Drink for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe

Tale has it that during 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was determined that his team would succeed over a visiting English side. To secure an advantage, he threw a grand party the night before the match, where he presented his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These were famously generous four-finger whisky servings, customarily poured from pinky to index finger. As expected, the English players partook excessively, resulting in them being extremely hungover and, inevitably, defeated the day after. In this way, the myth of the Patiala peg came to be.

This inspired variation of Old Fashioned cocktail is inspired by Singh's beverage. Here, we serve it from a specially crafted large-format bottle, but we've modified the instructions to make it better suited for a household environment.

The Patiala Peg Recipe

Yields 1 litre, to serve 10-12 drinks.

You Will Need

• 725g Scotch whisky blend
• 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
• 6g Angostura bitters (about 1⅓ tsp)
• 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
• A small pinch of salt
• 2g xanthan gum

Instructions

Put all the ingredients in a sizeable jug. Add 130g water, mix thoroughly, then put it in the refrigerator. You can store it for as long as 21 days.

To serve, pour about 90ml of the prepared cocktail into a short glass packed with ice (ideally one large cube). Drink straight away. To honour tradition, you could measure it in by hand for authenticity.