Like so many others during quarantine, my cocktail game has improved.

Especially during the early days, my wife and I ordered a number of cocktail kits from Navy Strength, our favorite tiki bar in Seattle. (As distinct from Rumba, our favorite rum bar. I don’t know that we have a favorite non-tiki cocktail bar these days.) With one of those cocktail kits came a one liter bottle of Suntory Toki, a lovely, exceptionally delicate and floral Japanese whisky.

At this time I had in my refrigerator a bottle of honey syrup I’d made from the recipe in Shannon Mustipher‘s Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails. Honey syrup is just simple syrup made with a 1:1 ratio of honey to water. I’d made mine with a lovely wildflower honey from the farmer’s market that I just happened to have in the cabinet.

Finally I picked up a bottle of Elemakule Tiki bitters, also to make recipes from that tiki book. Then (perhaps inspired by Cocktail Codex) inspiration hit: an Old Fashioned variant that’s light and floral, highlighting those aspects of the Toki, but also unfussy enough to make after a busy or stressful day.

Recipe: In a rocks glass, mix 1 tsp honey syrup and 1 dropper of tiki bitters. Add 1.5 oz Toki whisky and an oversized ice cube. Stir. Add a twist of lemon, then serve.