The mariner is a masterful blend of smoke and spice, from none other than the fantastic john deragon at pdt. Pdt uses compass box oak cross for their scotch, a milder blend without the huge peat bog flavors of, say, a laphroaig. If you have a japanese whiskey on hand, thatd work just as well. The original recipe calls for black cardamom syrup, which has a smokier flavor than the usual green cardamom but we admit we couldnt tell much of a difference in the versions that we tried, so use whatever cardamom syrup you like.