The Rye Penicillin

Ingredients

• 60 ml Wandering Rye Whisky
• 25 ml fresh lemon juice
• 20 ml honey-ginger syrup
• 5 ml optional: mezcal floated on top

Method

Shake & build. Serve in a Rocks glass. Garnish with Candied ginger + lemon wheel.

Honey-ginger syrup: simmer 1 cup sliced ginger in honey syrup (2:1 honey:water) for 20 min, strain.

The story

Sam Ross created the Penicillin at Milk & Honey in 2005 — blended Scotch as the base with a float of peaty Islay whisky on top, combined with lemon juice, honey-ginger syrup, and a candied ginger garnish. It became one of the most referenced modern classics: proof that a well-designed cocktail could enter the canon within years rather than decades. A rye whisky Penicillin has different medicine to dispense. Wandering Rye's blend provides the complexity that the Penicillin's two-whisky structure achieves in the original. The rye spice replaces the smoke (no Islay float needed here, though a few drops of mezcal on the surface adds intrigue), and the honey-ginger syrup finds an even more sympathetic home in the corn whisky sweetness.

Tasting note

Honey, ginger, and grain — this is the whisky sour's more complicated sibling. The ginger heat builds with each sip while the corn sweetness and rye spice of Wandering Rye provide a warm, complex base. The mezcal float, if used, adds a smoky intrigue that transforms the whole experience.