As I wrote earlier, I love to spend my time lurking on cocktail blogs and sipping a nice drink. One day I was reading Kaiser Penguin blog, one of my favourite blogs, thanks and respect to Rick , the author (Sorry if I’m wrong…).

There is a nice recipe called “D’Artagnan’s Wish”.

I’ve red it carefully and said – “Wow! I have all ingredients for it, and it looks very-very-very interesting. I should make it immediately!” Then I went and made it.

After first sip my reaction was “Oh dear Lord! Man, bookmark this page quickly! No, no, don’t bookmark, just save it as PDF!!!”

It was a great experience, a moment of pleasure. And I later I felt that I have to write about it.

The essence of this cocktail is a combination of very different flavours of Demerara rum and heavy peated and smoked Islay single malt whisky. They look like different but their combination set me thinking about their similarity.

I love Islay whisky as well as Demerara rum. So the wish of monsieur D’Artagnan is my automatic choice.

This recipe is similar to Rum Sidecar especially if we forget about small quantity of smoky Scotch probably used as aromatic agent. I really wonder how much whisky Rick has used for glass rinsing but my experience tell me that 3-5 ml Laphroaig 10yo whisky made this drink absolutely different from Rum Sidecar.

I tried to reproduce Rick’s recipe accurately and used the same rum and whisky.

So Rick wrote:

D’Artagnan’s Wish

• 2oz Demerara Rum (used El Dorado 12-year)
• 1/2oz Cointreau
• 1/2oz lemon juice
• scotch to rinse (used Laphroaig 10-year)

Rinse a cocktail glass with a nice peaty scotch. Shake the rest with Kold Draft ice and strain.
I have no idea should I leave a few drops of Scotch or remove it after rinsing. So I tried both variants.

Kold Draft ice is not available at my kitchen. I hope it doesn’t matter.

Little hint: wait for a while before you make first sip, let rum and scotch feel each other. Then you can smell lovely sweet rum with vanilla, caramel and citrus notes. And make sure that you feel smoke, peat and oak in the background.

The palate is grandiose, extremely deep and powerful. Dry tones of phenolic Laphroaig, lemon peels and oak combine with heavy sweetness of Demerara rum and Cointreau. This bittersweet flavour is exceptional as weel as aftertaste.

At first rum dominate the aftertaste while lemon zest. molasses and peat all wait in the background. A moment later allspice, caramelized sugar, lemon seeds and heavy bitter smoke add to sweet tones.

Very long finish is enriched with smoky dry Scotch and special Demerara bittersweet flavour combining wood and molasses with a touch of spices.

The dryness and bitterness slightly increase if you decide not to remove Scotch after rinsing. And I recommend this variant as more expressive and bright.

I’m very curious person, I’m planning to try another rum and/or less smoky nice peated Bowmore single malt whisky.

But anyway, I have no doubts that D’Artagnan’s Wish is stunning cocktail, a pure pleasure for rum and scotch lovers.