The Glen Moray Old Fashioned Masterclass Winners With Neil & Joel!
If ever you get invited to a Glen Moray Old Fashioned Masterclass – grab it with both hands!
A table Groaning with Bitters & Sweetners!
I recently had the happy pleasure of attending one such event, hosted by the very able duo of Neil Ridley and Joel Harrison of World’s Best Spirits.
And what a time we had!
Fired Oak Cocktail!
We arrived to a long table laden with various styles of Glen Moray and the polished wood was also groaning with cocktail bitters of every description.
Not just your classic Angostura but also bitters exuding such aromic delights as chocolate, cherry, clove and much. much more! There was even Glen Moray’s very own specially made bitter!
I wasn’t aware there were so many styles of bitter available – if I had them all I wouldn’t have any space left for spirits!
We were there to try our hand at making, and experimenting with, the classic Whisky ‘Old Fashioned’ cocktail. A famous blend of Whisky, a little water, bitters and puddled (i.e. smashed up with a spoon of some sort) sugar.
Cherry Bitters Cocktail!
There was also a selection of sweetners including various sugars and syrups, even including marmalade – for a bitter sweet orangey hit!
Anyway, here are the cocktails I came up with:-
Fired Oak Cocktail
- 50ml. Glen Moray ‘Fired Oak’ Whisky.
- Angostura bitters.
- Maple syrup
- A little water.
- Plenty of ice (because a cocktail is nothing without ice!)
Neil & Joel give us inspiration!
Cherry Bitters Cocktail
- 50ml. Glen Moray ‘Port Cask Finish’ Whisky.
- Cherry bitters.
- Brown sugar.
- A little water.
- Plenty of ice (because a cocktail is nothing without ice!)
Classic Old Fashioned Cocktail
- 50ml. Glen Moray ‘Elgin Classic’ Whisky.
- Pure Cane Sugar syrup (because muddling is not as much fun as it sounds!)
- Glen Moray Bitters.
- A little water.
- Plenty of ice (because a cocktail is nothing without ice!)
The joy of a Masterclass!
The tricky thing I found is to balance the sugar/syrup ratio with the rest of the ingredients so that there isn’t too much sweetness at the end of the cocktail.
I failed!
One thing to remember is – syrup sinks to the bottom of the glass – so maybe that’s why puddling is so popular as that problem doesn’t arise.
It’s a whole lot of fun and getting it wrong, as they say, is the best way of learning how to get it right!
Glen Moray Bitters
Many thanks to Glen Moray (@GlenMorayDist) for the invite and a great evening and (@joeldram) / (@NeilDram) for entertaining and enlightening us!
The winners of our mini-masterclass competition were cocktails made with Glen Moray ‘Fired Oak’ Whisky and a Whisky and chocolate bitters concoction which was amazing!
You may have spotted Harp Mannn amongst the two winners – not surprising really as he is a Drink Content Innovator, Inventor, Reviewer and Presenter on Instagram!
Glen Moray is available to buy from these Whisky Merchants:-
