the mariner

2 oz Scotch
1/2 oz Smoked cardamom simple syrup
1/4 oz Pineapple juice
1/4 oz Lemon juice
Lemon peel
Stir with ice in a rocks glass. Twist a lemon peel over the drink and drop in glass.

For my second and last drink last night at Eastern Standard, guest bartender Daniel Eun from Please Don't Tell took my suggestion of sticking with whiskeys and made me this drink. While I am not a big Scotch fan [1], the Mariner had enough other flavors to distract me from this. I regret now not asking which Scotch he used, but Andrea thought that the label read 'Asbach' or similar (?). John Deragon of PDT wrote in eGullet that they use Compass Box Oak Cross for their version.

The Mariner was a good pairing with the cheese plate I was eating with the whiskey and the smoke-cardamom simple syrup flavors playing nicely with the 3 cheeses on the menu last night. The juices gave an interesting effect in being minor ingredients instead of dominant ones. While the recipe seems like it would be rather heavy, it was not perhaps due to the ice melt or due to the simple syrup smoothing out the flavors.

[1] At a recent Scotch tasting event I went to, I discovered that it was the peat flavor that I do not like. My favorite that night was the less peaty Dalwhinnie which someone jokingly told me was "a lady's scotch".