Lime Drop Martini

We needed to throw together a quick cocktail for the 2019 winter solstice and I was looking for something tart and cool to reflect the season. I started searching for martinis and came across several variations of this delightful little mix and it looked like it had potential. Ingredients 1.5 oz vodka .5 oz triple…

Wine Spritzer

It was a long hot summer day and I wanted something light, refreshing and…well…easy. So I settled on a spritzer and did a little research to see if there were any variations I hadn’t tried yet. I found a bunch of different recipes but the one that called for bitters intrigued me. We had a…

Ginger Fizz

I was looking for some thing that said SPRING! I wanted a bit of bite so I figured it was time for some ginger beer and put Google to work. It came up with two fairly similar recipes: a Ginger Fizz and a Cilantro Lime Fizz. They both used gin, ginger beer, limes and cilantro…

Singapore Sling — version 2

D. A. Embury stated in the Fine Art of Mixing Drinks: “Of all the recipes published for [this drink] I have never seen any two that were alike.”   This cocktail was developed sometime before 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon, a bartender working at the Long Bar in the famous Raffles Hotel in Singapore. Over the years the original recipe was lost and even…

El Presidente

I received a copy of Old Man Drinks by Robert Schnakenberg for Xmas and we were eager to give it a try. Most of the classics we’ve tried were there and were short of a lot ingredients for others but the El Presidente caught my eye and it was decided. Supposedly named for Gerado Machado,…

The Charles

I was looking for something simple and tasty and a bit sweet. So I  went digging through my compiled wishlist and came across two that called for cognac. I chose the Charles because it had a bit more history. The Cocktail Bar was published by “Charles” in London in 1952. This eponymous drink is one…

Champagne Cocktail

Well it had been a while since we had been able to gather so we went all out with Prime Rib roast, fresh focaccia and a really delish walnut and avocado salad. And so we decided to start with an oldy, but goody cocktail. You can find a lot of Champagne cocktails if you go…

Paloma

Well it turns out that after more than two years of making and tasting cocktails we haven’t actually tried a traditional Paloma yet. And since Halloween is traditionally tequila night, it made sense to rectify this oversight. This is in fact the 10th year we have all gathered together on Halloween night and indulged in…

Bocce Ball

We were still looking for some lower alcohol cocktails and this pairing of citrus and almond fit the bill. It certainly sounded refreshing. Named after the Italian ball sport, Bocce Balls showed up in the early 80s almost certainly invented by Di Saronno to help popularize their amaretto. It appeared in numerous advertisements placed by…

Brown Gin

Brown Gin adds a hefty dose of bitters to the classic Pink Gin. In the 1800s, British Navy sailors treated sea sickness with Angostura bitters. Since they are pretty strong solo, they’d mix it with their gin rations to make it go down easier, creating the original Pink Gin. This version more than doubles down on the…