Penicillin

Sam Ross, Milk and Honey, New York City, 2005. Ross created the drink inspired by the sour template and the medicinal qualities of ginger, honey, and Scotch whisky as traditional remedies. Named for Alexander Fleming's 1928 discovery of penicillin (the antibiotic, not the cocktail). The drink spread from Milk and Honey to bars globally through the cocktail renaissance and is now considered a modern classic.

The Penicillin is the most important cocktail created in the 21st century — blended Scotch whisky, fresh lemon juice, honey-ginger syrup, and a float of Islay single malt Scotch whisky, served over ice in a rocks glass. Created by Sam Ross at Milk and Honey in New York City in 2005, it is the rare modern cocktail that has entered the permanent canon alongside 20th-century classics. The drink's genius is the float: a medicinal measure of peaty Islay Scotch (Laphroaig Quarter Cask or Ardbeg 10) rests on the surface of the ginger-honey-lemon base, so that every sip passes first through the smoke and peat before encountering the warmth and sweetness beneath. It is a cocktail that tells a story in layers.

FOOD PAIRING: The Penicillin's smoke, ginger heat, and honey sweetness pairs with smoked, cured, and spiced preparations. Provenance 1000 pairings: smoked salmon with dill crème fraîche (smoke-on-smoke), grilled lamb with honey-rosemary glaze (the honey bridge), oysters with a smoked finish (the peat amplifies the ocean's iodine), hot honey fried chicken (ginger-honey-heat trinity), and Scottish smoked haddock chowder.