Sun and Sand

The other night, I was looking to relax with a drink. I was feeling something tiki influenced, perhaps something with the homemade grenadine. So naturally, I decided to make a variation on the Blood and Sand. Nothing says Polynesia like Scotch! To lighten it up a bit, I replaced the usual Cherry Heering with the grenadine. The number one thing I noticed about this drink? I should use fresh squeezed orange juice. The other is that, while the grenadine did lighten up the drink in comparison to the original, and added some floral notes, it's still a pretty heavy drink. Recipe after the jump.

Dalwhinnie 15

Served with a random cheese. This is a really nice scotch. It's a dark amber, with a nice caramel nose. Going down, it's pretty full-bodied. It's got lots of honey, but with a healthy amount of peat as well. Not a peat bomb at all, just enough to balance out the sweetness. Quite smooth, but not at all flabby. Definitely one I'll be having again. Whisky Critic says he gets herbs and pepper in the body. I'm not sure I quite get that, but that's probably just a failing of my palate. It certainly seems more complex than my description above gives it credit for.