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

Tale has it that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was adamant that his cricket team would succeed over a visiting English squad. To gain the upper hand, he organized a grand party on the eve of the match, where he served his guests the legendary Patiala pegs. These are notoriously large four-finger whisky pours, customarily measured from little finger to index finger. Unsurprisingly, the English players drank too much, leaving them very the worse for wear and, consequently, beaten the day after. In this way, the legend of the Patiala peg originated.

This inspired kind-of old fashioned is inspired by that original beverage. Here, we serve it from a specially crafted large-format bottle, but we've adapted the recipe to make it easier for a home environment.

Patiala Peg

Makes 1 litre, serving 10-12 drinks.

Ingredients

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

Preparation

Combine all the ingredients in a big container. Add 130g water, stir to combine, then put it in the fridge. You can store it for as long as a few weeks.

To serve, measure out roughly 90ml of the infused whisky into a rocks glass containing ice (preferably one big block). Enjoy promptly. For a traditional touch, you could measure it in by hand instead.