On Wednesday I reviewed Bastille French Whisky a.k.a the worst whisky I have ever had. I know it’s been rated highly in some publications, but I just don’t get it. Nevertheless, one unifying theme in other reviews I’ve read of it (professional or not) is that it’s a great mixing whisky. It basically tastes like it already has Triple Sec in it, so I can see how it would fit it a cocktail.
When looking for a prohibition / pre-prohibition whisk(e)y cocktail recipe to use this in I started by looking for recipes using more than just a dash of curacao*, and that’s how I cam across the Swift. A traditional Swift is a pre-prohibition cocktail made with rye, sweet vermouth, amer and curacao. However, Bastille is so sweet and orangy already that I decided to remove the curacao completely and used extra dry vermouth to compensate for the almost cloying sweetness of the whisky. I call the result the Leste. Which, according to Google Translate, is French for swift.
If you have any other good recipes for Bastille or give this a try let me know in the comments below.
Leste Cocktail Recipe (using Bastille French Whisky)
1 1/2 jiggers Bastille
1/4 jigger (extra) dry Vermouth
1/8 jigger Amer
*Triple Sec is a type of curacao.
