Mickey Mullan
AS ANYONE who knows me, knows that I love what I do for a living, I not only love the work and social side of a pub, the music, pints with the lads and cocktails with my partner—something that I think we all took for granted, until it was so abruptly taken away in 2020.
Among the many perks of the job are complimentary trips to Belfast, London, Liverpool, Prague and Dublin to visit amazing bars, breweries and distilleries—always in a completely professional capacity obviously. I was once lucky enough to see Nile Rodgers perform in the Staropramen brewery, so, it’s definitely not a case of ‘all work and no play!’
I was on my holidays recently and what does a barman do when he’s on vacation? Well, I whisked my lovely fiancée away for a few days to Dublin. I’m sure she’d pictured that as being a lovely, romantic break, full of shopping, cocktails, sightseeing in a cosmopolitan city. What she got however, was two days of being dragged around
various whiskey shops and distilleries. I loved it, I hope she did too, but somehow, I’d imagine, not as much as me.
I happened to say to a rep a few weeks ago that I was going to Dublin and he organised a distillery tour and testing at Teeling. I have to say, as a tourist attraction, it was great. It was right in the heart of the Liberties. I have previously spoken about this area with regards to its importance to the history of Irish whiskey and how it boasted the first cask distilled in Dublin for more than 100 years. It was indeed special to see.
Another one of the aforementioned perks of the job was to be one of the first to sample Malones Whiskey. It is a fantastic whiskey and before you accuse me of bias, I would encourage you to try it for yourself. It is
finished in three casks, it is beautiful on its own, but it also lends itself beautifully to cocktail making.
Today I’m making another whiskey classic, a Whiskey Sour.
WHISKEY SOUR
Ingredients
—50ml of Malones Irish Whiskey
—25 lemon juice, freshly squeezed
—15ml sugar (simple syrup)
—1 egg white
—Angostura bitters
Method
—Add whiskey, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white, to a shaker and dry-shake for 30 seconds without ice.
—Add ice and shake again until well-chilled.
—Strain into a glass. Normally this would be an old fashioned glass, but for this I am using a nick and nora glass
—Garnish with three or four drops of Angostura bitters.
Mickey Mullan is a proud Derryman, an award-winning spirit enthusiast and the Manager of Malones Bar in Glasgow
