Whisky cocktails
11 drinks in Barello's library use whisky. Each one lists what it needs, so you can see at a glance which are already within reach.
What cocktail can I make with whisky?
Barello's library has 11 cocktails that use whisky. The ones needing the fewest other bottles are Whisky Highball, Boulevardier and Manhattan. Every recipe below lists exactly what it takes, so you can see which are already within reach.
About whisky
What it is
Grain, fermented like beer, distilled, then aged in oak. The grain decides the character and the barrel does most of the rest.
Where it came from
Ireland and Scotland both claim it, and the earliest written record is a Scottish Exchequer Roll of 1494 granting malt to a friar to make aqua vitae. Distilling almost certainly came to both from monastic medicine long before anyone wrote it down.
Worth knowing
Scotch is malted barley, often with peat smoke. Bourbon is at least 51% corn and must go into new charred oak, which is where its sweetness and vanilla come from. Rye is at least 51% rye and is drier and peppery, which is why a Sazerac tastes nothing like an Old Fashioned made with bourbon. Irish is usually triple distilled and softer. Japanese was built deliberately in the Scotch image. The spelling follows the country: Scotland, Canada and Japan write whisky, Ireland and the United States write whiskey.
The whisky list 11
Boulevardier
Irish Coffee
Manhattan
Mint Julep
New York Sour
Old Fashioned
Penicillin
Sazerac
Vieux Carré
Whisky Highball
Whisky Sour
Not sure what to pour with it? See what to mix with whiskey.
Deciding what to buy? What every home bar needs counts which bottles open the most drinks, and the two-bottle table says which pairs genuinely combine.
Looking for an app that does this on your phone? We ranked the cocktail apps, including ours, by their real store ratings.
Work it the other way round. Tick every bottle you own, not just the whisky, and Barello lists what you can make tonight.
What cocktail can I make?