If you’re a whisky lover, don’t feel peer pressured to drink anything else on New Year's Eve! These delicious whisky cocktails make for a special toast.
Whip up a batch for your New Year's Eve party, or put in a request to your local bartender if you’re celebrating the night out and about.
The Old Fashioned Glenmorangie
This classic has been around in one form or another as early as 1906 when the word “cocktail” was defined as “spirits, bitters, sugar and water,” a mixture that’s quite close to the recipe for an Old Fashioned. Popular in the late 1800s to early 1900s, the classic recipe is straightforward, with no extras or flourishes -- a bit old-fashioned. A true “original", if you will.
Ingredients
2 OZ Glenmorangie Original
1 Brown sugar cube
4 dashes of orange bitters
1 orange skin twist to garnish
Glass
Old-Fashioned glass
Method
Put the sugar cube in the Old-Fashioned glass and add the bitters. Crush the sugar with a muddler. Rotate the glass so that the sugar grains and bitters cover the bottom evenly. Add a large ice cube. Pour in the Glenmorangie. Garnish with an orange twist.
Highland Sazerac
America’s first cocktail, the Sazerac, was created in New Orleans in 1838. Antoine Peychaud created the drink in a french quarter bar and named it after his favorite french brandy, Sazerac-Deforge et Fils. Bartender Leon Lamothe, known as the father of the Sazerac, added a dash of Absinthe in 1873, but it was substituted for bitters in 1912 when Absinthe was banned.
Ingredients
2 oz Glenmorangie Lasanta
Yellow Chartreuse for rinsing the glass
¼oz Simple syrup
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 lemon twist to garnish
Glass
Old-Fashioned glass
Method
Rinse an Old-Fashioned glass with Yellow Chartreuse, and discard the Chartreuse. Chill the glass then fill it with ice. Stir the Glenmorangie, simple syrup and both bitters over ice, and strain into the prepared glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Original Tonic
Think whisky cocktails are ‘too heavy’? Think again - with bubbly tonic water and subtly sweet elderflower cordial, this is the perfect light cocktail.
Ingredients
1.5oz (50 ml) Glenmorangie Original
.5 oz (10 ml) elderflower cordial
Top with Tonic Water (Fever Tree preferred)
Lime twist to garnish
Glass
Collins glass
Method
Pour Glenmorangie Original over cubed ice into a Collins glass, add elderflower cordial and charge with tonic water. Finish with a lime twist.
Julep on the Green
A decidedly Scottish take on the Kentucky classic cocktail. The fresh mint pairs beautifully with Glenmorangie Original, enhancing its smooth taste. Perfect for all festive occasions.
Ingredients
1.5 oz (50 ml) Glenmorangie Original
12 mint leaves
.5 oz (10 ml) sugar syrup
1 dash Angostura Bitters
Garnish: large mint sprig
Glass
Julep glass
Method
Pour all the ingredients into a mixing glass then gently press the mint to extract the essential oils. Fill the mixing glass with cubed ice and stir to chill, dilute slightly and combine the ingredients. Then fill a julep cup with crushed ice, and single strain the liquid from the mixing glass into the cup.
Stir slightly and top up with crushed ice. To finish, add a large sprig of fresh mint – and a straw cut short to ensure the mint’s scent is appreciated.
Blood and Sand
This traditional scotch whisky cocktail was named for Rudolph Valentino's 1922 bullfighter movie Blood and Sand and first appeared in print in Harry Craddock’s 1930 The Savoy Cocktail Book, but beyond that, nothing is known of the origins of this fine cocktail.
Ingredients
2 oz Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban
½oz fresh orange juice
½oz Cherry Heering
½oz Sweet Vermouth
1 orange peel for garnish
Glass
Chilled martini glass
Method
Add all liquid ingredients to a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Shake and strain into a chilled martini glass. Flame orange peel over the drink, then rub on the rim.
To learn more about Glenmorangie, visit their website.
* Originally published in 2017. Updated in 2022.
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