Drink This Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – How to Make It

Legend has it that in 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was determined that his team would succeed over a visiting English side. To gain the upper hand, he organized a splendid party on the eve of the match, at which he presented his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These are incredibly substantial four-finger whisky pours, customarily poured from little finger to index finger. As expected, the English players overindulged, resulting in them being extremely the worse for wear and, inevitably, defeated the day after. In this way, the story of the Patiala peg was born.

This inspired variation of old fashioned is inspired by that original concoction. In our establishment, we serve it from a custom-made five-litre bottle, but we've modified the recipe to make it more suitable for a household kitchen.

The Patiala Peg Recipe

Yields 1 litre, serving 10-12 drinks.

You Will Need

• 725g blended scotch whisky
• 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
• 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
• 1g orange-flavoured bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
• A dash of salt
• 2g xanthan gum powder

Preparation

Put everything in a large bottle. Include 130g water, mix until fully incorporated, then put it in the fridge. It can be stored for about 21 days.

For serving, measure out roughly 90ml of the prepared cocktail into a old fashioned glass packed with ice (ideally one big block). Enjoy straight away. If you're feeling traditional, you could measure it in by hand as they did.