Category: Cocktails

While you could craft your drink with butterfly tear infused tequila and garnish it antique cucumber flowers to reach refreshment, you can also just make the simple classic Tom Collins.  Originally made with Old Tom Gin, the Tom Collins is reminiscent of refreshing  spiked lemonade.  Best of all, it can be made with things you generally would have around your house.

Tom Collins

Tom Collins

2 oz

Gin

1 oz

Lemon Juice

¾ oz

Simple Syrup

2 oz

Club Soda

1

Orange and Cherry Flag Garnish

Fill a Collins glass with ice. Add club soda. In a shaker, add gin, simple, and lemon. Short shake and strain over club and ice in Collins glass. Garnish with an orange and cherry flag.

The Tom Collins remains popular today because it’s clean, simple, and refreshing. The gin is allowed to shine, but given a lift by copious fresh lemon and a hint of sweetness. The bubbly club livens it up, and the cherry and orange add a pop of color.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The Tom Collins is fairly universal in terms of how they’re constructed, with only some minor variation in the amount of simple syrup.  There’s nothing particularly complicated here, but it also has a very similar build to most sours.  For that reason, you can riff on the Tom Collins by making adjustments in sweetness modifiers or citrus.

• Gin – Beefeater is our choice, but any London Dry Gin will work.
• Lemon Juice – Use fresh squeezed as always.
• Simple Syrup – A traditional 1:1 water to sugar simple is classic for this recipe.
• Garnish – To make a cherry orange flag, skewer the orange and the cherry together, and lay across the finished drink.
• Glassware – The word Collins is in the title.  Serve it in a Collins glass when possible.
• Ice – As you’re going to be adding ingredients, stop at about 70% ice when starting the Collins glass.  Add more if needed.

Supposedly the descendant of the “Joe Rickey”, a mixture of bourbon, lime, and carbonated water, the Gin Rickey emerged as a summery alternative.  Originally concocted in Washington, D.C., the Rickey is the native drink; they even have Rickey Month in July.   While this delicious refreshing drink is almost infinitely riffable, let’s start with how to make a basic.

Gin Rickey

Gin Rickey

2 oz

Gin

1 oz

Lime Juice

½ oz

Simple Syrup

4 oz

Club Soda

1

Lime Wedge Garnish

Combine all ingredients except club in a shaker. Add ice and short shake. Strain over fresh ice into a highball or Collins glass. Top with Club Soda, and garnish with a lime.

The Gin Rickey is easy going, simple, and refreshing. The pucker of lime is gentled by the addition of simple and club soda. The brightness keeps the drink refreshing, and the slight notes of herbs and spices from the gin add a little extra dimension.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The Gin Rickey is simple, and therefore provides a starting base to riff on. Want to make give your Rickey a little ting of fruitiness? Replace some or all of the simple with Creme de Cassis or Apricot flavored liquor. Want to make it spicy? Add a dash of bitters. Looking for more complexity? Try some pastis or absinthe. The sky is really the limit.

Some will argue that the addition of simple here is in error. In many of the recipes we encountered for Gin Rickey’s the instructions suggest squeezing half a lime into the drink. We don’t recommend this method due to the variability in limes. You could end up with anywhere from just under a ¼ oz to almost ¾ oz of juice. The results become to variable. We also found that 1 oz of lime juice gives the drink a more refreshing, less gin forward character. With the amount of acidity that 1 oz of lime juice presents, it’s best to mitigate with some sweetness.

These are our recommendations of course, and we encourage you to experiment. As a starting point for a sugar free Gin Rickey, cut the lime juice to ½ oz and remove the simple syrup.

• Gin – Beefeater is our choice, but any London Dry Gin will do.
• Lime Juice – Use fresh squeezed as always.
• Simple Syrup – A traditional 1:1 water to sugar simple is most often used here.
• Garnish –  A standard lime wedge is all you need.
• Glassware – The traditional recommendation here is a highball.  We recommend a highball, but you can substitute a Collins glass in a pinch.
• Ice – Start your ice 70% of the way up your glass when pouring your shaken cocktail over.  Add club, and top with additional ice if needed.

The Moscow Mule actually belongs to a family of cocktails known as ‘Bucks’.  These cocktails are a combination of liquor, ginger ale or beer, and citrus.  The intention is that the drink gives you a kick.  The most popular of these is the vodka based variation, more commonly known as the Moscow Mule.

The Moscow Mule

Moscow Mule

2 oz

Vodka

½ oz

Lime Juice

6 oz

Ginger Beer

1

Lime Wheel Garnish

Combine Lime and Vodka in a shaker. Short shake with approximately half the ice you would normal shake with. Strain into a copper mug filled with crushed ice. Top with ginger beer and a lime wheel.

Simple and refreshing, Moscow mules require only 3 ingredients to deliver a spicy burst of ginger flavor.   The effervescence of the ginger beer compliments well with the brightness of the lime.  The ice ensures you can enjoy your mule for a good amount of time as you lounge about.  The vodka seamlessly ties the whole thing together.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The Moscow Mule can be as simple or complicated as you’d like it to be.  We specifically tailored this recipe to help the basic bartender easily make the drink while keeping it delicious.  For these reasons, we used Gosling’s which covers the ginger element in spades.

That said, you may run across recipes that call for making your own ginger syrups and using club soda.  I encourage you to try some of these, like Death & Co’s* to see how much you can shift the profile of the Moscow Mule by refining the ingredients.  Remember though, there’s no shame in making something simple and delicious, even if it’s not the best, most complicated, hardest to source Mule on the planet.

• Vodka – As there is such a large quantity of ginger beer and lime in this drink, you’re unlikely to notice the vodka selection.  For that reason, we recommend you use your preference based on texture (and nothing too expensive).  We used Sobieski here.
  • As a sub note – some recipes recommend 1.5 oz of Vodka.  We find that this produces a somewhat off balance mule.  The 1 to 3 ratio is our recommendation.
• Lime Juice – Use fresh squeezed as always.
• Ginger Beer – Reminder, this is not ginger ale!  We recommend Gosling’s Ginger Beer for it’s spicy ginger notes and uplifting character.
• Garnish – A lime wheel skewered over the top is simple and elegant.  Add candied ginger for another level.
• Glassware – We recommend the stereotypical Copper serving vessel.
• Ice –  A final note, stop at 70% of the fill volume of your copper mug.  Once you add the other ingredients, you may have difficulty adding enough ginger beer.  It’s easier to add a little more crushed ice than trying to remove it.

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The Whiskey Sour is one of the most common drinks order.  Based off the common template of a sour, it combines whiskey with lemon and simple.   For this recipe, we’ll be omitting the egg whites, which can be added if you so choose.

Whiskey Sour

Whiskey Sour

2 oz

Bourbon

0.75 oz

Simple Syrup

0.75 oz

Lemon Juice

1

Lemon Wedge Garnish

Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube. Garnish with a lemon wedge or wheel.

The Whiskey Sour is a classic for not only it’s simplicity, but also it’s depth of flavor and ease to drink.  The refreshing lemon provides a bright splash of palate awakening, while the whiskey’s spice and oak notes are allowed to carry sweetly through.  The ice helps to keep the mix cold, allowing you the maximum enjoyment while slowly helping the whiskey to open up with additional dilution.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

If you’re noticing, the Whiskey Sour fits into the sour template (2 parts liquor, 1 part sweet, 1 part sour).   This template is fairly versatile, and you can use other base spirits (Gin for example) or different sweeteners (let’s swap simple for Cointreau – with Gin we have a White Lady).  This versatility is why this template should stick in your mind, and why this classic works so well.

That said, this is essentially one of the easiest drinks you can make.  So easy in fact, that even the notes are short.

• Bourbon – We used Elijah Craig Small Batch, but feel free to substitute your own preference.
• Lemon Juice – Use fresh squeezed as always.
• Simple Syrup – A traditional 1:1 water to sugar simple is most often used here.
• Garnish –  Simply cut a lemon wedge and put on the side.
• Glassware – A fresh large ice cube in a rocks glass is all you need.

Some of the classics have adjacent cocktails that are so well crafted they live on to this day.   Perhaps few cocktails have as many nearly identical templates as the Negroni.  This classic is a mix of gin, sweet vermouth, and Campari.  The two most adjacent compliments are the Old Pal (made with rye and dry vermouth) and the Boulevardier, made with bourbon.

Boulevardier

The Boulevardier

1 ½ oz

Bourbon

¾ oz

Campari

¾ oz

Sweet Vermouth

1

Lemon Twist Garnish

Combine all ingredients in a mixing vessel. Add ice and stir. Strain into a rocks glass over a large ice cube. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The Boulevardier is one of the unforgettable classics that exemplifies balance. The start of sweetness shows the notes of baking spices and toasted oak. The sweetness gradually transitions to bitter notes, showing the herbal character of the vermouth and Campari. The mix is earthy and comforting, giving a hint of warmth to the drink. The play of spice, sweet, and bitter is accentuated by the lemon garnish.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

Boulevardiers have a plethora of variations.  The most classic of all Boulevardiers is a 1 to 1 to 1 ratio of Bourbon, Sweet Vermouth, and Campari on the rocks with a twist of orange.  The drink evolved, with 2:1:1 ratios cropping to help give the whiskey some visibility in the drink.  Over time preference crept in regarding orange versus lemon as a garnish, with some feeling the lemon gave more visual separation and a brighter flavor.  The final frontier involves some suggesting this classic be served up in a coupe.    In our experience, all of these variations still make an acceptable drink, and you should tinker to find your preference.

• Bourbon – Campari is a powerhouse of a flavor, and your bourbon should correspond.  Wheated bourbons will add more sweetness here, but may lose some ground to the Campari.  We used Elijah Craig Small Batch for ours, but have found that Wild Turkey 101 or Old Granddad 114 can make excellent Boulevardiers.
• Sweet Vermouth – Just like bourbon, Sweet Vermouth needs an edge here.  For that reason we recommend Carpano Antica.  Feel free to substitute your favorite vermouth.
• Campari – For the classic, there is no substitute.  Use Campari.
• Garnish – Orange or lemon is acceptable.  In an up preparation, consider a luxardo cherry.
• Glassware –  A rocks glass is the classic choice.

The Kir Royale is a popular French cocktail and a variation of the Kir (a cocktail I was not aware of the existence of until I started researching the Kir Royale).  As mentioned in our review of Marie Brizard Creme de Dijon, this cocktail is one of the simplest and most well known ways to enjoy creme de cassis.  The berry flavor, citrusy wine flavors mixed with tiny bubbles, and the ease of making a Kir Royale also explain the popularity of this cocktail for brunches, showers, and just chilling in your backyard.

Kir Royale

Kir Royale

½ oz

Creme de Cassis

5 oz

Sparkling Wine

Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lemon wedge or wheel.

If you love Creme de Cassis or just brambly sparkling wines, than the Kir Royale is right up your alley.   The acidity of the wine helps balance out the rich, syrupy nature of the Creme de Cassis, giving it a beautiful freshness not present in the liqueur.  The citrus notes of the wine merge well with the berries, giving an impression of freshness.  As it lingers, the blackcurrant flavor moves more toward jam, finishing with a balanced berry-citrus close.

Drink Notes and Recommendations:

The Kir Royale is one of the simplest cocktails featuring only two ingredients.  Like other two ingredient cocktails,  that means there’s no where to hide faults.

• Creme de Cassis – This is the active flavor modifier, so you should seek out one that has more complexity.  You could use a bottom shelf dekupyer, but expect to have a more syrupy flavor.  We recommend Marie Brizard Creme de Dijon.
• Sparkling Wine – There’s no reason to go overboard here, you can get away with a $10 – $15 bottle.  Once you pass $20 you’re going to see diminishing returns.  We recommend Segura Viudas, Korbel, or Kirkland’s Signature Prosecco.  Make sure it’s chilled!

Much like the Kentucky Derby is strongly associated with the Mint Julep, the official cocktail of The Preakness is not actually it’s namesake.  The cocktail that actually bears the name The Preakness is named for the ball that occurred near by in 1936.  To the best of anyone’s knowledge it seemed it never made its way to the racetrack, but was voted the cocktail of the Preakness Ball by eight judges.   The actual official cocktail is the Black Eyed Susan, a mixture of vodka, bourbon, peach schnapps, orange juice, and/or sour mix.  Just on paper, I know which I’d prefer.

The Preakness

The Preakness

1 ½ oz

Rye-Forward Bourbon

¼ oz

Benedictine

¾ oz

Sweet Vermouth

1 Dash

Aromatic Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing vessel. Add ice and stir. Double strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.

A Manhattan with Benedictine is what it looks like on paper, and unsurprisingly what it tastes like.  The spicy notes are helpful in complimenting some of the spices and herbal notes in the Benedictine.  Just like the Manhattan the acidity from the vermouth helps elevate everything.  Overall, the Preakness is a pretty cocktail that’s not a significant step off a Manhattan, but a welcome one.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The Preakness is unsurprising giving the era it comes from.  One of the key elements here is to focus on making sure your bourbon is heavy on the rye, or just use rye instead.

• Bourbon / Rye –  The original was supposedly made with a Maryland rye originally.   As most people wouldn’t have access to this, look for rye such as Rittenhouse or rye forward bourbons like Wild Turkey 101 or Old Grand Dad 114.
• Vermouth – I recommend Carpano Antica or your favorite.
• Bitters – Angostura are recommended, but feel free to substitute your favorite aromatic bitters.
• Benedictine – There is no substitute here – if you don’t have it, you can’t make this.

The Derby is not a particularly well known cocktail, and comes from a time period where cocktails were named after champions in the horse races.  The affinity of the sport and cocktails continues to the day with the prominence of the Mint Julep.  If you want to reach back, and give something a little more historical a try this Derby Day, why not bet on a long shot and try The Derby?

The Derby

The Derby

1 oz

Bourbon

½ oz

Sweet Vermouth

½ oz

Orange Curacao

¾ oz

Lime Juice

1

Mint Leaf

Combine all ingredients except mint leaf in a shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a mint leaf.

The Derby is a dry, yet well balanced prohibition style cocktail that highlights a diverse selection of ingredients having something of a free style jazz session. The first sip highlights the brightness from the lime and vermouth before giving way into the sweeter notes of spice and orange. The bourbon notes come in toward tail end to crank the spice just a little higher, while adding a slightly tannic finish. Overall, the drink is really well composed if a little intense.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The Derby is one of the most standardized obscure cocktails I’ve run across.  The general consensus follows the exact proportions we used here.  The only variation I’ve seen was in the use of Grand Marnier in place of orange curacao.  This could work with some of the darker profiles, but isn’t the standard recipe.

• Bourbon – Any standard bourbon will work here, but you might steer away from wheated bourbons.  A spicier note helps here.  We used Wild Turkey 101.
• Lime Juice – Use fresh squeezed as always.
• Orange Curacao – Our gold standard here is Cointreau, and what we recommend.
• Sweet Vermouth – Our go to is Carpano Antica, the spice notes in it will compliment well.  Lighter vermouths may be over powered by the lime.
• Garnish – The mint leaf should be fresh, and adds a nice freshness to the nose.  Slap it before placing it in the cocktail.
• Glassware – I recommend a chilled coupe here.

Although purportedly named for the Scottish poet Robert Burns, the Bobby Burns has undergone several revisions in it’s history to make that hard to see.  Originally made with Benedictine and Irish Whiskey, the recipe gradually evolved, substituting the two for scotch and Drambuie.  This resulting combination makes the Bobby Burns No. 2 a must try for any lover of a Manhattan.

To differentiate these two variations (as well as a purported third that included Maraschino Liqueur), we’ve labeled this variation as Bobby Burns No. 2.

Bobby Burns No. 2

Bobby Burns No. 2

2 oz

Scotch

¾ oz

Sweet Vermouth

¼ oz

Drambuie

Dash

Angostura Bitters

Combine all ingredients in a mixing vessel. Add ice and stir. Double strain into a Nick & Nora Glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

The Bobby Burns No. 2 is clearly a Manhattan cousin, but many of the spicy oak elements are replaced with floral and nutty scotch elements as well as hints of orange and honey from the Drambuie.  While the vermouth provides a similar underpinning (and works well), the scotch takes the lead here, giving a nice elegance to the drink.  Fans of scotch and manhattans should give this a try, as it splits the difference in a wonderful way.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

The Bobby Burns No.2  is a Manhattan cousin in everyway, almost down to the proportions.  Replacing 1/4 ounce of the vermouth with Drambuie gives you the formula.  Having tasted both this, and the original Bobby Burns, I come down on the side of this rendition, finding the scotch base in Drambuie is more in sync with the general feel of the drink.

• Scotch:  You could go all out here and buy a crazy elegant single malt.  In all likelihood, you’ll want to stay somewhere in the balanced blend to low end single malts for this drink.  We used Glenlivet 12 here, but Chivas Regal, Dewars, or Johnnie Walker Red (Black will likely be too smoky) will all work here.
• Sweet Vermouth:  Spice isn’t as important here, so while Carpano Antica is what we used (and recommend), Cocchi di Torino will work here equally as well – emphasizing some of the caramelized notes.
• Drambuie:  I wish I could tell you there’s a substitute for this delightful liqueur, but I haven’t found it.  On the consolation side of things, if you’re a big scotch fan this is a necessity for Rusty Nails and goes beautifully with many scotches.
• Bitters:  Angostura is the recommendation, but feel free to experiment – these will help give you a twist.
• Garnish: A lemon twist is recommended, however this is a generally forgiving template.  Orange will compliment the Drambuie, and if you must, slip some cherries in for funsies.
• Glassware:  The original glass is a Martini glass – but bollocks on that – use a Nick & Nora or Coupe and save yourself the hassle.

Named after a luxury train that ran from New York to Chicago, the 20th Century is a classic cocktail that sounds rather strange on paper.  Made of gin, Kina Lillet,  white creme de cacao, and lemon juice, you might be tempted to run.  Juniper, with chocolate?  Blasphemy!  And yet, somehow, it really just works…

20th Century

20th Century

1 ½ oz

London Dry Gin

¾ oz

White Creme de Cacao

¾ oz

Cocchi Americano

¾ oz

Lemon Juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker. Add ice and shake. Double strain into a coupe. No garnish.

The 20th Century Cocktail is sweet, earthy, and well balanced.  The lemon and Cocchi Americano add a nice amount of brightness to the drink, helping to keep it lively.  The earthiness of the Cacao shines through without being a bully.  This reflects well off the bitterness in the Cocchi Americano.  Ironically, the gin is the item here that is so in sync with everything else that it almost becomes background.  In total, the 20th Century is a gorgeous drink that deserves your consideration.

Drink Notes & Recommendations

There’s a fair amount of consensus regarding the 20th Century, with only a couple of points of digression.  None of them are massive, so stick to the template, and things will keep rolling down the tracks.

• Gin:  London Dry is the standard for this drink.  We recommend (and used) Beefeaters
• White Creme de Cacao:  White Creme de Cacao is generally clear, and lighter in it’s flavors.  We used Giffard Creme de Cacao White here, although you could use Marie Brizard.
• Cocchi Americano:  Originally made with Kina Lillet, this is the biggest point of differentiation between recipes (with some calling for Lillet Blanc).  While you can use Lillet Blanc, I believe the Cocchi Americano’s slight bitterness is helpful here.
• Lemon Juice:  Use fresh squeezed as always.
• Garnish:  No Garnish
• Glassware:  A chilled coupe here is the go to standard.