Appreciated amongst the Scottish since the 19th century, Drambuie liqueur is declared from the Scots Gaelic “an dram buidheach”, which means “the drink that satisfies”.

The Rusty Nail cocktail took a while to find its proper place in the world. David Wondrich traced the combination of Drambuie and whiskey in 1937.

According to the cocktail authority Dale DeGroff notes, the Rusty Nail is often credited to the clever bartenders at the 21 Club in Manhattan sometime in the 1950s.

The cocktail’s name was finally cemented in 1963, when Gina MacKinnon, the chairwoman of the Drambuie Liquor Company, gave the Rusty Nail her endorsement in The New York Times.