in the original Mai Tai, can be a combination of syrups and/or liqueurs. All shaken with crushed ice and “dirty dumped” into a nice glass. All of which is pretty easy to do. My third tip is that if you want a quality drink use some quality ingredients. That said, when in the initial creation phase I will often mix with basic spirits to see if it has any potential and if it does move up to the better and more expensive versions. In this case I opted to just start out with some of my favourite – and well established – Tiki ingredients because I wanted to make this a timeless drink. My goal was to make something that could just as easily have been created in 1946 (peak Tiki) as 2026 kinda like I did with my Frigate Bird from a couple of years ago. The lime juice sour component I left entirely unmolested. The Navy strength rums I split evenly between Smith & Cross and Wood’s Navy rum, both 57% abv. Now knowing those of you outside the UK are highly unlikely to get any Wood’s I also tested it with 54.5% (also plausibly Navy strength) Worthy Park 109 which is a bit more available and it works just as well. There are further alternatives such as Pusser’s Gunpowder rum that you should feel free to use. The sweet is a combination of three classic Tiki syrups: ginger syrup, honey syrup and falernum*. My tweak is a good few dashes of my own home-made Tiki bitters which add spice and complexity. I urge you to make some but if you are determined to be lazy landlubber go ahead and fire a couple of dashes or aromatic bitters or a few drops of pimento dram in there and it will be fine – although you will forever be tormented by the fact that it could be even better. Make it just like a Mai Tai and, if you like, decorate it with a crooked sail. I hope this one shivers your timbers as much as it does mine!

Three Sheets (to the Wind).

1oz / 30ml Dark Navy strength rum (Wood’s, WP 109, Pusser’s gunpowder etc.)

1oz / 30ml Smith & Cross rum (57%)

1oz / 30ml fresh lime juice.

0.5oz / 15ml ginger syrup.

0.25oz / 7.5ml honey syrup (3:1).

0.25oz / 7.5ml falernum.

3-4 dashes Proof Tiki bitters (see text).

Shake with crushed ice and pour, unstrained, into a smallish Tiki mug or double Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with a crooked sail if desired.

Toast wonderful,wonderful Navy Rum.

*In this case all home-made.

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Rum blending part 2. Proof white rum blend.

Posted on 5th June 2026 by Andy

Rumbunctious!

Rum blending part 2. Proof white rum blend.

Today we are going to be blending ourselves some rum! Why? Because we are the kind of badass gozers who do that kinda crazy shit. And because it can sometimes be difficult to find a decent white rum for a reasonable price. I don’t use white rum that often but when I want a Daiquiri or a Mojito where a white rum is a major component I like something with a bit of flavour. But let’s back up a bit while I categorise white rum into three broad groups. Most other rums defy such simple grouping but we can get away with it here because most white rums are column distilled from molasses and minimally aged so terroir and local rules have much less impact than with other types of rum.

First of all we have our bottom shelf whites, distilled as described above and usually diluted to the legal minimum (as low as 37.5% in the EU). Unsurprisingly these rums have very little in terms of flavour and are as I like to say, “rums for people who don’t like rum”. As there are plenty of folks like that these rums make a tidy profit for the distillers with their simple and economic production methods and a rapid still-to-supermarket time. So, yes, largely pointless for the cocktailista – except this time. Examples are Don Q Cristal, Bacardi white, Captain Morgan white, El Dorado white, Cruzan white and various others – you get the drift. Next we have the slightly aged and better made type. Probably also entirely column distilled but this time with an age statement, typically 3 years. Most of the difference here is the ageing and that they are usually not quite so diluted. These rums have a little more character and the rough edges are somewhat smoothed out by dem tropical barrel years. Good examples of this type are Havana Club 3, Doorly’s 3, Plantation 3 stars, El Dorado 3 and Chairman’s Reserve white. Yup, the number 3 on the label is what you seek. Next up we have the mighty Jamaican Overproof white rums. These dunder-fermented, pot-stilled, funk-monsters always come in at 63% (give or take 1% very occasionally) and are still minimally aged if at all. They don’t need it as that intense love-it-or-hate-it funkiness only drifts away with ageing. You’ll pay a bit more for these but considering their high strength they are still pretty good value. Examples are the ubiquitous Wray & Nephew Overproof, Rum-Bar Overproof, Worthy Park Overproof and the great grand-daddy of them all, Rum Fire.

Furthermore there are some higher end blended white rums that contain elements of each of those but are quite a bit pricier. Examples are Veritas/Probitas, Tiki Lovers white and some other “multi-island blended white rums”. And ‘tis those that we are going to emulate here. But without that last factor!

After much tinkering and inspired by my trip to E & A Scheer a couple of years ago I arrived at the following formula that I feel produces a delicious white rum for use in, well pretty much any recipe that calls for white rum, although it is particularly excellent in a Daiquiri. From the bottom shelvers I used some Don Q Cristal (which is rarely seen on these shores) as my base. 200ml of that goes into a clean empty 500ml bottle. Not much going on there yet until we add 200ml of Havana Club 3 year old. While HC have recently and regrettably reduced this rum from 40% to 37.5% in my ‘hood it remains a smoothed out mellow rum which will reduce the harshness of our cheapo Puerto Rican base. Now it gets fun. It turns out a little Jamaican overproof rum goes a long way and 100ml of it (or 95ml if we are being particularly particular) has far more effect on the whole that you could ever imagine. I used the hard-to-find but spectacularly funky Rum Fire. Funk: check! In these proportions the overproof rum also has the benefit of raising the strength of the weaker, cheaper rums to an acceptable level. In my case almost 43% abv but of course dependent on the strength of the other two. The combination very nearly hit the mark for me but I felt we could do just a bit better. After further experimentation I discovered that gap was filled by just a teaspoon of moderately aged “bridge” rum and I finally settled on Appleton Estate 8 – an excellent example of that style. I might be nuts but to me it brings the whole blend “together” and adds just a hint of colour to the mix. The result is a white rum very much to my liking – and hopefully yours – that doesn’t break the bank. I know it will be difficult to replicate this exactly but just use the rums in each category that are available to you. Be sure to avoid any nasty sweetened rums and you should be fine. While the Rum Fire will likely be out of reach for all but the luckiest, Wray & Nephew Overproof is very widely available. Naturally feel free to scale my recipe up to 700ml or a litre but I find a 500ml both handy and easy to portion.

Damn fine Daiquiri.

I also took this as a bit of a challenge as how cheaply I could make a bottle of good white rum and I think did pretty well at just over €10 for 500ml (about €14.50 for 700ml). All four rums I grabbed were on sale which is not always possible but for the exercise: Don Q Cristal €8.95 for 700ml, Havana Club 3 €13.95 for 700ml, Rum Fire for about €25 for 700ml (yeah, I know!) and Appleton 8 for €24.95 for 700ml.

Proof White Rum Blend

200ml Cheap white rum (see text).

200ml Slightly aged white rum (see text).

95ml Overproof Jamaican rum (see text).

5ml Good moderately aged rum of choice.

Add to 500ml bottle, shake to mix and leave for a few days to “marry” and enjoy!

If you want copy of the label to print for yourself drop me an email at andy@proofcockails.nl

Title it “label please!” or something similar so I can find it amongst the endless sea of spam.

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Moose Factory.

Posted on 1st May 2026 by Andy

There’s a moose loose…

Moose Factory.

As my regular readers will remember over a year ago I embarked upon a quest to deUSAify my cocktail shelf* in favour of more ethical options. Experimentation gleaned some useful substitutes from Canada but to my immense surprise my boycott has so far failed to bring the administration to its knees. Ah, well – can’t win ‘em all. Undeterred today I shall honour Canada’s impressive resistance to coercion, bullying and general nastiness from its southern neighbour. In cocktail form! So with a bottle of Lot 40 Canadian rye whisky in hand we take arms against a sea of Trumple and mix our way to freedom. My paen to Canada is, I hope, an interesting cocktail which plies its route between such whisky classics as the Manhattan, Boulevardier and Old Fashioned, is deep and complex yet still simple to prepare. Indeed, in preparation we shall take a leaf from the Negroni’s book (and thus also the related Boulevardier) to stir with ice, strain over a large block of ice in an Old Fashioned glass with a twisted orange garnish. “But, but, but, what of the other ingredients?” I hear you cry. Fear thee not and be enlightened hencewith. Campari! “But are we not then making a Boulevardier?” Mai non! For we shall eschew the vermouth having already an Italian ingredient and having a need to also honour the French Canadians. Grand Marnier (King of the orange liqueurs imho) shall be deployed in small quantity for both its Frenchiness and affinity with Campari. We’re leaning just a touch sweet here so a couple of dashes of bitters will both remedy this as well as adding even more depth. I chose Bogart’s – the German reboot before you accuse me of hypocrisy – but another aromatic bitters is fine should you lack it. And there we are: fighting the forces of hate and division one drink at a time. What? Oh, right sorry. I named my creation after a small town on the Hudson Bay.

Moose Factory.

2oz/60ml Canadian rye whisky.

0.75oz/22ml Campari.

0.25oz/7.5ml Grand Marnier.

2 dashes Bogart’s bitters (or other aromatic bitters).

Stir with ice and strain into a double Old Fashioned glass containing a large block or sphere of clear ice. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Toast the good folks of Canada.

*And, to the maximum practicable extent possible, my life in general.

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Rage in Eden.

Posted on 3rd April 2026 by Andy

All the rage.

Rage in Eden.

Welcome to yet another of my own creations that doesn’t look very exciting and has a kinda dull unappealing rusty colour. You’re welcome. Hopefully that has scared off all the skin-deep riff-raff types and now you – the enlightened cocktail lover – can dig into a rather tasty and unusual tipple. I am a fan of what I call the “hybrid sour” which twists the more traditional sour with a bit of amaro or other aromatic component – at the cost of an inevitably muddy hue. This lack of visual appeal perhaps explains why you will rarely see such a drink on a cocktail menu. While we do care somewhat that our drink looks good we care much more about what it tastes like, right? I thought so! And so here we are with my Rage in Eden which uses calvados as its base spirit. In the unlikely event that you be all “WTF is calvados” a quick explainer. Despite being no expert on the other other spirit I can tell you that it is an apple based spirit made in Normandy in the north of France and with an ageing nomenclature familiar from the cognac world (VO, VSOP, XO). Other apple brandies could be used if calvados is unavailable. In the US, for example, applejack* is an acceptable substitution but, frankly, calvados is as good as you are going to get for an apple brandy with a good VS or VSOP being the best range for mixing. Chateau du Breuil (as pictured) is a good choice and probably easiest to find and I’m also keen on Coquerel. Having come up with this cocktail in the ass-backwards fashion of listening to an album  and thinking, “That would be a good name for a cocktail” I proceeded to experiment with ingredients that were vaguely “on message” and ended up with the following in addition to the glaringly obvious calvados: Lemons and honey which always work so beautifully together. Cynar – that slightly quirky Italian amaro with its pleasing vegetal notes. If Cynar eludes you Ramazzotti or Averna are close enough. For the rest nothing complicated is required – just shake with ice and double strain into a largish chilled champagne coupé. In this case I was lazy on the garnish but I see no reason not to employ a thin slice of apple if only to distract from the uninteresting colour of the drink.

Santé!

Rage in Eden.

2oz / 60ml Calvados (see text).

1oz/ 30ml Fresh lemon juice.

0.75oz / 22ml Cynar.

0.5oz / 15ml Honey syrup (3:1).

Shake with ice and double strain into a chilled largish champagne coupé.

Toast Ultravox’s best album** Rage in Eden.

*Europeans unable to find applejack for the likes of a Jack Rose would in any case do better to use calvados.

**In my controversial opinion.

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Red Hugh.

Posted on 6th March 2026 by Andy

Red who?

Red Hugh.

There’s a saying in cocktailand that goes “Everything is a Daiquiri.” While it is an enlightening concept when you first get into cocktails it is not quite right. “Everything is a Daiquiri or a Manhattan.” is closer to the truth. All but the strangest cocktails are a variation on one of these two and they serve as an excellent starting point in creating your own recipes. I love a Manhattan and today we shall be slightly tweaking it to come up with our own drink. For example in that modern classic the Black Manhattan all of the vermouth is replaced by an amaro and it is indeed a delicious drink but we do need to tread carefully when switching out the vermouth as we must be careful to keep the bitter to sweet balance intact to succeed. Amari are usually fine as the tend to be as bitter as they are sweet but this is not true of some other ingredients. Most liqueurs will sweeten our Manhattan variation too much to remain palatable but there are a few candidates which – like Amari – have bitter botanicals to help us out. Enter the sloeberry most often found in sloe gin* but also in the flavourful Spanish digestivo pacharan (aka patxaran) which we shall be using today – although I reckon you could use either. Sloe being a strong flavour we shall switch out only half of our vermouth which, as always in my case, is Punt e Mes which has the benefit of being beautifully bitter itself. Furthermore we shall ditch the bourbon (or more properly rye) and sub in some decent Irish whiskey – my current boycott of US products being only co-incidental this time. For the rest this is simply made as a Manhattan right down to the maraschino cherry nestling in the bottom of the chilled glass and you know how to make one of those already I should expect. The result is a pleasing drink with complex bitter notes from the pacharan, vermouth and bitters but enough sweetness from the first two of those to keep the balance we must always seek. All we need now is a name and thanks to a story from an Irish friend while we were on holiday in Valladolid a couple of years ago I have the perfect title for our new creation. Red Hugh was an Irish folk hero who ended his days in Spain thus giving us the name for our conveniently red drink with Spanish and Irish ingredients.

Txotx!

Red Hugh.

2oz/60ml Irish whiskey.

0.5oz/15ml pacharan/patxaran or sloe gin.

0.5oz/15ml Italian vermouth – ideally Punt e Mes.

2 dashes of aromatic bitters.

Stir with ice and stain into a chilled champagne coupé or Nick and Nora glass. Add a single maraschino cherry.

Toast Red Hugh (1572-1602) who stood up to the English occupiers, alas without much success.

*Which is paradoxically actually a liqueur.

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Champs-Elysees + L’Emitage Saint Valbert.

Posted on 6th February 2026 by Andy

Champin’ at the bit.

Champs-Élysées + L’Emitage Saint Valbert.

Despite my optimism that the Chartreuse Crisis would gradually resolve itself (after the hoarders had hoarded enough) it regrettably appears to have endured and become permanent. Despite living in one of the alleged “core markets” I can barely ever find a bottle and even when I do I am loathe to shell out the new asking prices of €70-90 knowing a few years ago it was a “mere” €35 for a bottle of the green stuff. Almost three years ago I posted a synopsis of the crisis with some possible solutions, none of them 100% satisfactory but more recently I espied something I thought worthy of investigation. L’Emitage Saint Valbert seems to have come from nowhere yet claims to have been in monky production in France since 1864. It weighs in at the same 55% as the “real” juice which is certainly encouraging as is that it costs much the same as pre-crisis green Chartreuse did. On the flip-side it does not look to be widely distributed outside of Europe apart from some East Asian airport shops. Also on the negative side of the ledger, a careful reading (between the lines) of the “history” on the back of the bottle suggests to me that this is a modern creation designed specifically to capitalise on the current crisis and that has been “history-washed” – a not uncommon practice in the world of booze. But is it any good? Sipped side to side with my dwindled remains of green Chartreuse I found the new contender to pretty similar but less intense. The Chartreuse has a wonderful rounded herbal flavour and pleasant mouth-feel whereas L’Ermitage feels a touch less integrated, a little more watery and has a slightly bitter finish that the Chartreuse lacks. But to be fair the differences are slight and when mixed with other ingredients as in a cocktail fade away almost entirely. Those who like to sip upon their Chartreuse might be disappointed but the mixin’ masses are served well enough by this “newcomer” – if it is available in their area.

But all of this is just an excuse to mix us up a classic French prohibition era cocktail called the Champs-Élysées which as surely everyone knows is the wide boulevard that runs from L’Arc de Triomphe down to Place de la Concorde in Paris. Emerging somewhat vaguely in the 1920s the Champs* got its big break by being included in Harry Craddock’s Savoy cocktail book of 1930. Harry gave a recipe to make enough for a small group and most recipes since have been based on a reduction of that leading to a consensus on the ingredients but not so much on the proportions. The version I give below is my preferred recipe but feel free to tinker away yourselves. I do however insist on using real French cognac and not some random “brandy” with my preference for a mixing cognac being Courvoisier VS which punches well above its moderate-ish price. It’s a classy drink and as such demands quality ingredients yet in the current situation L’Ermitage Saint Valbert is just good enough. It also requires attention to detail: The chilled glass, double straining, care of measurement, a neatly trimmed garnish.

Champs-Élysées.

1.5oz / 45ml cognac.

0.5oz / 15ml green Chartreuse or substitute.

0.75oz / 22ml fresh lemon juice.

0.25oz / 7.5ml simple syrup

2 dashes of Angostura bitters

Shake with ice and double strain into a chilled Champagne coupe.

Garnish with lemon twist.

Toast France’s most famous street.

*I avoid using the full name as adding all those weird-ass French letters is a pain in WordPress.

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Thoughts on the Old Fashioned + J.P Wiser’s 10 year old review.

Posted on 3rd January 2026 by Andy

None the Wiser…

 

Thoughts on the Old Fashioned

+ J.P Wiser’s 10 year old review.

I don’t have an Old Fashioned very often but every time I do I think, “I need to have an Old Fashioned more often”. Made well, there is perhaps no better cocktail. Given that the OF is pretty much the first cocktail, some unknown protococktailian got it right. First. Damn. Time. Respect – whoever you are. “Are” not “were” because that bastard is probably also immortal. If you, like me, are an all too infrequent imbiber of this hallowed original cocktail then I beg of you – listen to me just this once and listen thee well. If there is a time for an Old Fashioned it is this accursed month of January. That useless dead month of darkness, weariness and dread. A social wasteland of enui, mundanity and self loathing. 31 days of listlessness, boredom and bleakiosity. Yeah, it’s a bit shit. But there is an antidote and, trust me, it’s not dry. For the Month of Doom is best mollified by the daily ingestion (at precisely 19:30) of a single, perfectly made Old Fashioned cocktail. The precise construction of which is intensely, intensely personal but for the sake of having something to fucking write about I shall give you my personal variation which is not particularly controversial. The basic concept of the OF, as I am sure most of you already know, is to take your favourite spirit and stir it with ice, bitters and something sweet to create a sympathetic and slightly diluted version of something you love. A variation that adds colour and depth to the already endeared. Fuck, yeh. Be your love mezcal, rum, whisky, arak, brandy, gin or tequlia* there is an Old Fashioned version of that spirit that is right for you. That said, if there is a problem with the OG OF that is that it is frequently made too sweet. I’ve seen American bartenders insist that half an ounce of sugar syrup and a dash of bitters goes into their standard OF. I know a lot of Americans have a sweet tooth but HFMoG it is not meant to be a sweet drink. While personal preferences must be sometimes (grudgingly) respected the starting point should be two ounces (60ml) of whisky, a teaspoon of syrup (I suggest Demerara), at least two dashes of bitters and a modestly sized citrus garnish. Balance, as always, is the key to a perfect cocktail. Otherwise you have only succeeded in making sweet whisky**. Bleugh. My ramblings concluded for now I shall proceed with the next step in my quest to find a pleasing alternative to US whisky with another dig into the Canadian offerings.

J.P Wiser’s 10 year old triple barrel

Canadian whisky.

As you may have noticed, I have for a time been in search of viable bourbon and US rye whisky replacements for reasons most Trumpian***. The rye issue was solved by Lot 40 but I was still short a simple and inexpensive substitute for the former. Enter Wiser’s 10 year old triple wood whisky from the same stable as good ‘ol Lot 40. Wiser’s comes in a simple square section clear glass bottle with a metal screw cap and stings my wallet oh so lightly at just over €20. The label is kind of ordinary looking and lacking much designyness although looking at their website there seems be a new and equally uninspiring label since I bought my bottle. So far, so dull. However we also have the 10 years triple wood statement that makes us go, “Hmmmmmm”. There are a few Canadian whiskies that claim long ageing yet are quite inexpensive compared to almost any other aged spirit and I’m not entirely sure how they can do this. Sure, spirit ageing progresses at a more leisurely pace in colder climes (Windsor, Ontario in this case which is counter-intuitively just south of Detroit) but surely the warehousing and barrel switching costs remain similar? If anyone has an answer to this puzzle please feel free to inform us in the comments. The three woods are used bourbon barrels, new oak and used Canadian whisky barrels which sounds like a mix that could serve us well – although the actual times spent in each of the different woods remain a mystery. A strength of just 40% is uninspiring but probably also unsurprising at this price yet J.P Wiser’s certainly stimulates my curiosity and the best way to continue is, I eventually decide, to open the bottle. The light copperiness in the glass could be a result of 10 years in wood or added caramel leaving us none the wiser (no pun intended) but is attractive enough anyway. The nose is quite subtle but hints of toffee, grain and vanilla poke through but it really doesn’t smell very woody so far. The first sip from a relatively full bottle is a little disappointing being quite harsh and astringent but the finish delivers more being relatively long with a lingering bittersweet baking spice vibe. This is all fine for the modest price but I really can’t see this as a sipping whisky. But that’s not why we’re here is it? Used in an Old Fashioned and some other simple cocktails that normally feature bourbon Wiser’s holds its own pretty well with its safe middlegroundy flavour leaning in a sufficiently Bourbony direction that, for example, a Scotch could never pull off. As long as we don’t ask too much of it this Canadian whisky performs well enough and doesn’t carry those peculiar flavours that similarly priced US whiskies starting with Jim (peanut butter) and Jack (bananas) bring to the game. I think, at least for now, I have found what I was looking for – an affordable sub for an everyday mixing bourbon. Given the very fair price and flexibility I’m gonna give J.P Wiser’s 10 year old triple wood whisky a possibly over-generous mark with the understanding that it is valid only in this specific context:

B.

*Vodka can just fuck right off.

**Or, of course, some other spirit.

***Especially as of this very morning (3.1.26).

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