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Why do I call this the roaring Rob Roy cocktail? Because when I picture someone lifting this frosty delicate glass and toasting it with their drink mates, I see them ROARING before they take a sip.

Yes, roaring! It’s that good.

Here’s a funny thing. I’ve been surprising myself so much lately. My tastes have changed. What the heck is happening to me? I ask you!!

Here’s the girl who wouldn’t eat a cookie right out of the oven, especially a chocolate chip cookie.

Check. Doing that now.

Eat a chocolate chip pancake? Never before.

Check. Can’t get enough of that ooey gooey chocolatey goodness!

Allow bourbon, whiskey or scotch pass these tightly sealed lips? Not on your life.

Check! Drinking those boozey cocktails!

I’m sure there are other changes I could write about, but I only mention the ones above because they are among the biggest and surprise me the most!

Now, you can make the Rob Roy cocktail a few different ways: with sweet vermouth (which I chose for this recipe) or with dry vermouth. You can have a Rob Roy on the rocks or straight up (I chose that option.)

On to the roaring Rob Roy cocktail recipe:

The Ingredients:

What you need to make this delicious cocktail is scotch, sweet vermouth, a few dashes of bitters and a maraschino cherry for garnish.

Easy!

Here’s a secret, one you may already know: The Rob Roy is a Manhattan cocktail but made with scotch.

Yup, scotch instead of whiskey (here’s an entertaining explanation of their differences), so they named it something else. Of course they would have to name it something else because it tastes different. It’s subtle; at least to someone like me, who doesn’t have a discerning palate when it comes to whiskey and scotch, but it’s different.

I didn’t have any scotch on hand so I went to a liquor store near by. Here’s a little factoid about me: when I need to restock my coffers of booze, I usually frequent little liquor stores instead of the big chains, even if their prices are a little higher. It’s all about the small businesses! I try to support them every chance I get.

So, there I was staring at the scotches, contemplating which one to buy and since any future use of scotch would be to mix it with something else and not drink it neat, I took a chance on a mid-range scotch. (Of course, with all my changes, I could very well start doing that.)

Full disclosure: I bought the brand Monkey Shoulder because I LOVE the name and the cute little monkeys on the bottle. For those of my readers who have known me since I was young, monkeys used to be my favorite animal. Dogs have leaped to the top of my list, but there wasn’t a Dog brand staring back at me from the shelves, so Monkey Shoulder won.

I’m glad I took a chance on this scotch. It is very yummy!

I pour 2.5 ounces of the Monkey Shoulder scotch in my measuring glass.

As with most of my cocktails, even the ones I just stir, I grab my cocktail shaker and fill it a little under half full with ice cubes.

I pour the scotch into the shaker.

Next up, I pour out 1 ounce of sweet vermouth.

Into the shaker it goes!

Next up I grab the Angostura bitters and shake 3 drops into the shaker.

Time to get the maraschino cherry out of the jar. I always rinse the cherry before placing it in my cocktails, so I don’t taint them or their flavor with excess syrup.