Hacking the Secret Recipe to a Legendary Scottish Liqueur: Drambuie!

Hi, Friends of Cocktails! I hacked the recipe for a legendary Scottish liqueur: Drambuie. I’ve always been fascinated by drinks that have a story, and Drambuie’s might be the most mysterious of them all. They say this liqueur was once made by a prince, and the recipe was kept secret for centuries. So, I found a Scottish bartender who knows the legend of Drambuie by heart to help me know where to start. 

I reached out to Sean from the iconic Panda & Sons barin Edinburgh–one of the most awarded bars in the world. He not only shared the story of Drambuie with us, but also narrated it. You can check out his voiceover work in the full video at the end of today’s post, along with an animation made by our own director of photography, Sašo Veber. Now, let’s find out how this 300-year-old royal recipe originated.

The legend begins on the moors of Culloden, where Bonnie Prince Charlie fought to reclaim his family’s throne, but lost. Hunted through the Highlands, with only a few loyal men by his side, the Prince fled north, until Captain John MacKinnon of the Isle of Skye gave him sanctuary. To thank his protector, the Prince shared his personal draft: a golden elixir he was said to take “a few drops each day, for strength and vitality”.

That secret recipe stayed with the MacKinnon clan for generations, until it found the new name of Drambuie from the Gaelic an dram buidheach, or “the drink that satisfies”. In 1893 the name was officially registered, and by 1914 it became the Drambuie Liqueur Company, bringing the royal spirit into the modern age.

Today, the true recipe lies locked in a safe, known only to three people in the world, but I hear the story has another twist… one curious mixologist is ready to uncover the secret once again. So, what do you need to make your own Drambuie? It really comes down to four parts of the puzzle: scotch, honey, herbs, and spices. Let’s say I heard about it directly from the MacKinnons.

I’ll be using a sous vide technique, which extracts flavor gently and evenly, giving us the smoothest possible result. It all starts with a good whisky base, so I’m going with the Glenlivet 12, a smooth Speyside single malt with light, fruity notes that work perfectly for this style of liqueur. Next comes the honey. Drambuie is famous for its honeyed character, and this is what gives it that golden, rich character that is so important.

One thing to note is that the flavor of honey can taste completely different, depending on where the bees live, what they collect, and even the season. So if you want to match the flavor profile of Drambuie the regular local honey just won’t do it, we need heather honey. It’s what they use in Scotland, with a rich, floral, earthy and slightly smoky flavor.

So I reached out to a good friend of the channel, Iain McPherson, Mr. Cocktail Panda himself. He was kind enough to hook me up with some authentic Scottish heather honey, so I could make a version that really captures the spirit of the original. Now, to achieve the perfect sweetness without overpowering the flavor profile with honey, I’m also adding some sugar. 

We’ll next build the spice and herbal layer as we go, so let’s get started. It’s Cocktail Time!

Hacked Drambuie

● 550ml · 18.33oz Scotch Whisky

● 40g Heather Honey

● 198g Sugar

● 0.2g Cloves (crushed)

● 0.36g Fennel Seeds (crushed)

● 0.5g Star Anise (crushed)

● 6 Rosemary Leaves

● 2.4g Dried Orange Peel

● 18 strands Saffron

● 0.42g Vanilla

We’ll begin by gently crushing the cloves, star anise, and fennel seed, then split open the vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds. For the herbal notes, I’m adding something fresh to lift the whole blend. Rosemary works really well here, then add dried orange peel for a bit of citrus. A few strands of saffron for color and a subtle floral note, and all of this will go into a sous vide bag along with the scotch, sugar, and honey. 

Now it’s time to seal the bag carefully, and place it in the sous vide bath set to 58°C (136°F). The low temperature makes sure nothing goes bitter, and the honey and spices melt perfectly into the whisky. After two and a half hours it’s time to take the bag out and let it cool down, then pass it through a coffee filter. This will keep out the bigger particles, but it won’t give you that clean, clear liqueur we’re looking for just yet.

Even the liqueur tastes best after a few days of resting. That’s when the flavors settle and marry together, and the liquid clears even more. When it’s fully settled, carefully siphon out the clear part on top and leave the sediment in the bottom. If you try to filter everything again, the tiny particles will slip through again and it won’t stay clear, but with that all that’s left is to label your hacked Drambuie.

When I started testing out this recipe, I used a variety of local honeys, but after using heather honey I can tell you that this DIY Drambuie was a success! From the color to the taste, you’ll be surprised at how close of a result this is. And if you want to see Robi & Sašo trying to figure out if they can taste the difference between original and Hacked Drambuie, check out our Patreon page, where we were live streamed the taste test during the filming of this episode.

Now, if you’re a Friend of Cocktails, chances are you’ve had Drambuie before in a well known classic cocktail, the Rusty Nail. It’s a two ingredient cocktail, so you really want them both to be the best possible. The proportions can be a matter of preference, but most people settle somewhere around three parts Scotch to one part Drambuie. That’s what I’m using here. 

Rusty Nail

● 1.5oz · 45ml Glenlivet 12 Single Malt Scotch

● 0.5oz · 15ml Hacked Drambuie

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

Skewered Lemon Coin Garnish

We can build this one straight into a chilled glass with a tempered ice cube. Just stir it with a barspoon to chill and dilute it, before expressing some lemon oils on top. Now sweker the lemon coin to resemble a nail, and you’re ready for a classic Scotch cocktail with a surprisingly long history.

Drinks historian David Wondrich traced the mix of Scotch and Drambuie back to 1937, in a drink called the B.I.F., made for the British Industry Fair. Some claim it first appeared in 1942 at a bar in Hawaii, made for an artist named Theodore Anderson. But since Drambuie was already being made in Edinburgh in the early 1900s, I’m pretty sure people were mixing the two long before that.

The drink really took off later, in the 1950s at New York’s Club 21, and then became a Rat Pack favourite in the 60s, which further boosted its popularity. The Rusty Nail is great, but today I’ll also make a sour cocktail, appropriately called Bonnie Prince Charlie, linking the cocktail back to the origin story of the liqueur.

There are plenty of different cocktails named after Prince Charlie, but I found this shaken version on Difford’s Guide. It first appeared in the 1937 cocktail book titled “The How and When.” The base spirit here is Cognac, which could be a nod to the Prince’s years in exile in France before he tried to reclaim the throne.

Bonnie Prince Charlie

● 1.5oz · 45ml Cognac

● 0.75oz · 22.5ml Hacked Drambuie

● 0.5oz · 15ml Lime Juice

● 2 drops 20% Saline Solution

Lime Coin Garnish

Add the ingredients into a chilled shaker with ice. The sweetness level of our DIY Drambuie is the same as the original liqueur, so we’re adding the same amount as what’s written in the recipe. Now add ice and shake hard to mix, chill, and dilute the cocktail, then fine-strain into a chilled Nick & Nora glass. We’ll garnish it with a small circle of lime peel, expressing the essential oils over the cocktail.

Two great cocktails, and a great liqueur, I’m happy to call today’s experiment a success. But before we leave, here’s a quick hack you can use with your bottle of scotch to create an amazing mulled wine this winter: 2-ingredient Fig Liqueur. 

Fig Liqueur

● 3oz · 90ml Liber & Co. Caramelized Fig Syrup

● 3oz · 90ml Single Malt Scotch

Simply combine these two ingredients, and you’ll get a readt-to-use fig liqueur for a great mulled wine this winter. But just like the Rusty Nail, this 2 ingredient recipe needs quality ingredients, so I’m using Liber&Co.’s delicious Caramelized Fig Syrup.

Right now Liber&Co is running its Black Friday sale, where you can get 20% off all syrups, 25% off if you order 6 or more and 30% off if you order 12 or more. So grab a variety of syrups, and get ready for some amazing homemade liqueurs, made in seconds. Now, let’s make some mulled wine. 

Mulled Wine

● 3oz · 90ml White Wine

● 2oz · 60ml Water

● 2 Cloves

● 1 Cinnamon Stick

● 1oz · 30ml Fig Liqueur

● 0.25oz · 7.5ml Rich Gum Syrup

● 3 drops Saline Solution

Dried Fig Garnish

For the mulled wine you’ll gently heat some white wine with a little water, cloves and cinnamon. In a heatproof glass add the fig liqueur, a splash of rich syrup, and a few drops of saline, then pour the hot wine mixture over it–straining out the spices. Give it a stir, and garnish with a dried fig, before enjoying. Until next time, cheers!