New Cocktail: Eau de Beckham

This drink began as a joke from Oliver Klimek about the new Haig Club single grain whisky. Given the marketing angle, it appears to be designed for vodka drinkers. While whisky, Chartreuse, orange liqueur, and a dash of Beckham Eau de Toilette isn't such a promising start, I wanted to see if I could use it as the basis for a drink.

The parameters were:

•Had to contain grain whisky, Chartreuse, and orange liqueur
•The only other ingredients had to be bitter

After a little experimentation, I worked out something that fit the mold of other drinks I've been enjoying lately.

Eau de Beckham
1 oz blended whisky
0.5 oz sweet vermouth
0.25 oz yellow Chartreuse
0.25 oz orange liqueur
1 dash Angostura bitters

Build over a large ice cube in a chilled rocks glass. Stir briefly.

The nose is a little off kilter, with the caramel from the whisky and sweet grape notes from the vermouth struggling with the herbal notes from the Chartreuse and hints of the Angostura's spices, with a hint of wood smoke drifting over it all. The taste comes together much better - the sip leads with the whisky's caramel, which flows into herbal/vegetal notes from the vermouth and Chartreuse, which is punctuated by spices from the bitters. The finish is dominated by the bitters and Chartreuse. Everything is undergirded and smoothed out by the orange liqueur.

While not an obvious clutch of ingredients, I'm rather pleased at how well this came together. It might not balance the same way with a lighter whisky, but you'll have to find out for yourself. If the folks at Haig decide to run with this, a little acknowledgement would be nice.