mackinnon

1 1/2 oz Drambuie
1/2 oz Old Monk Rum
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Lime Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass filled with ice. Top with soda water, and add straw.

On Monday night, Andrea and I headed over to Rendezvous for some dinner and drinks. It turns out that Mondays are their tapas night which is a supplement to their regular menu. For drinks, bartender Scott Holliday let me peruse through the house cocktail book for a selection. The one that stood out was the MacKinnon, an interesting highball that uses Drambuie liqueur as the primary spirit in a John Collins sort of way. The drink is named after the captain who gave Prince Charles Edward Stuart sanctuary back in 1746. The lore is that Captain John MacKinnon was rewarded by the prince with the recipe for Drambuie for his efforts, although some write off the tale as marketing ploy to sell more product. Either way, the recipe honoring the good captain first appeared in the 1938 Esquire Drink Book.

Scott and I bandied about what rum would work best. Apparently, the original recipe calls for a white rum; however, his recipe only lists "rum" and we figured a richly flavored one like Old Monk might give the drink a little bit more body. The MacKinnon proved to be a worthy highball with the Drambuie's sweetness being balanced quite well by the citrus and soda. The nose was filled with the citrus and the rum aromas, and the sip was rich, sweet, and Scotchy. The swallow contained the citrus crispness along with a cinnamon sort of flavor. When Scott straw-tasted the drink, he commented that the MacKinnon was his "new favorite Tiki"-esque drink.