How To Host Two-Fold, Three Ways With These Scrummy Summer Cocktails

For Starward, quintessential masters of made-in-Melbourne whisky, offering flavour-forward seasonal releases and limited editions is all in a day’s work. Still, from time to time, it’s invaluable to revisit the foundation of the award-winning brand’s signature whisky collection. And it doesn’t get much more ‘signature’ than Starward Two-Fold.

A delicious wheat and single malt expression, Two-Fold is aged in red wine barrels and built from still to bottle to be the ultimate ingredient in a great cocktail. 

This November, to celebrate the versatility of Two-Fold on any back bar, we’ve handpicked two of our favourite drinks recipes to make when you’re hosting – or indeed, being hosted – this holiday season.

Plus, one of Starward’s signature ‘ready to pour’ cocktails: so you can spend less time fussing, and more time feasting. 

RELATED: Starward Panettone Lets You Have Your (Christmas) Cake & Drink It Too

The Limoncello (New) Old Fashioned

An appropriately Starward twist on a classic whisky serve, this Limoncello (New) Old Fashioned contrasts Two-Fold’s juicy, red fruit-heavy flavour with the sweetness and moreish astringency of Italian lemon liqueur.  

On the pass at Starward’s own distillery & bar in Port Melbourne, the bar team have a soft spot for using Pallini – a limoncello crafted to the same family recipe since 1875, in which fresh Amalfi Coast lemons play a starring role. 

At times rich, yet somehow also refreshing, we’d recommend shaking up a few of these for the ultimate pre-meal aperitivo. Remember: this one’s inherent complexity rewards simple, high-quality food pairings. Plate a few packets of prosciutto or jamon serrano, and you’ll be good to go.

The Starward Spritz

For whisky fiends, this signature Starward serve is a fantastic way to outshine all of your Paloma-drinking buddies this summer.

The inclusion of both fresh grapefruit and grapefruit soda adds a bittered zesty overtone to the usual Two-Fold profile. Throw in the addition of some rosé vermouth (we like Unico Rosa) and you’ve got yourself a spritzer that is absolutely rippling with flavour. 

An abundance of floral and tropical fruit notes mean that the Starward Spritz excels in sunlit, daytime settings. For best results, we’d recommend similarly light and refreshing food pairings: from a salad of rocket and bocconcini, to the criminally underrated appetiser that is smacked cucumber. 

The (New) Old Fashioned

The most intensely flavoured tipple on our shortlist, which also takes the least amount of time for you to prepare, Starward’s ready-made Old Fashioned is a study in sippable extremes. 

As you’d expect of a distiller so famed for its experimental small-batch whiskies, it wasn’t enough for Starward to simply mix overproof spirit, bitters, and a dose of sugar for its bottled Old Fashioned. 

Instead, the brand called on its own in-house mixologists to help pen a new and exceptionally layered recipe – the kind that you’d expect in a town so renowned for the world-class quality of its cocktail scene. 

Classic Starward whisky is infused with orange bitters that are also made on-site at the Port Melbourne distillery. In place of boring ol’ simple syrup? A solution of local wattleseed and demerara that hints at the Starward Old Fashioned’s unique Aussie roots. 

Bursting with lush flavours of coffee, orange and nectarine; it takes all of the guesswork out of making industry-grade mixed beverages. All you’ve gotta do is prepare enough ice and rocks glasses for 10.

This article is sponsored by Starward. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Boss Hunting.