The Penicillin looks like a get-well remedy and drinks like a grown-up whisky sour: blended Scotch, lemon, honey, a hot bite of ginger, and a thin layer of smoky Islay whisky floated on top. It was created by the Australian bartender Sam Ross at Milk & Honey in New York in the mid-2000s, and it is one of the few drinks from that decade that bars still make everywhere. The name nods to the soothing things in the glass; it is a cocktail, not a cure.
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This is the widely published version: 60 ml (2 oz) blended Scotch, 22 ml (¾ oz) fresh lemon juice, 22 ml (¾ oz) honey-ginger syrup, and about 7 ml (¼ oz) of peaty Islay single malt on top. Some bars split the sweetness into separate honey and ginger syrups, so measures vary a little; this is the common one.
Method: shaken, then floated. Put the Scotch, lemon and syrup in a shaker with plenty of ice and shake hard for about 10 seconds. That chills the drink and adds water, which is called dilution, and it softens the alcohol so the ginger and lemon can be tasted. Strain over one large ice cube in a rocks glass. A big cube melts slowly, so the drink stays strong and cold without turning watery.
Now the float. Hold a bar spoon upside down just above the surface and pour the Islay whisky slowly over its back. It lies on top because it is lighter than the sugary, watery drink below. Glass: rocks. Garnish: a piece of candied ginger on a pick.
This is the step that makes the drink. Raw honey on its own is too thick to mix cold, and the ginger needs heat to give up its flavour. A common home method: simmer equal parts honey and water with sliced, peeled fresh ginger for about 5 minutes (a thumb-sized piece, about 6 cm, per cup of honey is a good start), leave it overnight so the ginger keeps working, then strain. It keeps for around two weeks in the fridge. More ginger means a hotter drink, so adjust to taste.
The Penicillin is built on a sour: strong, sour and sweet in roughly 3:1:1. Ross is reported to have based it on the Gold Rush, a bourbon, lemon and honey drink, swapping in blended Scotch and adding ginger. Blended Scotch is the right base because it is soft and light enough to let lemon and honey through. A heavily peated malt in the shaker would swamp everything.
The float is the clever part. Smoke is a strong smell, and most of what you taste is smell. Because the Islay whisky sits on top, the first thing your nose meets as you sip is peat smoke, and then the sweet, sour, ginger drink flows underneath it. Stirred into the shaker, the same splash would just muddy the drink. That is why the glass above changes when you move the float: it is a seasoning, so a little goes a long way.
The smoke is a perfume, not an ingredient: it belongs on top, where your nose can find it first.
Whichever you choose, drink at your own pace. This is a sipper, not a speed drink, and it carries the same alcohol as any other full-strength cocktail. Never drive after drinking.
You need very little kit. A proper lemon is the most important thing: squeeze it just before you shake, because bottled juice is flat. Use a blended Scotch you would happily drink on its own, and a peaty Islay malt only for the float, so a small bottle lasts a long time. Finally, make the syrup the day before, and use fresh ginger rather than powder.