The following article was produced in partnership with TINCUP Mountain Whiskey.
A neat whiskey is how aficionados and whiskey lovers like to enjoy a nip or two, but whiskey is also a fantastic base for all sorts of delicious cocktails. But not all whiskeys are made equal. It can be tough finding a whiskey that’s versatile enough to suit a variety of cocktails but robust enough to shine through other ingredients and not get lost in the sauce.
Enter TINCUP Mountain Whiskey: the most unique and exciting new American whiskey to hit Australian shores, and the perfect cocktail-making whiskey.
Inspired by the iconic Rocky Mountains of Colorado, it’s a blend of two American whiskeys: high rye bourbon, distilled and aged in Indiana, and Colorado single malt whiskey. Once blended, TINCUP is cut with Rocky Mountain water and aged for a minimum of four years in charred American white oak barrels, which blesses it with smooth and bold rye spice, cinnamon and caramel flavours and delightful aroma notes of citrus, pepper and ginger.
TINCUP is delicious on its own but it’s also the perfect base for a cocktail. TINCUP’s high rye content makes it more assertive and flavourful than your average bourbon but it still boasts all that single malt smoothness and versatility. In that sense, it’s the perfect dark spirit to use in all your favourite cocktails – as well as experiment with some new flavours.
To that end, DMARGE has enlisted Proximo Spirits Specialist and cocktail maestro Hayley Dixon to come up with some fun and fresh new cocktail creations with TINCUP Whiskey. Here’s how to make them yourself so you can impress all your friends and lovers.
TINCUP Buck
A buck is a classic category of cocktails made with ginger ale or ginger beer, citrus juice, and any of a number of liquors. They’re sometimes called ‘mules’ due to the popularity of the most famous buck cocktail, the vodka-based Moscow Mule… But we reckon TINCUP’s a better choice than vodka.
Easy as pie to make, a TINCUP Buck is a great no-fuss drink that you can quickly whip up at a party but is complex-tasting enough to make you seem like a master mixologist.
INGREDIENTS
50ml TINCUP Mountain Whiskey
150ml ginger ale
Lemon or lime wedge
METHOD
Fill glass with ice, then add TINCUP and ginger ale. Garnish with a lemon or lime wedge. Done and dusted.
Passionfruit Highball
Whiskey highballs are all the rage right now – but this is a highball that’s a cut above the rest. The inclusion of fino sherry adds a dry and delicate flavour that plays perfectly with the tartness of passionfruit and the rich, spicy notes of TINCUP.
INGREDIENTS
30ml TINCUP Mountain Whiskey
20ml fino sherry (e.g. Tio Pepe)
20ml passionfruit pulp or 1/2 a fresh passionfruit
15ml fresh lemon juice
15ml simple syrup
90ml light tonic
Lemon wedge
METHOD
Add all ingredients minus tonic to a cocktail shaker with ice. Hard shake for 10 seconds. Double strain into a highball glass over ice. Top with tonic. Garnish with a lemon wedge.
Rockies Summer
Crisp and refreshing, this cocktail is a twist on award-winning bartender Joe Jones’s drink the ‘Summertime Sadness’, Hayley explains.
“Ginger cordial is best made fresh by juicing ginger and then just adding caster sugar to the liquid. The ginger naturally dissolves it. I normally just make this to taste and leave it pretty spicy, however, there are a few different options that can be easily purchased from your local supermarket, too”.
INGREDIENTS
30ml TINCUP Mountain Whiskey
30ml Italian aperitif
30ml ginger cordial
30ml fresh lemon juice
Grapefruit slice
METHOD
‘Whip’ all ingredients with one ice cube in a cocktail shaker until ice is dissolved. Pour over crushed ice into a chilled double rocks glass. Garnish with a slice of grapefruit.
Mandarin Derby
“This is a riff on a classic cocktail called the Brown Derby,” Hayley explains. “It is generally made using bourbon, grapefruit, lemon, and honey but we have used mandarin for the citrus kick instead and added pastis.”
INGREDIENTS
50ml TINCUP Mountain Whiskey
2 muddled mandarin segments
10ml pastis (e.g. Duval, Ricard)
10ml honey syrup
25ml lime
Grapefruit zest
METHOD
Add mandarin segments to a cocktail tin and gently muddle. Add remaining ingredients and ice. Hard shake for 20 seconds. Double strain into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with grapefruit zest.
Get your hands on a bottle of TINCUP Mountain Whiskey from Dan Murphy’s stores and online nationwide here.