Term
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Definition
The original added a dash of crème de violette for a sky-blue color, which helps to explain the name (you can use Monin violet syrup).
Ingredients
2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce Maraschino Liqueur
1/2 ounce lemon juice
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. |
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Term
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Definition
The Italian summertime classic from Harry’s Bar in Venice.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces white peach puree
(For 1 qt. of peach puree add 4 ounces of simple syrup and couple of dashes of Grenadine for color)
4 ounces Champagne
1/2 ounce Marie Brizard Peach Liqueur
Preparation
Put peach puree in bottom of mixing glass, no ice. Slowly pour Champagne while gently stirring, so as not to lose the effervescence. Strain into a Champagne flute. Float a half oz. of Marie Brizard Peach.
Note: For a group, use a 32-46 oz. pitcher and a long bar spoon. Add 8 ounces of puree to the bottom of the pitcher filled half way with ice and slowly pour the Champagne while dragging the puree up the side with a spoon, to mix …be gentle to retain the bubbles in the champagne. Serve. |
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Term
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Definition
At first glance, this most unusual Scotch cocktail seemed a god-awful mix. But the recipe, one of the very few classic Scotch cocktails, appears in some serious cocktail books so don’t judge without tasting it.–Dale DeGroff
Ingredients
3/4 ounce blended scotch
3/4 ounce Cherry Heering Peter Heering
3/4 ounce Italian sweet vermouth
3/4 ounce orange juice
Preparation
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel. |
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Term
| BLOODY MARY (original recipe) |
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Definition
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces vodka
2 Dashes Worcestershire
4 Dashes Tabasco
Pinch of salt and pepper
1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
4 oz. tomato juice
Preparation
Combine all ingredients in mixing glass and roll back and forth to mix. Strain into an iced goblet. Garnish with wedge of lemon and lime on a side plate. Dash of celery salt is a nice touch and New Yorkers traditionally add horseradish. Bloody Marys offer rich ground for improvisation both in garnish and ingredients. Have fun. |
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Term
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Definition
The national drink of Brazil, and party animals everywhere.
Ingredients
2 ounces cachaca
1 1/2 barspoons of sugar or 1 ounce simple syrup
1/2 lime quartered.
Preparation
Place lime quarters in the bottom of mixing glass, add the sugar or syrup and muddle, extracting the juice and the oil in the skin from the lime quarters. Chill a rocks glass with cracked ice. Add cachaca to the mixture in the mixing glass and toss the ice into the mixing glass and shake well. Pour the entire contents of the mixing glass back into the chilled rocks glass and serve. Another method is to build the whole drink in the glass that will receive it, omitting the shaking. |
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Term
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Definition
This classic recipe can be traced back to 1862 when it first appeared in Jerry Thomas’ Bon Vivant’s Companion.
Ingredients
Champagne
Angostura bitters-soaked sugar cube
Preparation
Place a small sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne glass. Add two dashes of Angostura Bitters and fill the glass with champagne. This drink is sometimes garnished with a lemon peel.
Variation: For a stronger drink, add a float of cognac or Grand Marnier. |
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Term
| COLLINS (TOM, JOHN, OR VODKA) |
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Definition
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces gin, Bourbon, or vodka
1 ounce simple syrup
3/4 ounce lemon
club soda
Preparation
Shake spirits, sugar and lemon juice with ice and strain into an iced collins glass and fill with soda. Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice. |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces citrus vodka
3/4 ounce Cointreau
1/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel. |
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Term
|
Definition
ngredients
1 1/2 ounce light rum
1 ounce simple syrup
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. (See also Hemingway Daiquiri.) Note: Purists will hold out for the original, 1910s recipe: juice of half a lime, ½ teaspoon superfine sugar, 2 oz rum (assembled in that order, stirring the sugar into the lime juice before adding the rum). |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
2 1/2 ounces gin (Plymouth or London dry)
1/2 ounce preserved lime juice (Roses or Angostura)
Preparation
Shake ingredients well with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass or serve over ice in an old fashioned glass. Garnish with lime wedge. |
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Term
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Definition
The fab drink of the 1870s, the Gin Fizz is simple, refreshing and endlessly adaptable (one of the most popular wrinkles calls for it to be made with an egg white, in which case it is a Sliver Fizz). A proper Fizz is never served with ice in the glass.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces gin
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce simple syrup (or 1 tsp. superfine sugar)
Preparation
Shake and strain into a highball glass. Fill with club soda. No garnish.
Note: The difference between the Fizz and a Collins is glass size, garnish and ice: a proper Fizz is served without ice in the glass, a Collins has it. The Collins goes in an extra-tall or “Collins” glass with a cherry and orange slice garnish. |
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Term
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Definition
1 1/2 ounces Irish whiskey
1 ounce brown sugar syrup
4 ounces coffee
top with lightly whipped unsweetened cream
Preparation
Combine Whiskey, coffee and syrup in an Irish coffee glass. Ladle one inch of cream on top. |
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Term
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Definition
Top 26 Cocktails Every Bartender Should Know
ENTRY FORM | THE RULES | TOP 26 COCKTAILS EVERY BARTENDER SHOULD KNOW
26 drinks everyone should know
(Compliments of the Barsmarts certification)
Lots of smart folks differ as to recipes and even as to ingredients on many of the best known cocktails. Ask a chef; they might be cooking the same dishes but they’re going to play around with how they do it. So please let these recipes be guidelines, and not regulations.
Not all drinks are created equal. While in theory a bartender should know every drink there is to be made, there are some that are truly essential, for their historical importance, their classic status, their current popularity and their use as bases for other drinks.
1.) AVIATION COCKTAIL
Invented in New York in the early 1910s, this is one the internet generation has brought back in a big way. The original added a dash of crème de violette for a sky-blue color, which helps to explain the name (you can use Monin violet syrup).
Ingredients
2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce Maraschino Liqueur
1/2 ounce lemon juice
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
2.) BELLINI
The Italian summertime classic from Harry’s Bar in Venice.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces white peach puree
(For 1 qt. of peach puree add 4 ounces of simple syrup and couple of dashes of Grenadine for color)
4 ounces Champagne
1/2 ounce Marie Brizard Peach Liqueur
Preparation
Put peach puree in bottom of mixing glass, no ice. Slowly pour Champagne while gently stirring, so as not to lose the effervescence. Strain into a Champagne flute. Float a half oz. of Marie Brizard Peach.
Note: For a group, use a 32-46 oz. pitcher and a long bar spoon. Add 8 ounces of puree to the bottom of the pitcher filled half way with ice and slowly pour the Champagne while dragging the puree up the side with a spoon, to mix …be gentle to retain the bubbles in the champagne. Serve.
3.) BLOOD AND SAND
At first glance, this most unusual Scotch cocktail seemed a god-awful mix. But the recipe, one of the very few classic Scotch cocktails, appears in some serious cocktail books so don’t judge without tasting it.–Dale DeGroff
Ingredients
3/4 ounce blended scotch
3/4 ounce Cherry Heering Peter Heering
3/4 ounce Italian sweet vermouth
3/4 ounce orange juice
Preparation
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel.
4.) BLOODY MARY (original recipe)
The Bloody Mary Story
The creation of the Bloody Mary in Paris coincided with arrival of the first tins of tomato juice from the United States, right after WW I. Evidently Frank Meier, head barman at the Ritz Bar, had been mixing up his famous Tomato Juice Cocktail for years before the cans appeared. But his recipe was missing one fundamental ingredient; the booze!
At Harry’s American Bar in Paris, Barman Ferdinand ‘Pete’ Petiot pulled it all together, adding vodka to the mix. That was in 1920. (Although little-known in the US at the time, vodka had been fashionable in Paris since the 1890s.) According to Duncan McElhone, son of Andy, the original storyteller and owner of Harry’s, the name came from the continued appearance of a woman at the bar. This Mary was regularly left waiting for her man at the bar, nursing one of Pete’s tomato cocktails. Duncan said that a comparison was made between the imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots and young Mary’s long, solitary hours at the bar. Pete had worked at Harry’s from 1919 to 1936, when the Astor Family, loyal customers of his, convinced Pete to head the bar staff at their St. Regis hotel in New York. When he arrived at the King Cole Bar, where it was served as a gin drink he introduced the drink to New Yorkers, but changed the name to the Red Snapper at the behest of the management. John Martin, grandson of Heublein’s founder Andrew Martin, used the drink as a vehicle to promote a new product, Smirnoff Vodka. This led to an almost exclusive use of vodka in the drink, and helped to make it the de rigeur morning-after cocktail.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces vodka
2 Dashes Worcestershire
4 Dashes Tabasco
Pinch of salt and pepper
1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
4 oz. tomato juice
Preparation
Combine all ingredients in mixing glass and roll back and forth to mix. Strain into an iced goblet. Garnish with wedge of lemon and lime on a side plate. Dash of celery salt is a nice touch and New Yorkers traditionally add horseradish. Bloody Marys offer rich ground for improvisation both in garnish and ingredients. Have fun.
5.) CAIPIRINHA
The national drink of Brazil, and party animals everywhere.
Ingredients
2 ounces cachaca
1 1/2 barspoons of sugar or 1 ounce simple syrup
1/2 lime quartered.
Preparation
Place lime quarters in the bottom of mixing glass, add the sugar or syrup and muddle, extracting the juice and the oil in the skin from the lime quarters. Chill a rocks glass with cracked ice. Add cachaca to the mixture in the mixing glass and toss the ice into the mixing glass and shake well. Pour the entire contents of the mixing glass back into the chilled rocks glass and serve. Another method is to build the whole drink in the glass that will receive it, omitting the shaking.
6.) CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL
This classic recipe can be traced back to 1862 when it first appeared in Jerry Thomas’ Bon Vivant’s Companion.
Ingredients
Champagne
Angostura bitters-soaked sugar cube
Preparation
Place a small sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne glass. Add two dashes of Angostura Bitters and fill the glass with champagne. This drink is sometimes garnished with a lemon peel.
Variation: For a stronger drink, add a float of cognac or Grand Marnier.
7.) COLLINS (TOM, JOHN, OR VODKA)
The Collins goes back to London in the early nineteenth century, where places like the Garrick Club (for actors and other sporty types) and Limmer’s Hotel (patronized by Dukes and bookies in equal proportion) began serving a Gin Punch that was stretched out with iced soda water. It takes its name from John Collins, headwaiter at Limmers. Eventually, the John Collins changed from a drink made with Genever Gin to one with American whiskey, while the gin version took on the name “Tom Collins,” after a joke that was going around America in the 1870s.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces gin, Bourbon, or vodka
1 ounce simple syrup
3/4 ounce lemon
club soda
Preparation
Shake spirits, sugar and lemon juice with ice and strain into an iced collins glass and fill with soda. Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice.
8.) COSMOPOLITAN
The modern classic has conquered the world; I was given credit for inventing the Cosmo by New York Magazine. I was not the inventor but I standardized the recipe and printed it on my cocktail menu at the Rainbow Room, where Madonna was spotted drinking one. That was all the rest of the world needed. The actual inventor is Cheryl Cook from South Beach in Miami, who recently surfaced to claim her invention.–Dale DeGroff
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces citrus vodka
3/4 ounce Cointreau
1/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel.
9.) DAIQUIRI
This Cuban Classic derives its name from the town of the same name. The recipe, named by a North American engineer named Jennings Cox in the late nineteenth century, was further refined by the talented barmen in Havana. The original recipe called for white rum, sugar and lime juice, but our favorite recipe is from the Floridita Bar in Havana called the Papa Doble: See the Hemingway Daiquiri.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounce light rum
1 ounce simple syrup
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. (See also Hemingway Daiquiri.) Note: Purists will hold out for the original, 1910s recipe: juice of half a lime, ½ teaspoon superfine sugar, 2 oz rum (assembled in that order, stirring the sugar into the lime juice before adding the rum).
10.) GIMLET
In the late nineteenth century, the British Navy issued all sailors a ration of preserved lime juice to prevent scurvy. The officers, who did not receive the standard rum ration, mixed theirs with their preferred Plymouth gin. The ice came later.
Ingredients
2 1/2 ounces gin (Plymouth or London dry)
1/2 ounce preserved lime juice (Roses or Angostura)
Preparation
Shake ingredients well with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass or serve over ice in an old fashioned glass. Garnish with lime wedge.
11.) GIN FIZZ
The fab drink of the 1870s, the Gin Fizz is simple, refreshing and endlessly adaptable (one of the most popular wrinkles calls for it to be made with an egg white, in which case it is a Sliver Fizz). A proper Fizz is never served with ice in the glass.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces gin
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce simple syrup (or 1 tsp. superfine sugar)
Preparation
Shake and strain into a highball glass. Fill with club soda. No garnish.
Note: The difference between the Fizz and a Collins is glass size, garnish and ice: a proper Fizz is served without ice in the glass, a Collins has it. The Collins goes in an extra-tall or “Collins” glass with a cherry and orange slice garnish.
12.) IRISH COFFEE
Originally prepared at Shannon Airport in Dublin by Joe Sheridan the Irish Coffee found a home in the United States at the Buena Vista across from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Irish whiskey
1 ounce brown sugar syrup
4 ounces coffee
top with lightly whipped unsweetened cream
Preparation
Combine Whiskey, coffee and syrup in an Irish coffee glass. Ladle one inch of cream on top.
13.) MAI TAI
This, the dean of all Tiki drinks, was invented by Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron in Oakland, California.
Ingredients
2 ounces aged rum (Jamaican if possible)
3/4 ounce lime juice
3/4 ounce orange curacao
1 teaspoon orgeat syrup
Preparation
Shake well with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice. Garnish with a wheel of lime, a mint sprig and if possible a sonya orchid. |
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Term
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Definition
For the perfect Manhattan, both sweet and dry Vermouth are used. Since New York was a rye town in those days, the original Manhattan was made with rye whisky. Nowadays Manhattans are usually made with bourbon, although rye is making a comeback in the better bars.
Ingredients
2 ounces whiskey
1 ounce Italian sweet vermouth
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
Pour all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass and stir as you would a Martini. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry, although many discriminating drinkers prefer theirs with a twist. Note: If you prefer a dry Manhattan, use dry vermouth and garnish with a lemon peel. |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
2 ounces Tequila 100% blue Agave Plata
1 ounce Cointreau
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce of simple syrup is optional but often necessary for many guests.
Coarse salt
Lime wedge
Preparation
Combine first three ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Shake well and strain into a chilled salted cocktail glass. Salting the rim: Frost the edge of the cocktail glass by rubbing a lime wedge on the outside rim of the glass, then dipping it into a saucer of course salt. Note: Never use iodized salt on the rim of the glass. |
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Term
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Definition
The standard recipe from about 1895 to 1915:
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Dry Gin
1 1/2 ounces French dry vermouth
Dash Gary Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6
Preparation
Stir all ingredients with ice to chill and garnish with an orange peel or a lemon peel.
And the CLASSIC EXTRA DRY MARTINI (as it was made from 1950 on)
Ingredients
2 dashes of dry French vermouth
3 ounces gin or vodka
Preparation
Stir ingredients well with ice in a mixing glass. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish traditionally with a small pitted Spanish cocktail olive (no pimento). |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces white rum
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce simple syrup
1 Mint sprig and 4 mint leaves (use tender, young mint tops; peppermint is best because it doesn’t wilt and retains its shape).
soda
Preparation
Muddle gently one mint sprig with the simple syrup and the lime juice in the bottom of a highball glass. Add the rum and the ice and top with no more than two ounces of club soda. Garnish with a generous sprig of mint. |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce Italian sweet vermouth
1 ounce gin
Preparation
Combine all ingredients in an iced old fashioned glass and stir. Garnish with an orange peel. The Count liked his topped off with an ounce or two of soda. Others prefer theirs served straight up, in which case it should be stirred with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass. |
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Term
| OLD-FASHIONED OLD FASHIONED |
|
Definition
Ingredients
2 ounces Bourbon or Rye
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 Tsp. bar sugar
1 lemon peel
splash water or soda
Preparation
Muddle the sugar and the Angostura bitters in the splash of soda (about a teaspoon–no more) until the sugar is dissolved, forming a syrup in the bottom of the glass. Add the whiskey and the ice, and stir. Garnish with a fresh twist of lemon peel.OLD FASHIONED (muddled)
By 1915 or so, even the Old-Fashioned had begun changing; this is the version most people know today. Be very conservative with the water at the end.
Ingredients
2 ounces Bourbon
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 Tsp. bar sugar
2 orange slices
2 maraschino cherries
splash water or soda
Preparation
Muddle carefully in the bottom of an old fashioned glass the sugar, Angostura, one orange, one cherry, and a splash of soda. Remove the orange rind and add Bourbon, ice, and soda or water. Garnish with a fresh orange slice and a cherry. |
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Term
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Definition
Top 26 Cocktails Every Bartender Should Know
ENTRY FORM | THE RULES | TOP 26 COCKTAILS EVERY BARTENDER SHOULD KNOW
26 drinks everyone should know
(Compliments of the Barsmarts certification)
Lots of smart folks differ as to recipes and even as to ingredients on many of the best known cocktails. Ask a chef; they might be cooking the same dishes but they’re going to play around with how they do it. So please let these recipes be guidelines, and not regulations.
Not all drinks are created equal. While in theory a bartender should know every drink there is to be made, there are some that are truly essential, for their historical importance, their classic status, their current popularity and their use as bases for other drinks.
1.) AVIATION COCKTAIL
Invented in New York in the early 1910s, this is one the internet generation has brought back in a big way. The original added a dash of crème de violette for a sky-blue color, which helps to explain the name (you can use Monin violet syrup).
Ingredients
2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce Maraschino Liqueur
1/2 ounce lemon juice
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
2.) BELLINI
The Italian summertime classic from Harry’s Bar in Venice.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces white peach puree
(For 1 qt. of peach puree add 4 ounces of simple syrup and couple of dashes of Grenadine for color)
4 ounces Champagne
1/2 ounce Marie Brizard Peach Liqueur
Preparation
Put peach puree in bottom of mixing glass, no ice. Slowly pour Champagne while gently stirring, so as not to lose the effervescence. Strain into a Champagne flute. Float a half oz. of Marie Brizard Peach.
Note: For a group, use a 32-46 oz. pitcher and a long bar spoon. Add 8 ounces of puree to the bottom of the pitcher filled half way with ice and slowly pour the Champagne while dragging the puree up the side with a spoon, to mix …be gentle to retain the bubbles in the champagne. Serve.
3.) BLOOD AND SAND
At first glance, this most unusual Scotch cocktail seemed a god-awful mix. But the recipe, one of the very few classic Scotch cocktails, appears in some serious cocktail books so don’t judge without tasting it.–Dale DeGroff
Ingredients
3/4 ounce blended scotch
3/4 ounce Cherry Heering Peter Heering
3/4 ounce Italian sweet vermouth
3/4 ounce orange juice
Preparation
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel.
4.) BLOODY MARY (original recipe)
The Bloody Mary Story
The creation of the Bloody Mary in Paris coincided with arrival of the first tins of tomato juice from the United States, right after WW I. Evidently Frank Meier, head barman at the Ritz Bar, had been mixing up his famous Tomato Juice Cocktail for years before the cans appeared. But his recipe was missing one fundamental ingredient; the booze!
At Harry’s American Bar in Paris, Barman Ferdinand ‘Pete’ Petiot pulled it all together, adding vodka to the mix. That was in 1920. (Although little-known in the US at the time, vodka had been fashionable in Paris since the 1890s.) According to Duncan McElhone, son of Andy, the original storyteller and owner of Harry’s, the name came from the continued appearance of a woman at the bar. This Mary was regularly left waiting for her man at the bar, nursing one of Pete’s tomato cocktails. Duncan said that a comparison was made between the imprisonment of Mary Queen of Scots and young Mary’s long, solitary hours at the bar. Pete had worked at Harry’s from 1919 to 1936, when the Astor Family, loyal customers of his, convinced Pete to head the bar staff at their St. Regis hotel in New York. When he arrived at the King Cole Bar, where it was served as a gin drink he introduced the drink to New Yorkers, but changed the name to the Red Snapper at the behest of the management. John Martin, grandson of Heublein’s founder Andrew Martin, used the drink as a vehicle to promote a new product, Smirnoff Vodka. This led to an almost exclusive use of vodka in the drink, and helped to make it the de rigeur morning-after cocktail.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces vodka
2 Dashes Worcestershire
4 Dashes Tabasco
Pinch of salt and pepper
1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
4 oz. tomato juice
Preparation
Combine all ingredients in mixing glass and roll back and forth to mix. Strain into an iced goblet. Garnish with wedge of lemon and lime on a side plate. Dash of celery salt is a nice touch and New Yorkers traditionally add horseradish. Bloody Marys offer rich ground for improvisation both in garnish and ingredients. Have fun.
5.) CAIPIRINHA
The national drink of Brazil, and party animals everywhere.
Ingredients
2 ounces cachaca
1 1/2 barspoons of sugar or 1 ounce simple syrup
1/2 lime quartered.
Preparation
Place lime quarters in the bottom of mixing glass, add the sugar or syrup and muddle, extracting the juice and the oil in the skin from the lime quarters. Chill a rocks glass with cracked ice. Add cachaca to the mixture in the mixing glass and toss the ice into the mixing glass and shake well. Pour the entire contents of the mixing glass back into the chilled rocks glass and serve. Another method is to build the whole drink in the glass that will receive it, omitting the shaking.
6.) CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL
This classic recipe can be traced back to 1862 when it first appeared in Jerry Thomas’ Bon Vivant’s Companion.
Ingredients
Champagne
Angostura bitters-soaked sugar cube
Preparation
Place a small sugar cube in the bottom of a champagne glass. Add two dashes of Angostura Bitters and fill the glass with champagne. This drink is sometimes garnished with a lemon peel.
Variation: For a stronger drink, add a float of cognac or Grand Marnier.
7.) COLLINS (TOM, JOHN, OR VODKA)
The Collins goes back to London in the early nineteenth century, where places like the Garrick Club (for actors and other sporty types) and Limmer’s Hotel (patronized by Dukes and bookies in equal proportion) began serving a Gin Punch that was stretched out with iced soda water. It takes its name from John Collins, headwaiter at Limmers. Eventually, the John Collins changed from a drink made with Genever Gin to one with American whiskey, while the gin version took on the name “Tom Collins,” after a joke that was going around America in the 1870s.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces gin, Bourbon, or vodka
1 ounce simple syrup
3/4 ounce lemon
club soda
Preparation
Shake spirits, sugar and lemon juice with ice and strain into an iced collins glass and fill with soda. Garnish with a cherry and an orange slice.
8.) COSMOPOLITAN
The modern classic has conquered the world; I was given credit for inventing the Cosmo by New York Magazine. I was not the inventor but I standardized the recipe and printed it on my cocktail menu at the Rainbow Room, where Madonna was spotted drinking one. That was all the rest of the world needed. The actual inventor is Cheryl Cook from South Beach in Miami, who recently surfaced to claim her invention.–Dale DeGroff
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces citrus vodka
3/4 ounce Cointreau
1/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel.
9.) DAIQUIRI
This Cuban Classic derives its name from the town of the same name. The recipe, named by a North American engineer named Jennings Cox in the late nineteenth century, was further refined by the talented barmen in Havana. The original recipe called for white rum, sugar and lime juice, but our favorite recipe is from the Floridita Bar in Havana called the Papa Doble: See the Hemingway Daiquiri.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounce light rum
1 ounce simple syrup
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. (See also Hemingway Daiquiri.) Note: Purists will hold out for the original, 1910s recipe: juice of half a lime, ½ teaspoon superfine sugar, 2 oz rum (assembled in that order, stirring the sugar into the lime juice before adding the rum).
10.) GIMLET
In the late nineteenth century, the British Navy issued all sailors a ration of preserved lime juice to prevent scurvy. The officers, who did not receive the standard rum ration, mixed theirs with their preferred Plymouth gin. The ice came later.
Ingredients
2 1/2 ounces gin (Plymouth or London dry)
1/2 ounce preserved lime juice (Roses or Angostura)
Preparation
Shake ingredients well with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass or serve over ice in an old fashioned glass. Garnish with lime wedge.
11.) GIN FIZZ
The fab drink of the 1870s, the Gin Fizz is simple, refreshing and endlessly adaptable (one of the most popular wrinkles calls for it to be made with an egg white, in which case it is a Sliver Fizz). A proper Fizz is never served with ice in the glass.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces gin
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce simple syrup (or 1 tsp. superfine sugar)
Preparation
Shake and strain into a highball glass. Fill with club soda. No garnish.
Note: The difference between the Fizz and a Collins is glass size, garnish and ice: a proper Fizz is served without ice in the glass, a Collins has it. The Collins goes in an extra-tall or “Collins” glass with a cherry and orange slice garnish.
12.) IRISH COFFEE
Originally prepared at Shannon Airport in Dublin by Joe Sheridan the Irish Coffee found a home in the United States at the Buena Vista across from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Irish whiskey
1 ounce brown sugar syrup
4 ounces coffee
top with lightly whipped unsweetened cream
Preparation
Combine Whiskey, coffee and syrup in an Irish coffee glass. Ladle one inch of cream on top.
13.) MAI TAI
This, the dean of all Tiki drinks, was invented by Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron in Oakland, California.
Ingredients
2 ounces aged rum (Jamaican if possible)
3/4 ounce lime juice
3/4 ounce orange curacao
1 teaspoon orgeat syrup
Preparation
Shake well with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice. Garnish with a wheel of lime, a mint sprig and if possible a sonya orchid.
14.) MANHATTAN
The quintessential Rye Cocktail, except in Minnesota and Wisconsin, where they prefer Brandy Manhattans, or down South where Bourbon Manhattans are the choice.
Legend has it that in 1874 a bartender at the Manhattan Club created the Manhattan when Jenny Churchill (mother of Winston) threw a party for her father’s friend, Governor Tilden, just after he was elected governor of New York. The only grain of truth in this is that the Manhattan Club had a good bar; Lady Jennie was giving birth to Winston in England when Tilden was elected.
The formula for the Manhattan style drink is two or three parts of whiskey to one part modifier (unlike a Dry Martini, less modifier than that is not a good thing). In the case of the Manhattan, the modifier is sweet or dry vermouth. For the perfect Manhattan, both sweet and dry Vermouth are used. Since New York was a rye town in those days, the original Manhattan was made with rye whisky. Nowadays Manhattans are usually made with bourbon, although rye is making a comeback in the better bars.
Ingredients
2 ounces whiskey
1 ounce Italian sweet vermouth
2 Dashes Angostura Bitters
Pour all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass and stir as you would a Martini. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry, although many discriminating drinkers prefer theirs with a twist. Note: If you prefer a dry Manhattan, use dry vermouth and garnish with a lemon peel.
15.) MARGARITA
There aren’t a lot of essential tequila cocktails, but this one more than makes up for it. A child of the 1930s, the Margarita has grown up into the most popular cocktail of them all, and not without reason.
Ingredients
2 ounces Tequila 100% blue Agave Plata
1 ounce Cointreau
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce of simple syrup is optional but often necessary for many guests.
Coarse salt
Lime wedge
Preparation
Combine first three ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Shake well and strain into a chilled salted cocktail glass. Salting the rim: Frost the edge of the cocktail glass by rubbing a lime wedge on the outside rim of the glass, then dipping it into a saucer of course salt. Note: Never use iodized salt on the rim of the glass.
16.) DRY MARTINI
Nothing needs to be said for the Martini: it speaks for itself.
The standard recipe from about 1895 to 1915:
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Dry Gin
1 1/2 ounces French dry vermouth
Dash Gary Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6
Preparation
Stir all ingredients with ice to chill and garnish with an orange peel or a lemon peel.
And the CLASSIC EXTRA DRY MARTINI (as it was made from 1950 on)
Ingredients
2 dashes of dry French vermouth
3 ounces gin or vodka
Preparation
Stir ingredients well with ice in a mixing glass. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish traditionally with a small pitted Spanish cocktail olive (no pimento).
17.) MOJITO
This Cuban creation from the early years of the twentieth century has become the first breakout drink of the twenty-first..
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces white rum
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce simple syrup
1 Mint sprig and 4 mint leaves (use tender, young mint tops; peppermint is best because it doesn’t wilt and retains its shape).
soda
Preparation
Muddle gently one mint sprig with the simple syrup and the lime juice in the bottom of a highball glass. Add the rum and the ice and top with no more than two ounces of club soda. Garnish with a generous sprig of mint.
18.) NEGRONI
Camillo Negroni was a Florentine Count who had spent time as a cowboy in the old West and a gambler in New York. When he returned to Florence, in the 1910s, he had the bartender at the Bar Casoni mix these up for him.
Ingredients
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce Italian sweet vermouth
1 ounce gin
Preparation
Combine all ingredients in an iced old fashioned glass and stir. Garnish with an orange peel. The Count liked his topped off with an ounce or two of soda. Others prefer theirs served straight up, in which case it should be stirred with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass.
19.) OLD-FASHIONED OLD FASHIONED
By the 1860s, the original “Cock-Tail” had begun changing, and if that’s what you wanted you had to order an “Old-Fashioned” cocktail. A very simple and satisfying drink, the Old-Fashioned is the drink of choice of many cocktail aficionados.–David Wondrich
Ingredients
2 ounces Bourbon or Rye
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 Tsp. bar sugar
1 lemon peel
splash water or soda
Preparation
Muddle the sugar and the Angostura bitters in the splash of soda (about a teaspoon–no more) until the sugar is dissolved, forming a syrup in the bottom of the glass. Add the whiskey and the ice, and stir. Garnish with a fresh twist of lemon peel.
OLD FASHIONED (muddled)
By 1915 or so, even the Old-Fashioned had begun changing; this is the version most people know today. Be very conservative with the water at the end.
Ingredients
2 ounces Bourbon
3 Dashes Angostura Bitters
1 Tsp. bar sugar
2 orange slices
2 maraschino cherries
splash water or soda
Preparation
Muddle carefully in the bottom of an old fashioned glass the sugar, Angostura, one orange, one cherry, and a splash of soda. Remove the orange rind and add Bourbon, ice, and soda or water. Garnish with a fresh orange slice and a cherry.
20.) PISCO SOUR
The national drink of Peru—and Chile (both claim pisco as their own). The Pisco Sour is one of the drinks on the short list to step in when the Mojito falters.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces Pisco
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce simple syrup
Several drops of Angostura Bitters
One small egg white
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. Garnish with several drops of Angostura Bitters on top of the foam created by the egg whites. |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
2 1/2 ounces Scotch whisky
3/4 ounces Italian sweet vermouth
Dash Angostura Bitters
Preparation
Pour all ingredients over ice in a mixing glass and stir as you would a Martini. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon peel. See also: Affinity Cocktail. |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
1 liter cognac
1 liter dark, heavy-bodied rum
16 oz fresh lime juice
16 oz Demerara sugar
2 quarts green tea (8 teaspoons of green tea infused in 2 quarts of boiling water)
nutmeg
Preparation:
Dissolve the Demerara sugar in 16 oz water over a low flame; let cool. Then, in a large punch bowl, combine it with the lime juice, the spirits and the tea. Add one very large block of ice and grate nutmeg generously over the top. Serves 20. Note that the cognac-rum combination can be replaced with a mixture of 60% Batavia Arrack and 40% rum; this makes a Punch whose authenticity is only undone by its deliciousness. |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
2 Dashes Peychaud’s Bitters
2 ounces rye whiskey
Splash of Herbsaint or other absinthe substitute
1/2 ounce simple syrup or one sugar cube and a tiny splash of water
Preparation
Take 2 rocks glasses, chill one while preparing the drink in the other. Splash the Herbsaint into the second glass and swirl it, then pour it out. Add the rye, syrup or sugar, and the bitters and stir with ice cubes to chill. Strain into the chilled rocks glass and garnish with a lemon peel. |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces cognac
3/4 ounce Cointreau
1/2 to 3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into an iced old fashioned glass or, preferably, a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange peel. Note: If served “up” strain into a small cocktail glass with a sugared rim. |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
2 ounces VS Cognac (or better)
1 ounce white crème de Menthe
Preparation
Shake both ingredients with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass filled with crushed ice or serve up in a chilled cocktail glass. Note that this is an exception to the rule that drinks with only liquors and liqueur should be stirred. Note: Proportions of the two ingredients can vary, with many people preferring less crème de menthe. |
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Term
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Definition
Ingredients
2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey
1 ounce simple syrup
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
Preparation
Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into an old-fashioned glass or a special sour glass. Garnish with a flag (an orange slice and a cherry). |
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