Cocktail: Irish Whiskey Mai Tai

It’s the tail-end of June, which means we should be in the swing of summer cocktails. However, this is Ireland. Therefore, bustling smoking areas are as temperamental as our weather.

This Teeling Whiskey Mai-Tai, the Redleg Rebellion created by newly appointed brand ambassador Kevin Hurley, is the perfect bridging brew to get you in the mood for next weekend’s bank holiday. The rum cask finish of Teeling Small Batch lends this recipe a refreshing and uplifting bite. This batch is finished in a Rum cask, a move that the creators say is a ??tip of the hat? to the thousands of our Irish ancestors who forcibly worked the fields in the sugar plantations of the Caribbean.?

And if you want a sombre history lesson before knocking back a toast, here’s what Teeling’s shared with us:

?Redleg’s is a name given to Irish and Scottish natives that worked in the sugar plantations in the Caribbean in the 17th and 18th centuries, a name derived from the effects of the tropical sun on their fair-skinned legs. The Red-leg and their ancestors were forcibly transported by Oliver Cromwell consequent to his subjugation of Ireland. Many were described as “white slaves” and while on paper the redleg slaves were indentured servants, in reality the majority were closer to slaves due to the fact that slave owners bought and sold indenture contracts repeatedly (therefore most never achieved freedom), kept future generations enslaved through bond labour, and they were treated like livestock, bought and sold to whomever, beaten, tortured, and killed if captured as a runaway, and were often worked to death due to not being used to the tropical sun like the enslaved Africans. The Irish slaves had no control over the number of years they served, and most served for life.?

Recipe

30ml Teeling Small Batch

20ml Clement Creole Shrub

10ml Taylors Velvet Falernum

20ml Lime Juice

20ml Pineapple Syrup

Method

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker and shake vigourously for 10-15 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass/Julep cup filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a pineapple slice, mint sprig and cherry.