1 1⁄2 oz Blended Scotch
1⁄2 oz Islay Scotch (Laphroaig is what I used, but whatever's smoky will work here.)
3⁄8 oz Herbal liqueur, Yellow Chartreuse (Can go 1/2 oz for slighly sweeter.)
3⁄8 oz Bénédictine (Can go 1/2 oz for slighly sweeter.)
10 dr Absinthe
1 twst Lemon peel (As garnish.)
Instructions

At work: build in a double old fashioned glass, add a large ice cube, stir to mix and chill, and garnish with lemon oil from a twist. At home: stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with fresh ice, and garnish with a lemon twist.

Notes

Made with blended Japanese whisky at work (Suntory Toki) and with blended Scotch whisky at home (Famous Grouse).
For a slightly sweeter drink, I have used 1/2 oz of each liqueur for a total of 1 oz; however, a total of 3/4 oz seems to make most folks happy.

History

At Drink, there can frequently be a bigger call for Old Fashioned variations than for Manhattan riffs; sometimes a duo can order four rounds of two different Old Fashioneds meaning that I needed 8 to fit their specific requests. Sadly, I know more Manhattan ones for the structure allows for more adaptations including the fortified wine component. This is one that I crafted on the fly for a guest who wanted a Scotch Old Fashioned, and I repeated for multiple guests over the following weeks. The liqueur combination of Yellow Chartreuse-Benedictine is one that has worked since 1895 in the Widow's Kiss from George Kappeler's Modern American Drinks and the Colleen Bawn from Edward Spencer's The Flowing Bowl. Eventually, guests began to want a name, so I decided to make myself one at home. I ended up dubbing this Blues from a Gun after a song from the Scottish rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Cocktail summary
Posted by yarm on
Created by
Frederic Yarm, Drink, Boston, MA
Year
2022
Is the
author's original creation
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4.5 stars
(8 ratings)
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From other users
  • Riffed on this with 3/8 Strega and 3/8 crème de menthe for the liqueurs, and a mild Islay. And liked it.
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Comments

How come your customers don't deserve the same fresh ice you give yourself? :-)


yarm commented on 4/26/2022:

At work, they get beautiful bubble-free ice and a glass from the glass freezer, and the cube is still rather substantial after that chilling/dilution in the glass. So that's a step up. We build our Old Fashioneds at work which saves tools (I have 2 Yarai mixing glasses for 2 bartenders at my station) and time. I'm often not building single drinks but rounds as large as 9 this past week. It's logistics and consistency -- you can't stir/strain one time and build another. There have been requests for 6 Old Fashioneds at once this past month, and to stir/strain all of them would have it take minutes longer which means fewer folks can get served or get the attention they need.