Drink This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg – Recipe

Tale suggests that back in 1920, the Maharaja of Patiala, was adamant that his cricket team would win over a touring English squad. To gain the upper hand, he threw a splendid party on the eve of the match, at which he offered his guests the notorious Patiala pegs. These were famously large four-finger whisky pours, customarily measured from pinky to forefinger. Unsurprisingly, the English players drank too much, resulting in them being terribly the worse for wear and, consequently, defeated the day after. Thus, the story of the Patiala peg was born.

This take on a variation of old fashioned draws inspiration from Singh's beverage. In our establishment, we offer it from a bespoke large-format bottle, but we've adjusted the recipe to make it more suitable for a domestic kitchen.

Patiala Peg

Yields 1 litre, serving 10-12 portions.

Ingredients

• 725g blended scotch whisky
• 130g sugar syrup (1:1)
• 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
• 1g orange bitters (approximately ⅕ tsp)
• A pinch of salt
• 2g xanthan gum

Method

Combine everything in a sizeable jug. Pour in 130g water, stir to combine, then transfer it in the refrigerator. You can store it for as long as three weeks.

To serve, dispense roughly 90ml of the infused whisky into a rocks glass containing ice (ideally one large cube). Enjoy straight away. To honour tradition, you could use the four-finger measure for authenticity.