Saltee Sour - Irish Whiskey Cocktail

The Saltee Sour is the IWSA version of the Trinidad Sour cocktail. Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is a dual island Caribbean nation. We named the Irish version of the cocktail after the Saltee islands, which is also a pair of islands but located off the coast of County Wexford in Ireland. We tweaked the original recipe to give it more of an Irish flair, hence the name change. The Saltee islands are a large bird sanctuary which include our Puffin drinking buddies.

This cocktail features bitters as the primary ingredient, making it unique and somewhat unusual. The herbal character of the bitters is complemented by the spice of the rye, nutty sweetness from the non-alcoholic orgeat, and sour from the lemon juice. 

For the IWSA version, we use Irish Beara bitters (https://www.bearabitters.com) and Powers Rye to make the Saltee Sour. The original Trinidad Sour calls for Angostura bitters which has a much higher abv (45%) vs. the (25%) of Irish Beara bitters. We adjust our version with slightly higher rye content to balance out the cocktail abv. (If unable to procure Beara bitters, you can always substitute with Angostura and percentages of the original recipe). Orgeat syrup is available online and at liquor stores including Total Wine.