Cameron's Kick

Equal parts Scotch and Irish whiskey brightened with lemon and orgeat - from Harry MacElhone's 1922 ABC of Mixing Cocktails, orgeat bridging both whiskey traditions.

Cameron's Kick is a Jazz Age whisky cocktail that makes the unusual choice of combining Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey as equal co-spirits in a single preparation, a cross-tradition blend more common in the experimental pre-Prohibition era than in the decades that followed. It first appeared in print in Harry MacElhone's 1922 ABC of Mixing Cocktails and was carried over into Harry Craddock's The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), one of the most authoritative cocktail references of the inter-war period. Pairing the two whiskies in equal measure brings together two distinct production traditions: Scotch's typically double-distilled character, with its variable peat and grain complexity, and Irish whiskey's triple-distilled smoothness and lighter grain profile. Fresh lemon juice and orgeat syrup complete the drink - essentially a whisky sour that swaps almond-and-orange-blossom orgeat for plain sugar - with the whiskies poured a little heavier than the lemon and orgeat to keep the base spirits forward. Orgeat, traditionally made from almonds, sugar, and orange flower water, was a standard bar ingredient in the early 20th century and would later become a defining component of mid-century tiki drinks. The origin of the drink's name is undocumented; MacElhone recorded no explanation, and a notorious 1930s misprint in the Mr. Boston guide compounded the confusion by listing the orgeat as orange bitters.