This 71-Ingredient Cocktail Is A Bartender's Worst Nightmare

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This complicated cocktail wins the contest for having the most ingredients out of all the cocktails in the world. Its whopping 71 ingredients outpace other ingredient-heavy cocktails, like a top-notch bloody mary or a Ramos gin fizz, by miles. They bring a rainbow of flavors to the drink, too. This drink is called the Commonwealth Cocktail and it contains everything from root vegetables to herbal flowers. It's a bright pink, boozy punch served in a coupe cocktail glass, and it tastes kind of like you put cocktail bitters in a mai tai, an herbal and refreshing blast of flavor in a chilled glass.

The drink is built around Scotch whiskey and has tropical vibes with earthy, herbal undertones and hints of apple and basil. You might detect a bit of rambutan from Singapore, Tongan avocado, or Scottish wild strawberry. Maybe you'll recognize floral, licorice notes thanks to saffron from Pakistan and star anise from Malta.

The Commonwealth cocktail was created by mixologist Mal Spence of Kelvingrove Café in Glasgow, Scotland to celebrate the 2014 XXX Commonwealth Games, a multi-sport event held every four years that brings together the best athletes from the Commonwealth Nations to compete. Each ingredient in the Commonwealth Cocktail represents one of the 71 nations that were part of the Commonwealth of Nations in 2014. It certainly drew attention — Prince William, Prince Harry, and Duchess Kate all tried the Commonwealth Cocktail that year.

How can you physically fit 71 ingredients into one, small glass — especially when some of those ingredients are things like cashew nuts, kava root, and breadfruit? It seems a daunting task, a complete and total nightmare of a cocktail to make until you learn the secret to the Commonwealth Cocktail.

The Commonwealth Cocktail is made using bitters flavored with those 71 ingredients. The bartender shaking up a true Commonwealth Cocktail isn't processing all those ingredients in real time. They won't pull out a blender to make this drink. Instead, your bartender will reach for a bottle of Commonwealth Bitters and add three to four drops to blended Scotch whiskey, Hawthorn Drinks Honey and Lavender Shrub, and Hawthorn Drinks Dandelion & Burdock Syrup. The cocktail is shaken with ice and double-strained.

An even more simplified version of the Commonwealth Cocktail can be made with ingredients that are likely easier to find. You can combine Scotch whiskey with lemon juice, dandelion and burdock cordial, and sliced mango and rambutan fruit. Muddle the fruit, shake with ice and all the other ingredients, and then strain over ice into a glass. You won't get all 71 ingredients in the drink, but you'll get the spirit of it without having to go on a scavenger hunt for ingredients.