Cocktail for This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg – How to Make It

Tale claims that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his cricket team would succeed over a visiting English side. To gain the upper hand, he organized a grand party the night before the match, where he offered his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These were incredibly substantial four-finger measure whisky servings, customarily gauged from little finger to forefinger. As expected, the English players overindulged, leaving them very the worse for wear and, consequently, defeated the next day. And so, the story of the Patiala peg came to be.

This Punjabi kind-of Old Fashioned cocktail draws inspiration from that original drink. Here, we present it from a specially crafted five-litre bottle, but we've adapted the formula to make it better suited for a home kitchen.

The Patiala Peg Recipe

Makes 1 litre, to serve 10-12 drinks.

What's Required

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

Preparation

Combine all the ingredients in a large bottle. Add 130g water, stir thoroughly, then place it in the refrigerator. It will now keep for about a few weeks.

When ready to drink, measure out roughly 90ml of the infused whisky into a rocks glass containing ice (preferably one big block). Drink immediately. To honour tradition, you could pour it using your fingers as they did.