We’re almost to St. Patrick’s Day, and we wanted to squeeze in one more cocktail featuring Irish Whiskey. There sadly aren’t a ton of cocktails that feature Irish Whiskey as their primary ingredient, so I turned to The Dead Rabbit’s From Barley to Blarney* for idea. The book is fantastic if you’re interested in Irish Whiskeys or visiting Ireland, covering distillers in the Provinces as well as the bars. As homage to the distilleries, there’s a small section in the back that also highlights some Irish Whiskey cocktails that connect to the distilleries. Among them is the Thunderbolt, which features Teeling Small Batch Irish Whiskey.
Thunderbolt
The Thunderbolt is sweet, rich, and spicy. Right off the bat the ginger, vanilla, and allspice come out in spades – exploding forward with flavor. The sweetness takes hold almost immediately, before the spice of the chocolate bitters meets the richness of the banana. The whiskey provides a solid base layer here, adding touches of vanilla, spice, grain, and citrus fruits. Ice helps to continue to dilute this extremely rich old-fashioned variant. If you like intense drinks with diverse tropical, spiced, flavors – then you’ll love this.
Drink Notes & Recommendations
I’ve given the verbatim recipe from From Barley to Blarney above, but have made some substitutions in order to be able to make the Thunderbolt This is pretty common as when drinks get this complicated, you’re unlike to have the exact ingredient listed for everything. The exception to this is Teeling Small Batch, which I’ve explicitly went out of the way to buy a bottle of. The reason for this is the rum finish, which felt critical given the pseudo-tiki nature of this old fashioned inspired drink.
If there’s anything I’d see with this drink it’s that you may want to consider upping the Irish Whiskey or reducing some of the modifiers. The sugar is very strong in this one, and some may find it a touch sweet.
- Teeling Small Batch – Teeling Small Batch is an extension of the experimentation that’s occurring at Teeling. As such, this small batch is finished in rum casks, and given the mix of flavors, feels like one you should have on hand if you’re planning to make this cocktail. From a substitution standpoint, look for an Irish whiskey finished in a rum cask.
- Giffard Creme de Banane – We didn’t have Giffard’s Creme de Banane on hand, and instead went upscale, with Giffard’s Banane du Bresil. Either should work here.
- Giffard Ginger Liqueur – As much as we love Giffard, we don’t have every ingredient they make. As such we opted for the cheaper, and on hand, Stirring’s Ginger Liqueuer. This is very sweet, so much so that you might consider reducing it or the banana if you’re feeling overwhelmed.
- St. Elizabeth’s Pimento Dram – This is our go to Allspice Dram, although labeled with the American available St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram, as opposed to the Pimento listed in the recipe.
- Xocolatl Mole Bitters – While we don’t have this on hand, you can find it at Amazon*. In place, we used our Fee Brother’s Aztec Chocolate Bitters* which worked well.
- Angostura Bitters – There’s no substitute here for these, and if you’re planning on making cocktails, we recommend you have a bottle. Your local grocery store should have them, or you can get them from Amazon*.
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