Cocktail of the Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg – Recipe

Tale suggests that in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was set that his cricket team would win over a visiting English team. To secure an advantage, he hosted a splendid party on the eve of the match, at which he served his guests the legendary Patiala pegs. These were incredibly substantial four-finger whisky pours, historically measured from little finger to index finger. Predictably, the English players drank too much, resulting in them being extremely hungover and, inevitably, defeated the following day. In this way, the story of the Patiala peg came to be.

This inspired variation of old fashioned draws inspiration from the Maharaja's drink. Here, we offer it from a bespoke five-litre bottle, but we've modified the recipe to make it easier for a household environment.

Patiala Peg

Produces 1 litre, serving 10-12 drinks.

You Will Need

• 725g Scotch whisky blend
• 130g sugar syrup
• 6g Angostura bitters (approximately 1⅓ tsp)
• 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about ⅕ tsp)
• A pinch of salt
• 2g xanthan gum powder

Preparation

Put all the ingredients in a big container. Pour in 130g water, stir thoroughly, then put it in the refrigerator. You can store it for about three weeks.

For serving, measure out about 90ml of the prepared cocktail into a short glass containing ice (preferably one large cube). Serve straight away. To honour tradition, you could pour it using your fingers as they did.