The Monkey Shoulder Scotch Guide

Monkey Shoulder is a blended malt Scotch whisky from William Grant & Sons, launched in 2005 and built, unusually for Scotch, to be mixed. Here is what is in the bottle, where the name comes from, what it tastes like and five drinks to make with it.

What Monkey Shoulder is

Monkey Shoulder is a blended malt, which means it is made entirely from single malt whiskies and contains no grain whisky. That is the distinction between it and a standard blended Scotch like Johnnie Walker or Dewar’s, which combine malt whisky with cheaper grain whisky. Single malt is whisky from one distillery made only from malted barley; a blended malt is several of those mixed together.

When it launched, Monkey Shoulder was a blend of three Speyside single malts owned by William Grant & Sons: Glenfiddich, Balvenie and Kininvie. As volumes grew the company widened the recipe to other Speyside malts, and the label now says only that it is a blend of Speyside single malts. It is matured in ex-bourbon casks, carries no age statement and is bottled at 40% ABV.

The first release was drawn from 27 casks, nine from each distillery, which is why the bottle says “Batch 27.” The number has stayed on the label as a brand mark; it does not describe current production.

The name

“Monkey shoulder” was the distillery workers’ name for a repetitive strain injury. In traditional floor malting, the malt men turned germinating barley by hand with wooden shovels for hours at a time, and years of that work could leave one arm hanging lower than the other. Mechanized malting ended the practice at most distilleries, though Balvenie still runs a floor maltings for part of its barley. The three brass monkeys on the bottle are a nod to the three original malts.

The company

William Grant & Sons is a family-owned Scottish distiller founded in 1887. Alongside Monkey Shoulder it makes Glenfiddich and Balvenie single malts, Grant’s blended Scotch, Hendrick’s gin, Tullamore D.E.W. Irish whiskey and Drambuie.

What Monkey Shoulder tastes like

It is a soft, sweet Speyside style with no peat. The bourbon casks show up as vanilla and butterscotch; on the nose there is orange marmalade, malt and a little cocoa, with baking spices behind them. The palate is creamy and malty, with toasted barley, honey, dried apricot and a touch of berry fruit, and the finish is medium length with oak spice and a faint peppermint note. It is unassertive by design, which is the point: it holds up in a cocktail without fighting the other ingredients.

A few facts

• The brand’s positioning from day one has been Scotch for mixing, at a time when most Scotch marketing was about drinking it neat. Its house serve is the Ginger Monkey: Monkey Shoulder, ginger ale and an orange slice over ice.
• In 2018 the brand toured the US with a cement mixer converted into a giant cocktail shaker, the Monkey Mixer, to make the same argument in person.
• Monkey Shoulder has released a peated version, Smokey Monkey, in some markets, made with a share of peated Speyside malt.
• Because it is a blended malt with no age statement, it sits well below Glenfiddich and Balvenie in price while sharing some of the same spirit.

Monkey Shoulder cocktail recipes

Old Fashioned

The Old Fashioned is usually made with bourbon or rye, and the first written recipe for what became the drink appears in Jerry Thomas’s 1862 Bar-Tender’s Guide. A soft, sweet Speyside malt takes to it well.

• 2 oz Monkey Shoulder
• 3 dashes Angostura bitters
• 1 sugar cube
• 1 teaspoon water
• Orange peel and a cocktail cherry

1. Muddle the sugar cube with the bitters and water in the bottom of a rocks glass until dissolved.
2. Add ice, pour in the whisky and stir until cold.
3. Express the orange peel over the drink, drop it in, and add the cherry.

Monkey Splash

A Scotch and soda. The simplest way to taste the whisky with a little dilution and no sugar.

• 1.5 oz Monkey Shoulder
• 3 oz soda water
• Orange slice

Pour the whisky over ice in a highball, top with soda and garnish.

Monkey Colada

Scotch is not the obvious base for a tropical drink, but the honey and vanilla in this one sit comfortably next to pineapple and coconut.

• 2 oz Monkey Shoulder
• 1 oz coconut rum
• 3 oz coconut water
• 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
• 2 rings fresh pineapple
• Simple syrup to taste
• Ice

Blend everything except the syrup with a cup of ice until smooth, then sweeten to taste. Pour into a tall glass and garnish with pineapple.

Espresso Martini

The standard recipe uses vodka. Swapping in Monkey Shoulder adds malt and vanilla under the coffee.

• 2 oz Monkey Shoulder
• 1.5 oz fresh espresso, cooled slightly
• 1 oz coffee liqueur
• Simple syrup to taste

Shake the whisky, espresso and liqueur hard with ice until the shaker frosts, taste, add syrup if needed, and strain into a chilled coupe. The hard shake is what produces the foam.

Whisky Jam Sour

A whisky sour with a spoonful of jam in place of some of the syrup. Apricot or marmalade match the whisky; raspberry works too.

• 2 oz Monkey Shoulder
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 oz simple syrup
• 2 teaspoons jam
• 1 dash orange bitters
• Soda water, optional

Shake everything except the soda hard with ice until the jam has fully dissolved, strain over fresh ice, and top with a splash of soda if you want it longer.

The short version

Monkey Shoulder is a no-age-statement blended malt from Speyside, bottled at 40%, made from single malts only and matured in bourbon casks. It is a soft, sweet, unpeated whisky that was designed for cocktails and works in them, and it also does fine on the rocks.

Saucey carries Monkey Shoulder and the rest of the Scotch shelf, with delivery in as fast as 25 mins in the cities we serve. Browse Scotch on Saucey, or read our Macallan 12 review for the single malt end of the shelf.

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