by Denis Lynch
3. November 2009 10:44
It’s interesting how drinks and drinks recipes come and go. What might be in fashion this season, is gone the next. Ordering a Cosmopolitan was in, as long as Sex and the City was on the air! But now that Carrie and her friends have grown up and moved over for CSI, NCIS etc, the Cosmo is taking a back seat on many drinks lists.
So it was interesting to see an old English/Irish drink make a chance appearance at Vine & Table last week. It all started with a request from a customer for a bottle of hard-to-find English ginger/currant wine by the name of Stone’s. I tracked it down and ordered what little was available.
As soon as I saw the bottle my mind wandered back to smoky old pubs at home in Ireland where there always seemed to be a bottle of Stone’s Green Ginger Wine sitting snug on the back bar. Old fella’s would come in and order a whiskey and a drop of Stone’s. I always wondered about it but unfortunately never tried it, preferring to stick to my pint instead.
So as soon as the bottles were delivered to the store, I mixed up a batch of a drink fondly known as ‘The Whiskey Mac’, which by the way, is very easily made. Pour one measure of Scotch or Irish whiskey and one measure of Stone’s Green Ginger Wine into a tumbler; give it a little stir and viola. It’s as easy as that.
This concoction went down as such a treat with staff and customers that we sold out of it all in a day! Thankfully more is on the way. It’s a great drink for this time of year as it is wonderfully warming. And if you are not a fan of whisky, don’t worry as the flavors of the whiskey eare tamed by the sweetness of the wine.
It has only taken a few hundred years for the Whiskey Mac (Stone’s Green Ginger Wine has been around since 1740 and whisky since long before that) to reach Indiana and although it may never become as popular as the Cosmo it almost certainly will be around for another hundred.
Slainte! ~Denis
