THEDRUNKENMUNKEY
Lady Mountbatten
Monkey Shoulder scotch, Giffard pamplemousse, strawberry gastrique, peach bitters
The name belongs to Edwina Mountbatten, the last Vicereine of India. She and Lord Louis Mountbatten arrived at the viceregal house in March 1947 and the office ceased to exist that August, which makes for one of the shorter tenures in the building’s history and one of the more consequential. The drink is a nod to a name and to the era it belongs to. We will not pretend it is more historically exact than that.
What is in the glass is a scotch cocktail that behaves like a considerably lighter drink. Monkey Shoulder is a blended malt, and the blend matters: a single malt would insist on being the whole story, where this drink needs its base to sit back a little and let the fruit come forward.
Giffard pamplemousse brings the grapefruit, which is the right citrus for scotch. Grapefruit is bitter as well as sour, so it lengthens the drink instead of sweetening it into squash.
The strawberry gastrique is the part worth explaining. A gastrique is an old kitchen trick rather than a bar one: sugar and vinegar cooked down with fruit until the result is sweet and sharp at the same time. Vinegar in a cocktail sounds alarming and is in fact an older answer to the problem lemon solves. It cuts richness, it lasts longer on the tongue, and it carries the fruit with it. Two dashes of peach bitters tie the strawberry back to the whisky.
Drink it while it is properly cold. A gastrique drink loses its edge as the ice gives way, and the sharpness is the entire point of the thing.
The result reads soft and finishes sharp, which is a fair description of the room it is served in. It belongs to the gymkhana end of our list — club drinks, made properly, without any particular nostalgia for the empire that built the clubs.
Dietary & spice
A cocktail rather than a dish, so it is not on the kitchen’s allergy menu. The gastrique is fruit, sugar and vinegar; if you have an allergy, tell the bartender before you order. There are zero-proof cocktails, lassis and fresh coconut water for anyone not drinking.