Alpine Meadow in its earliest form (yeah I know … terrible photo)
My Alpine Meadows cocktail had its beginnings back in January 2010 when I introduced the serving as a suggested cocktail for the Glenfiddich 15 Year Old Single Malt Whisky. This was early days for my website, and at that time I was just dipping my toes in the cocktail world.
The genesis of thought for the serving, is that I felt the floral notes within the Glenfiddich whisky and its firm oak character could be paired with the piny flavour of gin. It was just a thought, albeit perhaps a thought that ran contrary to the more common view that one should leave fifteen year old Single Malt whiskies alone as they are just fine the way they are.
I knew that a bridge needed to be built to encourage the coupling of the piny gin and the floral oaky single malt scotch, and so I added an orange liqueur and was pleased enough with the result to publish the serving within the body of that whisky review.
I have returned to that serving several times as a suggested serving for other whisky spirits as I have discovered that it’s construction is suitable for a wide range of Single Malt and Canadian Whiskies.
Today I am going to give everyone an improved construction based on a few tweaks which I believe improves the libation. The first tweak is the addition of bitters, Bittermen’s Boston Bittahs to be exact. These particular bitters have a firm citrus backbone which is paired heavy dose of chamomile. This adds a light floral punch to the cocktail. I am also adding a garnish, specifically orange zest which compliments not only the whisky, but also the gin and the citrus forward bitters in the serving.
This time around I am using a young Canadian Single Malt Whisky, Macaloney Caledonian Invermallie – Portuguese Re-charred Red Wine Barrique (that’s a mouthful isn’t it) paired with Burwood Dry Gin which is made in Calgary. Hopefully many of you will find the improved version of my cocktail as enjoyable as I do.
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Alpine Meadows
1 1/4 oz Macaloney Caledonian Invermallie (Port Red Wine Barrique)
2/3 oz Burwood Gin
1/3 oz Bols Triple Sec (sub any quality triple distilled orange liqueur)
dash Bittermen’s Boston Bittahs
ice
Citrus Zest
Add the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice
Shake until the outside of the shaker begins to frost
Strain into chilled cocktail glass
Garnish with citrus zest
Enjoy Responsibly!
Note: If you are interested in more of my original cocktail recipes, please click this link (Cocktails and Recipes) for more of my mixed drink recipes!
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