Cocktail This Week: Ambassadors Clubhouse's Patiala Peg Cocktail – Recipe

Tale has it that during 1920, Bhupinder Singh, was adamant that his team would succeed over a visiting English side. To gain the upper hand, he threw a lavish party the night before the match, where he presented his guests the legendary Patiala pegs. These were notoriously large four-finger measure whisky pours, customarily gauged from pinky to forefinger. Unsurprisingly, the English players partook excessively, resulting in them being very the worse for wear and, consequently, beaten the next day. In this way, the myth of the Patiala peg was born.

This take on a kind-of old fashioned draws inspiration from Singh's drink. At the restaurant, we serve it from a bespoke five-litre bottle, but we've modified the recipe to make it better suited for a household setting.

Patiala Peg

Produces 1 litre, serving 10-12 portions.

Ingredients

  • 725g Scotch whisky blend
  • 130g simple syrup
  • 6g Angostura bitters (about 1â…“ tsp)
  • 1g orange-flavoured bitters (about â…• tsp)
  • A pinch of salt
  • 2g xanthan gum powder

Preparation

Combine everything in a large bottle. Include 130g water, mix thoroughly, then put it in the refrigerator. It can be stored for as long as three weeks.

For serving, measure out roughly 90ml of the Patiala peg mixture into a rocks glass filled with ice (preferably one big block). Drink straight away. If you're feeling traditional, you could use the four-finger measure as they did.

Michael Sanchez
Michael Sanchez

A seasoned travel writer and photographer with a passion for uncovering unique cultural experiences around the globe.