Head to the Highlands for a healthy dose of "Hi-Jinks" with a couple of Scottish wonders:

Rob Roy circa 1894

Tinker Box by Neil Hutchison and Robert Yarger

One of the brilliant designers of the "Tinker Box" originally hails from Scotland, so pairing up this puzzle box with a cocktail naturally started there. We have to head back to late seventeenth and early eighteenth century and meet Robert Roy MacGregor, a Scottish outlaw and folk hero known as the “Scottish Robin Hood” who took part in the Jacobite rising. His life was fictionalized in the “Highland Rogue” (1723) and later in Sir Walter Scott’s “Rob Roy” (1817). More importantly, of course, was the creation of the famous cocktail in his honor, which occurred at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in 1894 to celebrate a new operetta about his life.

A Rob Roy is simply a Scotch Manhattan, that quintessential classic of rye and sweet vermouth, and equally delicious. Those of us who appreciate a fine single malt scotch would rather not use one in a cocktail, and therefore I prefer to use a blend when making a scotch cocktail. This Dewars did the trick nicely, and any other blend should work well. I made this one for the puzzle box maker himself. The cocktail was quite satisfying, or at least Neil pretended to like it. He told me something like, “a clean shirt’ll do ye”. That’s good, right? Cheers and “lang may yer lum reek”!

A couple of Highland Rogues

Rob Roy

2 oz Blended Scotch

1 oz Sweet Vermouth

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Orange peel

Stir ingredients together over ice and strain into a favorite glass. Express the orange peel over the glass and drop inside.

For the full article and to learn more about the incredible Tinker Box see:

Great Scott!