The right drink for a (cocktail)party: Irish Celebration

As a bartender you are into a lot of stuff, normal people wouldn’t drink or buy themselves. So you are always trying to come up with recipes that make use of extraordinary ingredients. This time it’s Irish Whiskey!

Ok maybe it’s not that an unusual ingredient, but there aren’t many good cocktail recipes out there using it. The same goes for cider. Personally I can’t recall any cocktails that use it – well besides my drinks. That’s why I thought I just bring those two ingredients together. Besides that, I think, that whisky and apples fit together very well. Probably I should explain that for me whiskey and especially Single Malt always tastes a bit like apples, ever since I took my first sip of Glenfiddich 12 Year Old. Another thing that I am noticing right know is that I really seem to like apples, since the last three recipes I posted contain some sort of it.

But let’s get to the ingredients! The smoothness of Irish whiskey is its biggest advantage and disadvantage at the same time. Where it is a benefit for drinking it neat as a whisky novice, it’s a downside when mixing cocktails. There’s always the danger of the whiskey being lost somewhere between the other ingredients. That’s why I went for a combination of Single Malt and peated cask strength Single Malt. I reckon of course that any other good quality Irish Whiskey will do instead of the 10 year old Bushmills.

To make the drink more different from other cider cocktails, I choose to use Bulmers No. 17 cider. It’s a cider “enhanced” with lime and red. – Some say it tastes like dissolved gummy bears, but no one says you have to drink it neat!
To give the drink a little bit more acidity I added some lime and to smooth things out a little orange juice. I know it sounds redundant, but sometimes a little orange juice can be the thing that brings all the different flavors together.

Top off with Bulmers No. 17 Cider
Shake first 5 ingredients over ice – strain – Highball glass over ice;
Garnish: Three apple slices;
Song: Macklemore X Ryan Lewis – Irish Celebration

The important thing here is not to forget the simple syrup, otherwise the drink lacks that little bit of sweetness that it needs! I forgot it when writing the recipe down and corrected it later. But it still happens that it slips my mind…

Anyhow, if you prepare the drink the right way it’s an interesting combination of flavors, with the cider playing the main part. You will find the whiskey lingering in the back, reminding you that you shouldn’t gulp this down like lemonade. The lime is there to keep the cider from overpowering the whole thing and as I already said the orange juice just keeps the whole thing together.

If it just so happens that you find yourself knocking down more than one of these, you might just go ahead and have a party! Therefore the Macklemore and Ryan Lewis song just seemed perfect for this drink.

Do you like this drink? If so, you might also enjoy this whisky highball I created!