French 75 (use good champagne)
French 76 (use good champagne)
Old fashioned (use expensive cherries)
Side car (use orange brandy instead of orange liqueur)
Manhattan (don't skimp on bitters)
Cosmopolitan (throw the used lime into the shaker)
Whiskey sour (use egg white)
Gimlet (add a cedar leaf for more flavor)
My absolute favorite is New Your Sour (Basically Whiskey Sour with a dash of red wine (and slightly different mixing ratios.
Last time I made them with Acquafaba (basically bean water; the water you get from a can of chick peas) instead of egg white and let me tell you, that worked like a charm, can only recommend!
I'm normally a fan of bitter and other really strong flavors, but personally most negronis are just too much for me, lengthen it out with some prosecco to make it sbagliato though and it's a damn tasty drink.
I love Negroni. It needs to be on the rocks tho. If you do it properly, it needs to be cold. Also in terms of quantity, no ice means a ton more alcohol, I prefer to drink 3 properly made if the goal is to get drunk.
Heck yeah. A good gin and tonic is most refreshing.
I do that people who don’t like them either 1) hate juniper or 2) have had them made with shit tonic water. Get the good stuff and some decent gin and it’s just grand.
Then, 20 yo me decided to split a 26er into two glasses, top up with tonic and a twist of lemon. Waited til my buddy showed, put on some music and drank them in under 45 minutes. 30 minutes after that, we are standing in a snowstorm, in t-shirts (because we dont want to pay for coat check), outside a bar (we walked from our place), waiting in line to get in. An hour after that, we say fuck it, walk home, and proceed to have the worst spins, come downs, and hangovers of our lives. Needless to say, G&Ts are off the books for me forevermore.
TL;DR 20 yo me destroyed G&T for all the mes to follow.
Do you make yours with a split base of rye and cognac or do you go for straight rye? Love me a good Sazerac! If you haven't had one yet, give the bijou or la louisiane a try too. Both are delicious new orleans style cocktails
Yeah, or using syrups for lime, mint and even sugar. I've once received something that can only be described as a glass of sprite with a dash of toothpaste. Utterly repulsive.
I'm sober now, but back when I drank I always loved a martini made with equal parts gin and sweet vermouth with a splash of grenadine and a maraschino cherry.
The one that catches people off guard, but people generally seem to enjoy once they try is dark rum and orange juice (but the OJ has to be good, the kind thats pulpy / thick).
That's my reaction with a jager mule usually. Just a Moscow mule, sub the vodka for jagermeister. It sounds way too much, but the flavors of the ginger and the jager fit so well together, it's really more than the sum of its parts.
I prefer bourbon, haha. Not super traditional, but I tend to prefer bourbon over scotch, so other than the smokey top I like bourbon in mine. Doesn't make a huge difference overall!
I have a friend who makes his own piña colada. He always makes way too much of it, so occasionally the odd bottle ends up in my liquor cabinet. I am normally not too much into sweet drinks, but I absolutely love that stuff.
An Old Pal - which is a minor variation of a Boulevardier
1 ounce Rye
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce dry Vermouth
Served straight up garnished with a twist of lemon
If I can find it, Time Release is fantastic and should be on everyone's must try list
1.5 ounces Dry Gin
1 ounce White Port
0.5 ounce Sloe Gin
0.25 ounce Yellow Chartreuse
Stirred not shaken, served straight up, garnished with a cherry
Great sipper that changes in flavor significantly as it warms up. Most places don't have White Port on hand and few have Sloe Gin on hand so can be difficult to get at a bar.
If I have to pick one drink to take to a desert island, it's the classic Sazerac.
That is what I will want most of the time when I want a cocktail. However, I will allow a few others to enter rotation, depending on mood, time/temperature, and place:
Margarita.
Vesper.
Pastis.
And, finally, my embarrassing guilty pleasure (which I never order except when I am in company I know well or I am on a Caribbean island): piña colada.
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Other than cheap domestic beer when im trying to get drunk, I stick to Old-fashions. Great drink to sip as the liquor slowly mixes with the water from the melting ice, smoothing out the flavors.
1.5 ounce whisky
.5 ounce of simple syrup (I like mine extra sweet)
I don't do cocktails much, mostly because I don't really have the ingredients around.
One I like to do now and then is whisky (around half the drink, preferably spicy rye) and the rest about equal proportions of apple juice and ginger ale, poured over a chunk of ice.
I normally like my liquor with just a splash of water, but I do make a mean mojito. The secret, which I discovered by accident, is adding a bit of catnip along with the mint. It has a smoother minty flavor which compliments the lime juice really well
Also, catnip tea is commonly used to help people sleep, so you get nice and relaxed without drinking too much.
I quit drinking a while ago, but before I did I was exploring quite a few different things. Kind of amazing how much different alcohol there is.
Some highlights:
Belgian beers. Trappist stand out in this field but it is very difficult to go wrong. This encompasses very high quality beers (best in the world, IMHO) of dizzying variety. Sour (NOT bitter like an IPA...SOUR), fruit beers (lambic), wheat, doubles, triples, reds, browns, and more. Here is a nice guide.
Rye whiskey. several varieties exist and most of them very unique tasting. Search enough and you'll find some very unusual ones.
Vodka martinis. The drunk's drink.
Sipping tequila. Costco had some sort of house brand that was amazing. I only recommend agave but there are less good varieties.
Bloody Marys. Some places make these with so much food in them they could be a meal. I like spicy.
Ouzo chased by Coke is an amazing taste. Try it sometime if you never have.
Pepper vodka. I had some I bought in Ukraine (years ago) that was amazing. Pepper meaning spicy pepper not black pepper. Do not buy the absolut version it is shit.
All time favorite: Jungle Bird. The perfect mix of tiki drink in spirit but with a punch and grown up flavors!
Also love me a Bee's Knees with some high quality gin and honey. There's a fantastic New England distillery called Barr Hill that makes gin from honey, which makes for an extra amazing one.
I've really been enjoying the "Sour" format lately, too. Very versatile with all the random liquors or lower-proof alcohols I've collected over the past few years making random drinks.
Basil smash is my house specialty but I'll experiment with it, had a big phase of getting into mixology this year though it's currently a lot less due to following a strict calorie planning.
I drink beer in the summer, bourbon whiskey in the winter. But I have a holiday tradition, on the solstice I buy myself a bottle of Lairds and spend the rest of the week mixing Jack Roses.
Jack Rose:
1 1/2 ounces applejack or apple brandy
3/4 ounces lemon or lime juice
1/2 ounce grenadine
Shake all ingredients until chilled, double strain into a coupe glass, garnish with lemon twist.
You'll basically never find a bar that stocks applejack, so if you want one you'll have to mix your own.
Decent whisky, bitters, club soda, ice in a short glass.
Gin, flavored fizzy (LaCroix etc), splash of lime juice, ice
Gin shaken with ice, small rinse of dry vermouth in glass, 3-4 blue cheese olives
4:3:3:4 añejo tequila, grand Marnier, key west lime juice, honey simple (50/50 honey and water) shaken or blended with ice. (Could sub honey for sugar free sweetener to be "healthy")
My favorite margarita is just 2oz tequila (yes añejo or reposado), 1oz orange liqueur, juice of one lime. No sweetener, the liqueur provides enough sweetness.