Barley Bird – The Busker Single Malt
There have been a lot of American whiskey drinks here on the blog lately. So, it is time to mix things up a bit, but not too much. This is why we stay with whiskey, but this time with a Scotch and Irish Whiskey combination. The Jungle Bird seemed like the perfect drink for it.
I already featured the standard Busker’s bottling, but all its parts are available as individual bottlings in their Single Collection. In this case, I want to present to you the single malt version. Traditionally, the single malt is used in the blended expression from the Royal Oak Distillery. However, in this case the pot-distilled spirit is aged in bourbon barrels and sherry casks. In the end, the whiskey has an ABV of 44,3 %.
Smooth entry into single malts
First off, yes the Busker’s Single Malt is a bit green behind the ears. However, the sip is smooth with fruity notes a bit of spices, especially cinnamon and malt. The whisky is well balanced and makes for an easy a delicious sip. The single malt is not the most complex, even for Irish whiskey, but taking the price into account you really get a lot of flavour.
Malt + malt = Barley Bird
Well, this is one of the drinks where I came up with the name first. With its ornithological reference in the name, I knew it had to be a Jungle Bird variation with whisky. I chose a split base between the Epicurean Blended Malt and the Busker Single Malt. Instead of Campari, I used the Casoni Bitter del Ciclista. Furthermore, I added a blend of bitters which work especially well with whisky.
3 cl The Busker Single Malt
2,25 cl Casoni Bitter del Ciclista
1 Dash Bob’s Bitters Abbott’s Bitters
2 Dashes Scrappy’s Orleans Bitters
4,5 cl Pineapple Juice
3 cl Lemon Juice
1,5 cl Moscavado Simple Syrup
Garnish: Lemon Twist; Song: Miner – Barley Bird;
Even though the drink shares a common base with the original Jungle Bird, it tasted quite different. The malt notes take the drink more into a wintery direction. This is also further supported be the bitters. Just in the end, the bitter and the pineapple juice add the familiar tropical bird flavours.
*The fact that I received a product reviewed in this article for free, did not – in any way – influence the rating of said product. The whiskey was provided by Borco Markenimport.
