If you are looking for cocktail inspiration, here are four festive whiskey cocktails created by the distillers themselves.
The Teeling New Market Fashioned is their take on an old fashioned, with a few tweaks. Mix 50ml Teeling Small Batch Whiskey, 10ml honey syrup (50 per cent honey, 50 per cent hot water), 10ml all spice liqueur or spiced rum and two dashes of bitters into a glass with ice. Stir for five minutes, garnish with an orange twist and a cinnamon stick.
Blackwater suggest their version of a New York sour. Mix together 50ml Velvet Cap whiskey, 20ml sugar syrup, 20ml lemon juice with the white of a medium egg for six seconds. Add ice and mix again for 10-12 seconds. Double strain into a chilled whiskey tumbler (without ice) and slowly top up with your favourite red wine.
Suzanne Cody, brand ambassador for Connacht Distillery, created this hot whiskey cocktail for their single malt Batch 1 whiskey. Mix together 45ml dried apricot infused Batch 1 whiskey, 20ml lemon juice, ¾ spoon of honey and hot water to taste. To infuse the whiskey place dried apricots in it and leave for a minimum of two to three hours. Serve in an Irish coffee glass.
Bushmills’ Glenda O’Neill created Master of the Brew. In a shaker, mix ice, 40ml Bushmills American Oak cask, 30ml black tea, 7ml lavender syrup, 10ml spiced lemon cordial, a dash of orange, a dash of mezcal. Double strain into a cup with saucer and finish with a lavender spritz.
