Last week, the temperature in the UK reached biblical levels (over 82 degrees). Conditions got so bad that for a few blissful days, my social media feed was clogged with North Americans claiming to have never felt heat like British heat. The almost total lack of air conditioning, combined with well-insulated buildings, resulted in a trivial victory for the Old World. Small, but one I’ll take nonetheless.
The arrival of summer also means Glastonbury Festival is in full swing. And so, London’s under-35 population has seen a rapid decline as 200,000 revelers have fled the capital and chosen to go camping in the same field for a few days. All in the name of spiritual enlightenment, ‘music’ induced euphoria, and ingesting as much overpriced food from vans as possible. I’m not jealous at all. I promise.
Given the festival will be running until Sunday evening, I think I need something vaguely medicinal to help take my mind off it all, and so the drink of choice will be The Highland Park Penicillin.
In the grand scheme of cocktails, the penicillin is a relative newcomer to the game. Supposedly invented by Australian bartender Sam Ross in 2005 while he was living and working in New York. This drink is named after the antibiotics discovered by Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928. At the time, there were very few methods of treating bacterial infections, and today it’s believed that the discovery of penicillin has saved over 200 million lives.
Much like Fleming, Highland Park is Scottish, heralding from the isle of Orkney in the deepest darkest north of Scotland. Highly regarded for its smoky blend of peat and heather notes, a drop of Highland Park makes the ideal companion to the medicinal quality this tipple has, coming from the mixture of honey, lemon and ginger.
Now I can’t make any promises that this relatively youthful summer drink is going to cure your latest ailments; in fact, too many of them might just bring about a new one. However, the combination of sweet and smoky notes, chilled with ice and enjoyed numerous times over the course of a warm weekend, will likely resolve most of your problems.
Ingredients
2 oz Highland Park Whisky 12YO or 18YO
¾ oz lemon juice
½ oz honey syrup (2:1 honey to water)
½ oz ginger syrup
Ginger
Method
Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously until well-chilled. Ensure the TV is off and not playing highlights from Glastonbury Festival. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a piece of ginger. Go outside, enjoy the weather, and keep cool with a glass of penicillin, the drink, obviously.
