The Spirits #133: The Pantheon

Incorporating a COMPLETE GUIDE TO SUBSTITUTIONS

Jun 14, 2024

~ THE PANTHEON ~

40ml Scotch
20ml Bénédictine
20ml lemon juice

Place all of the ingredients in the shaker. Half-fill with ice. Shake. Fine-strain into a cold, cold glass. Garnish with a lemon zest twist and relax OK?

NOTES on the PANTHEON

1. The Pantheon was invented by the Tokyo bartender Daisuke Ito at the Land Bar Artisan in 2019 for inclusion in Nicholas Coldicott’s Tokyo Cocktails (2021). You will note that it is extremely simple. No house umami reduction or basil eau de vie; no popcorn liqueur or dehydrated donut crumb. Just three ingredients that you will find in just about any decent bar - or home, for that matter - but which no one thought to combine until Ito did. “The point of creating a cocktail recipe, for me, is to have it served 50 years from now in another part of the world,” he informed Coldicott on submitting the recipe. “But that’s not going to happen if I give you a recipe with an obscure liqueur and things you’d need to go shopping for.” The Pantheon is already well on its way to modern classic status, having been spotted on menus in Spain, Thailand and America - and most importantly, the increasingly influential Spirits newsletter.

2. Ito (below) did not specify a particular whisky, a touch of classicism in the modern bartending world, where bartenders are increasingly fussy about this or that brand or expression. I’m with Ito in this. You should be able to make a Scotch cocktail with any Scotch. Hyper-specific recipes are for bartenders on shift - not dilettantes fiddling about at home - and a good recipe leaves room for experimentation. I made this with Famous Grouse and it was a delicious sip. I then did so again with Ardbeg Spectacular - which is indeed spectacular - and it was a truly elevated.

3. I sort of feel that Japanese whisky would be conceptually optimal, however. Rather a Japanese week I’m having. I am currently on the way to London with my Japanophile song to watch the touring production of Spirited Away at the Coliseum. Oh and I’ve prepared a Japanese playlist too - see below.

🖊️I am Richard Godwin.
🧋My instructions for sugar syrup, ice, grenadine, orgeat, etc are here.
🧑‍🏫 My 10 RULES FOR MAKING COCKTAILS are here.
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📃 The full A-Z recipe archive is here.
➡️ Please find a round up of organisations helping Ukrainians here.
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A SHORT GUIDE TO SUBSTITUTIONS

THE question I am asked most often w/r/t cocktails is “CAN I use X instead of Y?” (

The answer to this question is invariably yes! You can! By all means, use rum in place of gin, use Martini Blanco instead of Lillet Blanc, use lemons instead of limes, etc. This is how we evolve as a species, this is how new cocktails are made. These things always feel fairly intuitive to me. But then someone (not you, one of those other guys) will say: “OK great, so I’m going to sub orange juice for the Cointreau in the Margarita!” And I am forced to stick a sashimi knife into my eye - before reminding myself that perhaps these things aren’t as intuitive as all that.

With that in mind - and given that I have 10x the subscribers I did when I last posted on this subject - I thought it would be useful to expand on my old guide to substitutions, first published in Spirits Issue #8(!) WAY BACK in the mists of time, the pandemic days, when Boris Johnson was still calling the shots, Rishi Sunak was just that eat out guy and Liz Truss a joke but a harmless joke. THAT REGIME MAY FINALLY BE NEARING ITS IGNOMINIOUS END. But the need to cocktail will continue. It always does.

THE RULE: Function Over Flavour

Function is a bit like the walls and windows and roof of a building. Flavour is a bit like the interior décor. It’s important. But it’s more important that your house doesn’t fall down.

So the main thing you need to think of when subbing one thing for another is: what’s that ingredient doing in there? Flavour is only one part of it. Is it providing sourness? Sweetness? Strength? Fruitiness? Creaminess? Sometimes it’s an effect: like how eggs provide frothiness in a Sour; or a dash of Islay single malt provides smokiness in a Penicillin. Sometimes it’s a particular colour, like the violette in an Aviation or the Peychaud’s that I am prone to adding to my Lychee Martinis. The art is to work out it’s doing - ask if you can do without it (an Aviation minus the violette is still fine) - and if not, think about how you can replace it with something that’s going to do a similar job.

Of these elements, sourness is easy. Lemons will substitue for limes and vice versa since what they’re providing is citrussy acidity. If you’re fresh out of both you might try cider vinegar?

Strength isn’t too hard either. I basically mean booziness. Simplest thing is to replace spirits with spirits - light with light, dark with dark, but not necessarily. A Negroni with bourbon in place of gin is a Boulevardier and it’s wonderful.

Sweetness gives you more options. I often find I’ve run out of sugar syrup and can’t be bothered to make any more. Anything with concentrated sugar will do: honey, maple syrup, agave, any other syrup (grenadine, orgeat, cinnamon etc) or fruit cordial (elderflower and ginger both great to have around for this reason).

When it comes to juices (pineapple, grapefruit, orange, etc), again, don’t be too distracted by flavour - just try something else that has similar sweetness/acidity/bitterness. So, mango for pineapple, say. Apple for orange (but you might want a tiny spritz of lemon juice in there for tartness.) Cranberry for grapefruit? And so on.

What to do when FUNCTION becomes more COMPLICATED

It becomes more complicated when an ingredient is doing more than one job. Take, for example, the Margarita: tequila, orange liqueur, lime. The tequila is the strength. The lime is sourness. The orange liqueur is providing some alcohol, some orange-y flavour but mostly but mostly it’s providing sugar. Orange juice would be a bad subsitution: it’s not sweet enough on its own to counteract the acid of the lime or the strength of the tequila. Sugar syrup would be OK… but a little meh. Agave syrup is better (that gives you a Tommy’s Margarita). And agave syrup plus a splash of orange juice or a spray of orange peel is perhaps best of all. Cointreau (the most commonly found orange liqueur) is £25. Here is a cheaper, less boozy and whisper it, kind of better alternative.

The sweeter liqueurs will work well as sugar substitutes. Orange liqueur and maraschino usually have ample sugar to play a sugar-like function and indeed are often used primarily to add sweetness to cocktails. The cocktail might then need a little extra dilution or less of the base spirit to make up for it.

The overarching rule is to taste - this will help you understand when a little extra sourness is needed; when some dilution is needed; or a little more heft.

THE WORKABLE EXAMPLE

OK, so the Pantheon. You’re out of Scotch? Bourbon, calvados, brandy - these are going to be good. Tequila, that will be interesting, mezcal particularly so as it mirrors the smokiness of the Scotch.

No lemon? Try lime. Lime actually goes weirdly well with your smokier Islay Scotches.

No Bénédictine? This is the more likely scenario I’m guessing. Well, if you have Drambuie you’re in luck. It’s a sweet honeyish herbal liqueur and it happens to be Scotch-based too. There are various other herbal liqueurs you might try too: Strega, Galliano, Yellow Chartreuse? But probably honey is going to be the best substitute or maybe honey plus a dash of something herby/spicy. I know that’s not a Pantheon. But it’s evolution.

THE BASE SPIRITS

OK so, some more specifics.

Gin: any other white spirit. The northern European Zubrowka and aquavit are good shouts. Bear in mind gin is quite bitter - so a dash of bitters might help? Some of the more floral/aromatic aged spirits are good too, e.g. Irish whiskey, reposado tequila. Fino sherry (which is bone dry) often works in place of gin, as does dry vermouth (you might need to temper the sweetness elsewhere. If using vodka (which tastes of zilch) you might consider flash infusing it with herbal tea for ten minutes.
Bourbon: any other dark spirit. A Manhattan with Scotch = a Rob Roy. With brandy = a Harvard. Rum almost always works in bourbon contexts, notably Old Fashioneds!
Rum: well, again, try light spirits for light rum (pisco and grappa are excellent) and dark for dark (rye, bourbon, maybe even calvados). There are millions of recipes that call for specific types of rum: Jamaica rum, or Golden Rum or Guyana rum or whatever. It’s great having lots of different kinds of rum but really all you need are light and dark. Always worth trying dark rum in light rum cocktails - but with dark rum cocktails I’d go for bourbon.
Tequila/Mezcal: You can use mezcal in tequila cocktails no probs. Fino sherry works in most tequila contexts too - it is similarly food friendly and vegetal. And gin too.
Vodka: almost any other spirit - probably white rum - but since vodka is basically flavourless, use the other ingredients in the drink as your guide. If it’s a White Russian, hmm, rum? If it’s a French Martini, try gin. Espresso Martini? Tequila!
Brandy: Medium golden rums are nice and calvados/apple brandy is good too. And you might try pisco too.
Pisco: white rum, tequila. Best: grappa.
Scotch: other whiskeys. And tequila is usually good (or mezcal for the smokier Islays)

THE MODIFIERS

French Vermouth: By French vermouth, I mean the pale dry stuff by the way, the essential ingredient in the Martini. If you’re fresh out, hmm. Sherry is good: dry (fino or manzanilla). Lillet Blanc is sweeter than dry vermouth, but still delicious in a Martini. Or try white wine? I made a “Negroni” with some Argentinian Torrontes, Campari and white rum the other day. Pretty good. Suze has plenty of gentian in it, like vermouth, so if you happen to have an open bottle of white wine and some Suze you can make in instant vermouth with it.
Italian Vermouth: By Italian vermouth I mean the red, sweeter stuff, used in Negronis, Manhattans, etc. Here you can use medium sherries, ruby or tawny port, Madeira, Marsala, sweet white vermouth (like Cocchi di Torino). Or maybe you could use French vermouth and a splash of a liqueur for extra sweetness. There’s a Negroni variant alled the Lucien Gaudin that replaces the Italian vermouth with French vermouth + orange liqueur. You might even try an amaro like Cynar.
Sweet White Vermouth/Lillet Blanc/Cocchi Americano etc: There is a fairly wide taste difference between this stuff - Lillet is lemony, Cocchi is almost white chocolate - but it is basically in the same “family” and may be used almost interchangeably. Same with rosé vermouth.
Sherry: Fino is the driest style of sherry and roughly as sweet at French vermouth. Amontillado is roughly as sweet as Italian vermouth.
Dubonnet/Byrrh/Quinquina: These are red-wine based herb-infused aperitif wines.. Sub for Italian vermouth or
Punt e Mes: Two part Italian vermouth, one part amaro.
Antica Formula: This is a quite syruppy and rich Italian vermouth that’s often called for by name. If all you have is, e.g. Martini Rosso, don’t sweat it but you might want to add a teaspoon of something sweet and lush - maybe a little of the syrup from your maraschino cherries?

LIQUEURS/AMARI

Orange Liqueur: almost always used as a sweetner in cocktails. So, try honey, sugar, maple syrup, agave syrup - with a spritz of orange zest? I wouldn’t recommend orange squash. But you know what does the job really well? Marmalade.
Maraschino: also usually used as a sweetener, so same as above, but anything you can use to impart a cherry-almondy flavour is good. Syrup from the cherry jar plus a dash of almond essence? Or just try orange liqueur.
Campari: anything else bitter is worth a try - Aperol, Cynar, Fernet (in smaller quantities) Ramazotti, Montenegro, etc. There are plenty of non-alcoholic Aperol dupes too. There are a few cocktails where I use Campari as much for colour. Blood orange, grapefruit and cranberries plus a bit of sweetness can be good!
Amari: Just try flipping these things around - don’t sweat the brands too much but do consider the weight. Aperol is at the lighter and fruitier end so might be better subbed for a fruitier liqueur. Barolo Chinato is at the heavier end. And don’t forget the non-Italian ones like Becherovka, Jager, etc.
Bénédictine: this will usually substitute for similarly dark, sweet, desserty liqueurs: Drambuie, Cuaranta y Tres, etc. Then there’s Coffee Liqueur and Dark Cacao, almost interchangable and in the same “family”, in my mind anyway.
Chartreuse: switch for other herbal/piney liqueurs, yellow for green. Or: flash infuse some herbs/green tea in gin or vodka for ten minutes, add a little sugar and oomph.
Absinthe: pastis is going to work fine. Absinthe is almost always used as seasoning in cocktails - so anything with a touch of anise is good. A few fennel seeds in a shaker?
Creme de cassis: Ribena.
Elderflower liqueur: Elderflower cordial (but watch for sweetness…)
Other fruit liqueurs: berries for berries, orchard fruits for orchard fruits, if you can. Jam will often do just as good a job - as will squash/cordial.

I hope this helps you. Hit me up with any more specific Q’s below!

The Spirits

The Spirits #133: The Pantheon

Incorporating a COMPLETE GUIDE TO SUBSTITUTIONS

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