A cocktail to pair with your cheeseboard, this twist on the Old Fashioned uses fig syrup and a cask strength whisky from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.

When a whisky is called Tarte Flambe and is characterised by a flavour profile called Deep Rich and Dark Fruits, it would be a sin not to try and recreate some of that flavour profile in the cocktail itself. Designed for our collaboration event with the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and Wondersnack, the inspiration for the cocktail came from the pairing of this with a blue cheese and honey gelato - we set out to create a cheeseboard in a glass to be taken together with the aptly named Hangover snack. With figs being a common sight on cheeseboards AND being in season in February, what better fruit and flavour to incorporate than that? Rounding up the flavours was a dash of Johnnie Walker rum cask finish with its tropical notes completing the cocktail. Incidentally, the whisky itself is a bottling from Dailuaine Distillery, which produces malt for blending in Johnnie Walker itself.

Ingredients

• 60ml SMWS 41.89 Tarte Flambe whisky

• 20ml Johnnie Walker Blenders Batch rum cask finish

• 7.5 ml fig simple syrup*

• 3 dashes Mr Bitters fig & cinnamon bitters

Stir all ingredients over ice and strain into glass. Garnish with a dried fig.

*To make the fig simple syrup, crush up about 6 fresh figs and put in a pan with one cup sugar and one cup water. Simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes. Strain and refrigerate.