Scotch Cocktails

Scotch has a reputation for being unmixable, and it is half deserved. Peat is assertive in a way bourbon's oak is not, so a heavily peated Islay dropped into a recipe written for another whiskey will take the drink over rather than sit in it.

The answer is not to avoid it but to give it something to argue with. A Penicillin sets it against honey, ginger and lemon and it works precisely because those are loud enough. A Rob Roy is a Manhattan with Scotch, and a gentle blended one is the right choice there.

Blended Scotch is the mixing bottle. Single malt is worth drinking on its own, and putting an expensive one in a shaker wastes the part you paid for.