Rusty Nail

The Rusty Nail is a short, spirit-forward Scotch cocktail of just two ingredients — Scotch whisky and Drambuie, the honeyed-and-herbal Scotch liqueur — built directly over ice in an old-fashioned glass and stirred gently. It is a simple, strong, after-dinner drink: amber and glowing in the glass, sweet and warming on the palate, with the Drambuie's heather honey and spice softening the malty, lightly smoky backbone of the whisky. A mid-twentieth-century classic, it rose to fame in the New York of the early 1960s and is one of the official cocktails of the International Bartenders Association.