Olga Cocktail

My wife is definitely not an imbiber, nevertheless she always supports me in my daily efforts of mixing, shaking, stirring, tasting, macerating, blending, buying and drinking, drinking, drinking. That’s why I’m always ready to do something when she asks me to «pour her something tasty». Usually a dram of Laphroiag 10 yo or fresh grapefruit juice with Campari are enough but sometimes she wants something special.

So one day she asked me to mix scotch with apple juice. You think that’s so simple. I thought too, and I was wrong.

That time I had my homemade apple juice available so the task was to select a whisky.

When mixing with apple juice, all single malt scotches I have in my bar behave like fretful girls. Soon I’ve lost patience and turned to blended scotches I had that time in use. Two of them didn’t go well with juice. Chivas Regal 12 yo was too plain and «wooden», Dewar’s White Label spoiled juice freshness with awful alcohol aftertaste. I got best result using White Horse Blended Scotch whisky. Not great whisky to sip neat but very smooth and really good in mixes with various juices.

My next move was to get perfect proportions and to add some beautiful features to this simple cocktail. Eventually I decided in favour of Campari and grenadine as companions for whisky and apple juice.

Olga

  • 45 ml White Horse Blended Scotch whisky,
  • 30 ml fresh apple juice,
  • 5 ml Campari,
  • 5 ml grenadine.

Stir (yes, stir!) with ice and serve in cocktail glass or coupe. No garnish but few drops of Angostura bitters would be great addition.

Olga Cocktail

I prefer to stir this cocktail. Yes, there is a risk to end up with poorly mixed drink with rough taste but believe me… Stir it if you have freshly pressed apple juice and mild whisky (White Horse or something else). Then try to balance sweetness decreasing (or increasing) grenadine quantity. You won’t regret.

Or shake it in case of cheap commercial apple juices and/or  robust scotches. Then you lose beautiful smoothness and velvet bitterness in the end but get good bittersweet drink with delicate dryness.

My cocktail starts with apple freshness and become tarter and more dry on the swallow when whisky replaces sweet apple with wood aftertastes. Campari underlines velvet bitterness in the finish (Also you can try Amaro Ramazzotti instead. Then add just two dashes of grenadine. It will be enough.)

Apple and whisky combination looks like comfortable and conciliative. This cocktail is great for autumn evening sipping. With great love and appreciation, I dedicate it for my beloved wife. Thanks for love and support, my dear!