No-Booze Penicillin (A THC Penicillin Drink Recipe) Recipe

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No-Booze Penicillin (A THC Penicillin Drink Recipe) Ingredients

1 packet Elevate Fresh Lemon THC drink mixer, 5 mg or 10 mg

2 oz / 60 ml lapsang souchong tea, brewed strong and chilled

1 oz / 30 ml fresh lemon juice

0.5 oz / 15 ml ginger syrup (Liber & Co Fiery Ginger is the one on my bar)

0.25 oz / 7 ml honey syrup (honey cut with a little hot water)

Candied ginger, for garnish, on a skull cocktail pick if you have my priorities

How to make a No-Booze Penicillin (A THC Penicillin Drink Recipe)

The Penicillin has spawned a whole family of variations since 2005, bourbon versions, mezcal versions, hot toddy versions. Mine wanders further from the original than most: no scotch at all, THC in its place, and smoked tea doing the whisky's job. Here's how it comes together.

The sweet part: the original Penicillin uses a honey-ginger syrup you simmer yourself. My shortcut is two bottles I already keep on the bar: ginger syrup (Liber & Co makes my favorite) plus honey syrup, which is just honey cut with a little hot water so it pours cold. Same flavor, no saucepan. If you'd rather make the classic version, simmer equal parts honey and water with a thumb of sliced ginger for five minutes, steep while it cools, and strain.

The tea: the smoked-tea trick comes from Anders Erickson, whose non-alcoholic builds are worth your time. Brew the lapsang souchong at double strength, about 2 teaspoons of leaves (or two bags) per 4 oz of water, steeped five minutes and chilled. Weak tea disappears in this drink. Strong tea is the drink.

The build: stir the Elevate packet into about 1 oz of water until it's fully dissolved, then add it to the shaker with the chilled tea, lemon juice, and both syrups. Shake hard with ice and strain over one big cube (a clear ice tray earns its freezer space here). Candied ginger on a pick to finish.

If you want to push the smoke further, hit the empty glass with a cocktail smoker before you pour. I ranked my favorites in the cocktail smoker kit guide, and this drink is exactly what those kits are for.

This is half of a pair with the THC Painkiller Riff, two drinks named like a pharmacy shelf with no alcohol between them. Every THC discount code I have lives on the THC discounts page.

No-booze Penicillin made with Fresh Lemon Elevate drink mixer and smoked lapsang souchong tea, served over a large ice cube with candied ginger

Mission Farms paid for this recipe and the video it comes from. They did not pay for my opinions. Those are still free, and still mine. The Elevate links on this page are affiliate links, so I earn a commission if you buy through one.

Sam Ross created the Penicillin at Milk & Honey in New York in 2005, and it became that rare modern drink bartenders treat like a hundred-year-old classic: blended scotch, lemon, honey-ginger syrup, and a float of smoky Islay whisky on top. The name is a bartender's joke, because honey, lemon, and ginger is what your grandmother prescribes. That's the whole joke and I'm keeping it that way. This is a cocktail, not medicine, and the THC version doesn't treat anything either.

Mine swaps the scotch for two things. The first is a packet of Elevate, Mission Farms' Fresh Lemon THC drink mixer, which brings the citrus and the buzz in one pour. One packet is one serving, 5 mg or 10 mg depending on which you buy, and code SHARETHEGOOD takes 40% off. The second is strong-brewed lapsang souchong, a black tea dried over pinewood smoke. The tea does double duty, giving the drink its body and the smoke the Islay float usually provides, and a bag of it costs a few dollars and makes fifty of these.