Penicillin Cocktail
Between the many drinking toasts that translate to “health” (sláinte, santé, salud, salute, na zdorowie) and expressions like “hair of the dog” and “it’s good for what ails you,” one might get the impression that drinking for medicinal purposes is a thing. While many liqueurs of yore were developed as remedies, modern science looks to alcohol as nothing much more than an antiseptic. However, the suggestion of curative drinking lives on in the names of cocktails. Most modern is the Penicillin, a drink that has no antibiotic properties, but will, however, attack any malaise of the mood—deliciously.
Concocted by Sam Ross at New York’s shuttered, but legendary, Milk & Honey bar, it includes such palliative, if not healing, ingredients as lemon juice, honey and ginger. The use of both blended and Islay single malt Scotch apparently wasn’t a nod to the Scottish discoverer of the antibiotic—Alexander Fleming—but it’s fitting.
The Penicillin continues in a long tradition of medicinal-sounding drinks that include many takes on the Corpse Reviver (circa 1930s). The best of these is the No. 2, made with gin, curaçao, lemon juice and Cocchi Americano. The TV series “Grey’s Anatomy” seems to have inspired the Code Blue (hospital jargon for “life threatening”). Its many versions are mélanges of blue curaçao, fruit juice and spirits. The Quarantini is a catchall Martini stemming from the days of lockdown. Ingredients were whatever you had around and maybe some vitamins or immunity boosters.
The granddaddy of them all, the Hot Toddy dates to the 18th century. Made with your choice of whiskey, along with honey, lemon, spices and hot water, it seems to have set the standard for medicinal cocktails. When flavored whiskeys were making a comeback about 20 years ago, master distiller Jimmy Russell slyly commented that his Wild Turkey American Honey wasn’t exactly new. He remembered his mother mixing Bourbon with honey to treat teething and coughs. “So,” he said, “I always tried to have a cough.”
The Penicillin
2 oz. blended Scotch
3/4 oz. lemon juice
3/4 oz. honey-ginger liqueur
1/4 oz. Islay single malt Scotch
Candied ginger
Mix blended Scotch, lemon juice and syrup in a shaker over ice. Shake, then strain into an Old Fashioned glass over fresh ice. Top with Islay single malt. Skewer the candied ginger as a garnish.
