Name: Ardbeg Daiquiri
Prep time: 5 mins
Ingredients: 1.5 oz. Ardbeg Ten Years Old; .75 oz. freshly squeezed lime juice; .5 oz. simple syrup

I’m a whisk(e)y person, but my favorite cocktail is a Daiquiri. Not the frozen/flavored monstrosities you’ll find at beach resorts and chain restaurants, but the staple recipe of light rum, simple syrup and fresh lime juice, served straight up. It’s perfect.

Wait, or is it? Much like how I sometimes prefer the Oaxacan Old Fashioned over the classic bourbon/rye variation — the Oaxacan usually involves a split base of tequila and mezcal in place of whiskey, although I’ve had versions that split rum and mezcal and they’re delightful — one ingredient change to the Daiquiri can transform a classic but familiar drink into something smoky, unexpected and, at times, more memorable.

That’s when you forget the rum and bring in a peaty Scotch.

I first discovered this smoky variation at the Brandy Library in New York during an Ardbeg tasting event. When another guest inquired about the house special and I said “Daiquiri,” he chuckled. That was a joke, he thought, obviously! Except it wasn’t, and we all suspiciously then greedily imbibed more than a few Daiquiris based around the Islay distillery’s 10-year-old expression.

You Should Judge a Bar by How They Make a Daiquiri

It’s one of six basic cocktails — and the one most likely to get screwed up.

“Ardbeg’s newmake spirit has a load of tropical and citrus notes that are created and formed during fermentation,” says Travis Tidwell, the national brand ambassador for Ardbeg. “The unique purifier on the spirit still at Ardbeg allows more copper contact, which helps produce concentrations of these top notes. These top notes are hidden mostly behind the blanket of peat smoke. However, at older ages in Ardbeg as well as in cocktails, the peat smoke and tropical notes play really well with tiki and citrus-style cocktails like the Daiquiri.”

The good news is that those citrus and fruity characteristics play well in several classic tiki cocktails, including the Three Dots and a Dash, Jungle Bird and Painkiller. And you don’t have to stick to Ardbeg 10. “Ardbeg 10 has a ‘pure’ Islay characteristic to it — it’s solely matured in ex-bourbon casks, which makes it well suited for sipping neat or mixing in a cocktail to embrace its smokiness with its tropical citrus notes,” Tidwell says. “But Wee Beastie is great if you want more spice and funkiness.”

If you’re wondering how and why Scotch whisky distilleries would play around with tiki drinks, the country of Scotland has a long history with rum. According to Tidwell, rum distilled in the Caribbean in the 17th century made its way back to Scotland from the West Indies to be consumed in Glasgow, a central trading hub for sugar, cotton and alcohol. And Scotland produces a few of its own rums, including Banditti Club, Ninefold Rum and Dunedin Golden Rum.

The recipe below utilizes Ardbeg Ten and is a pretty straight riff on the classic Daiquiri, but feel free to experiment with different peaty Scotches and ingredient proportions.