Merrick’s SHOUT
Merrick Watts on his latest drinks discovery.
When contemplating the cooler months, I find two images quickly come to mind: warming drinks with high alcohol levels as I sit by my fireplace (gas heater with the TV broadcasting flames); and daydreams of tropical escapes with me, lying on a sun lounge in my white Speedos (just kidding, they’re turquoise), with trays of tropical fruits at hand. Either is great, but what if I could have both?
Meet the Banana Old Fashioned. It’s the drink you never knew you needed, and a collision of styles not seen since Michelangelo and Ken Done designed some doona covers together.
I discovered this delicious nectar at a bakery. Humble Bakery in Sydney’s Surry Hills is another project from the team that brought you Porteño, WyNo X Bodega and Bastardo. I went in for a finger bun and came out with a perfume bottle full of banana liquor. Makes total sense, right?
The lo-fi packaging is not a great indicator of this drink’s internal integrity. This is not just whisky with some syrup from a milkshake shop chucked in. The process is a lot more bespoke – they steep fresh banana in Jack Daniel’s Old No. 7 Tennessee Whiskey, allowing time to integrate the flavours and mellow the whisky kick.
It’s rich, but not sickly. It’s complex and almost bready. If you like banana in all its incarnations the way I do, you will love this combination. It’s Tennessee meets Tenerife. It’s Highland meets Hawaii. It’s incongruously glorious. My serving suggestion: drink it with three cubes of ice while floating in a pool on a li-lo and wearing a pair of Speedos. (Speedos optional. Very optional.)