Drink for This Week: The Patiala Peg Cocktail – How to Make It

Tale claims that back in 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was adamant that his team would win over a touring English squad. To gain the upper hand, he hosted a grand party the night before the match, where he served his guests the famous Patiala pegs. These were famously large four-finger measure whisky servings, historically gauged from pinky to forefinger. As expected, the English players partook excessively, resulting in them being very the worse for wear and, inevitably, defeated the day after. And so, the legend of the Patiala peg came to be.

This Punjabi kind-of old fashioned draws inspiration from Singh's drink. At the restaurant, we serve it from a custom-made five-litre bottle, but we've adjusted the instructions to make it better suited for a household setting.

Patiala Peg

Yields 1 litre, serving 10-12 portions.

Ingredients

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

Preparation

Place everything in a sizeable jug. Pour in 130g water, mix to combine, then transfer it in the fridge. It can be stored for about three weeks.

For serving, pour roughly 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a rocks glass containing ice (preferably one big block). Drink immediately. To honour tradition, you could pour it using your fingers for authenticity.