The Rhubarb Fool

My Ben Lawers re-invention of the classic whisky sour was inspired by a pre-dinner cocktail, the Porto Sour, sampled at the Grandtully Hotel on the banks of the River Tay in Perthshire on a recent family holiday.

The Porto Sour ingredients were listed on the cocktail menu as “Dewar’s Portuguese Smooth, blood orange, fennel, raspberry, lemon, pimento”. Grandtully is on the outskirts of the market town of Aberfeldy which in turn is spiritual home both to Aberfeldy single malt and also to Dewars, the first blended Scotch whisky. Dewars’ first female Master Blender is the redoubtable Stephanie Macleod and one of her innovations was to mature Dewars blended whisky in a port casks to produce the specific whisky called for in this cocktail.

The Aberfeldy distillery is both picturesque and visitor-friendly and, incidentally, they market their own range of innovative ready-to-drink cocktails but that’s another story…

The red fruit notes from the whisky made a great starting point for the Grandtully mixologist’s reinvention classic whisky sour. I could pick out the orange, lemon, raspberry and anise notes in the drink but to be honest, and perhaps fortunately, the pimento element completely passed me by.

It was a perfect summer evening cocktail and I decided I’d have a go at recreating something similar once I was back home. I’ve come up with something along the same lines built on Dewar’s Portuguese Smooth blended whisky but I’ve tweaked the ingredients and made the drink my own.

My first attempt used orange juice and a home-made fennel infused simple syrup. This was pleasant enough but the orange juice didn’t give the required sour hit and the mild fennel flavour of my home-made syrup was completely overpowered by the other ingredients.

I decided that the anise and raspberry elements of the drink were key so swapped out the fennel syrup in favour of a capful of Pernod and boosted the raspberry flavour by adding some unsweetened fresh raspberry purée. These ingredients are also appropriate to Perthshire. The connection between soft fruits and Perthshire is well known, whereas the reason for the inclusion of anise is perhaps less obvious. Aberfeldy is the closest town to the mighty Ben Lawers, the tenth highest mountain in Scotland and well-known for its fabulous mountain flowers. The hint of anise from the Pernod recalls the wild angelica that grows in profusion on the lower slopes of Ben Lawers. The borage flower garnish that I also added was inspired by the bright blue alpine gentian that grows near the summit of Ben Lawers.

We spent several days exploring the Ben Lawers massif and its botany so this drink is a reminder of some great days out.

The orange juice was ditched in favour of lemon juice so the orange flavour called for in the cocktail now comes from a bottle of orange bitters that I found in the back of my cocktail cupboard plus the orange oil from the twist of peel garnish.  

I’m really pleased with the end result and you don ‘t need to know the back story to enjoy it.

Sláinte!

Ben Lawers whisky sour

Serves 1

Ingredients

2oz Dewar’s Portuguese Smooth (or any smooth blended whisky or alternatively a not too obtrusive single malt ideally with a port cask finish)

¾ oz lemon juice

¾ oz unsweetened raspberry puree

½ oz simple syrup

3 dashes orange bitters (Angostura brand)

3ml Pernod

Twist of orange peel and 3 frozen raspberries to garnish plus a couple of borage flowers if you can find them

Shake all the ingredients (except for the garnish) with ice. Strain into a small tumbler. Drop in 3 frozen raspberries and float a twist of orange peel on the surface making sure that the essential orange oil lands on the surface of the drink as you peel. Float the borage flowers carefully on the top of the drink.