Viking Tears
I’m not a super huge fan of Highland Park whisky. Yes, sure, some of it’s good. The 18 year old HP is very good, or at least it was last time I had it (it’s getting pretty pricy though). HP 12 is OK, although hardly my favorite single malt. It’s too weak and watery for my tastes personally. And then there’s the no age statement HP, which is just crap whisky. I started wondering what to do with a bottle of Highland Park I have that I didn’t really want to consume neat, so I began to imagine it in a cocktail. As a big single malt whisky fan and a former cocktail geek, I’ve long wanted to create a scotch-based cocktail that I could enjoy. Scotch and cocktails are not always good bedfellows. Sure, there’s the Penicillin, a classic cocktail indeed, but beyond that medicinal concoction there aren’t many scotch cocktails I find all that interesting. I’ve tried and failed to create a scotch-based cocktail many times over the years.
On a related note, I’ve also been experimenting with using mead in a cocktail. Mead is relatively new to me (the Meade in MeadeMule is not related to the beverage, which seems to confuse some people… it is spelled differently after all), and I’d been struggling to find a good way to use it. Then it occurred to me… mead combined with a smoky scotch whisky might result in something interesting. A new take on the Penicillin, perhaps. After a bit of experimenting, I came up with what I’m calling Viking Tears.
The DNA of Viking Tears is similar to the Penicillin—scotch, honey, and lemon. Yes, the idea may be similar, but the ingredients are a bit different, especially the use of Suze (another drink I’ve struggled to find a place for in my cocktail lineup). Starting with Highland Park, mead, and Suze resulted in something interesting, but I felt it needed to be elevated a bit, and so a dollop of Ardbeg seemed in order. Yep, that’s just what it needed.
The end result here is something a bit sweet, a bit smoky, creamy, and in my opinion, rather nice. You can easily riff on this recipe by using different types of mead or different single malts. Heck, if you want a smokier version, you could ditch the Highland Park and go all Ardbeg (or other Islay single malt). Give it a try and let me know what you think!
Viking Tears Cocktail Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 ounces Highland Park 12 Year Old (or other Highland Park single malt)
- 1 ounce Mead (non-carbonated), preferably Viking Blod
- 1 ounce Suze
- 1 tablespoon Ardbeg 10 Year Old (or other heavily peated single malt)
- Garnish: Lemon peel twist
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients (except garnish) with ice in a glass and stir.
- Strain into a coupe glass.
- Garnish with lemon peel and enjoy.
For more cocktail recipes, check out my Cocktails page.
