Another classic cocktail using Scotch Whisky and an unusual array of ingredients. Let’s go:
IRISH MAID
Spirits: 2 parts Irish or Scotch whisky
Liqueurs: .5 parts St-Germain
Fruit: 1 part Lemon; 1 part Cucumber juice (or 2 slices fresh cucumber per serving; see notes below)
Sweets: .75 Simple syrup
Bitters: None
Sodas: None
Shake all the ingredients together with ice. Pour over ice into a glass. Enjoy.
A bright yellow gold in the glass. Cucumber surprisingly dominates the nose followed by the Scotch. Tastes like smooth cucumber lemonade with touches of sweet elderflower, smoke and barley sweetness. A really high saline note at the beginning, more so than any cocktail I’ve ever made to date. Surprisingly well integrated cocktail. Even more surprisingly, it is the cucumber and St-Germain that take center stage as the heroes while the Scotch only plays a supporting part. I really didn’t think these ingredients would actually work but they actually do go well together. Just know that the whisky will be more of a background player.
This is essentially just a Scotch/Irish whisky sour varation is enhanced by the addition of cucumber and elderflower. I would have thought these would be a huge contrast with each other but as I said above, they surprisingly work very well together. I could easily see this working subbing in Tequila, Vodka or Canadian Whisky as the main spirit instead of Irish or Scotch whisky. I might hesitate a little with Bourbon, but Internet research shows there is a cocktail out there called the Kentucky Maid so it’s already been done. Shows what I know.
The original recipe calls for 2 cucumber slices to be muddled together in the shaker first before shaking with the rest of the ingredients and for the final glass to be decorated with an additional cucumber slice. However, if you remember from a previous post, you can easily shred and then drain cucumber to get some fresh cucumber juice. You’ll just have to do something with the cucumber shreds afterwards (like putting them in a salad or making fresh Tzatziki dip). If the idea of leftover shredded cucumber doesn’t appeal to you, then use the 2 muddled cucumber slices per serving method instead.
Here’s a variation of a Sherry Cobbler I tried last night with dinner:
SWEET LIBERTY
Spirits: 2 parts dry Sherry
Liqueurs: .5 parts St-Germain
Fruit: 1 part Grapefruit; .5 part Pineapple
Sweets: .25 honey (or. 5 honey syrup if you use that instead)
Bitters: None
Sodas: None
Stir the ingredients lightly in a shaker tin first in order to dissolve the honey. If you use honey syrup instead, there is no need to stir first. Shake all the ingredients together with ice. Pour into a glass over ice. Enjoy.
An opaque yellow brown in the glass. Nuts and pineapple on the nose. In the mouth, well-combined flavors of nuts, honey and fruit with an incredibly smooth cocktail that has a bit of a glycerin feel to it. Stunning how smooth the texture of this is going down. I didn’t think nutty sherry and tangy grapefruit and pineapple would work together but it really does so very well. My favorite non-spirit cocktail to date.
The classic recipe calls for a Fino, the lightest and youngest of the dry Sherries, but feel free to substitute any dry sherry in that you wish. Any Fino, Manzanilla, Amontillado, Palo Cortado or Oloroso should do as long as it’s dry. Just keep in mind that the higher you go, the nuttier your cocktail will taste.
So I found a sparkling highball cocktail called the Sparkling Shamrock that uses French spirit and liqueur as its main components. Go figure. Naturally, I had to give this a try:
SPARKLING SHAMROCK
Spirits: 2 parts Eau de Vie (i.e. clear fruit spirit)
Liqueurs: .5 parts St-Germain
Fruit: .5 part Lemon
Sweets: .5 Simple syrup
Bitters: None
Sodas: 4 parts Soda (or carbonated water of your choice)
Shake the eau de vie, St-Germain, lemon juice and syrup with ice in shaker. Pour into a highball glass or frosty mug filled with ice. Enjoy.
Bright golden yellow in the glass from the elderflower liqueur and lemon juice. Refreshing taste of stewed fruit in elderflower lemonade. Taste isn’t as diluted as you’d think it would be given the large amount of ice involved in making and serving as well as the additional soda. Nice on a hot summer day.
How this cocktail made using French ingredients as its base got its name I’ll never figure out. It’s not even green in color!
The original recipe calls for using Poire Williams, the classic French pear clear distillate, as its spirit base but it can be made with any fruit eau de vie: Poire Williams, Kirsch, Vieille Prune, Melocotogne, whatever you fancy as long as it’s fruit based and unsweetened. I used Kirsch myself.
The bartending technique of adding soda or any other carbonated beverage to a cocktail is referred to as lengthening the cocktail and it’s how you turn any standard cocktail which are often referred to as lowball cocktails into a highball cocktail.
It’s rare to find a shaken cocktail that relies on orange juice as the citrus. I was curious and found one to try. Now I know why this is the case:
ROLLS-ROYCE
Spirits: 1.75 parts Brandy
Liqueurs: .75 parts Grand Marnier, Cointreau or Triple Sec orange liqueur
Fruit: .75 parts Orange
Sweets: None
Bitters: None
Sodas: None
Shake the ingredients togther with ice in shaker. Pour into a glass over ice. Enjoy.
Dark brown in the glass from the Brandy de Jerez, but honestly it just would’ve been light brown using a regular brandy. All brandy on the nose with a very slight hit or sweet orange aroma. In the mouth, the brandy flavor completely dominates with only just the barest hint of orange from the Grand Marnier and fresh juice. There is no balancing acidity and this drinks like a non-sour ancestral style spirits only cocktail. I would’ve been much better off either using lemon juice to make this into a classic Sidecar or sprucing it up with Vermouth and/or bitters. As is, it is absolutely nothing exciting. It doesn’t even showcase the orange flavor from the liqueur which is allegedly the star of the show here.
This is the first truly disappointing cocktail I’ve made and had since embarking on this journey of mine. The really puzzling thing is that I found it on the Cointreau website. You’d think they’d list a cocktail that really shows off what orange liqueur can do.
I second this recommendation. I find the style that Tran posted to work pretty well as well but have a personal preference for the double tins. Previously I had a couple of single tin with pint-style mixing glass setups and I found the double tin to be a significant improvement in speed and texture.
I was introduced to this cocktail by an Appleton Estate representative doing a presentation at the LCBO last summer and now that I’m a full-fledged cocktail fanatic, it’s time to give this upscaled version of a classic cocktail a whirl:
THE JAMAICAN MULE
Spirits: 2 parts Rum
Liqueurs: None
Fruit: 1 part Lime
Sweets: None
Bitters: None
Sodas: 6 oz Ginger Beer
Add the rum and lime juice together to a large glass filled with ice. Gently pour in ginger beer. No stirring needed, the flow of the ginger beer combined with the carbonation will do all the mixing for you. Enjoy.
Muddy brown in the glass from the Rum. Almost looks like a blonde craft beer up close. Equal parts rum and sweet ginger on the nose. On the palate the smooth rum leads into sweet ginger and then the tangy lime kicks in. Those flavors then fade out as the ginger spice lingers on the finish for a long time. Not terribly complex and in fact I’d even go so far as to say it actually doesn’t integrate well, but so incredibly tasty and refreshing it truly doesn’t matter. Enjoy it for the upscaled fun drink that it is.
The original cocktail this is based on is of course the Moscow Mule, which uses the same formula above substituting in flavorless vodka instead of rum and allowing the lime and ginger to completely dominate. If Rum isn’t your thing, feel free to stay true to the original.
This upscale modified cocktail is often championed by Appleton Estate who of course are a premier Jamaican Rum. They are in fact who introduced me to this cocktail.
Substituting in milder ginger ale for the ginger beer converts this drink into a Jamaican Buck.
It’s been a while since I’ve had a Bourbon cocktail. Here’s my updated version of an Expat cocktail:
THE CANADIAN EXPAT
Spirits: 1 part American Whisky (aka Bourbon); 1 part Canadian Whisky
Liqueurs: None
Fruit: .5 part Lemon; .5 part Lime
Sweets: .5 Simple syrup
Bitters: a few dashes Angostura bitters
Sodas: None
Shake the two whiskies, lemon and lime juice together with ice. Pour into a glass over ice. Enjoy.
Reddish brown in the glass. Muted Bourbon smoke and lime on the nose. Tangy lemon and lime and Bourbon smoke and char on the palate followed by a touch of creaminess. An enjoyable upscale from a traditional Whisky Sour.
The original Expat cocktail calls for 2 parts Bourbon and 1 part Lime. Feel free to adjust this way if you’d like to make the original cocktail.
Did you double the recipe for a single serving or two servings? Because that must pack a heckuva wallop for a single person. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just seems quite potent if for a single serving. But hey, they didn’t invent the phrase “Make it a double!” for no good reason!
Look it’s a Gin based highball cocktail with fresh fruit:
STRAWBERRY GIN FIZZ
Spirits: 1.5 parts Gin
Liqueurs: None
Fruit: .5 part Lemon; 2-4 whole strawberries (depending on size)
Sweets: .5 Simple syrup
Bitters: .5 Vermouth
Sodas: 4 oz Soda
Dry shake all the ingredients together without ice. This will essentially tear the strawberries apart and blend it in to the cocktail. When they are fully pulverized and integrated, add ice to the shaker and shake again. Pour into a highball glass or frosty mug filled with ice. Top with the soda. Enjoy.
Semi-opaque reddish-pink in the glass. Strawberry dominates the nose, but on the palate the juniper enjoys equal status with the fresh strawberries as the tart lemon provides a backbone. This is dry and refreshing despite the added syrup because the fresh strawberries aren’t high in sugar content and the sweetness is diluted by the soda and kept in check by the Gin. Very nice highball drink.
You can pull off this cocktail using frozen strawberries as I did by dry shaking. This will chill your shaker as if you had ice in it but it will not dilute the cocktail. Instead the strawberries will slowly disintegrate into the drink. Bear in mind you will have to shake for a bit longer than usual but it will be worth the effort. Once the berries are incorporated, feel free to add ice and shake again and then finish with ice and soda in a glass.
You are looking for essentially an ounce of strawberry pulp in the drink so eye your strawberries accordingly. I listed 2-4 with the idea that 2 large strawberries or 4 smaller ones might do the trick but you could be looking at more if you are using locally grown strawberries which tend to be much smaller than commercially grown ones. Judge accordingly. Just remember as you add more strawberry it becomes more of a dominant player as opposed to playing equally with the gin.
For my next cocktail, I decided to seriously upgrade a classic Mai Tai tiki cocktail into something much grander and worthy of a Berserker to drink:
UPSCALE MAI TAI
Spirits: 2 parts aged Rum
Liqueurs: .5 parts Pineapple liqueur (see note below) OR Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Curacao or Triple sec liqueur
Fruit: .5 part Lime
Sweets: .15 part Pomengranate molasses (see below for measurement note); .5 parts Orgeat
Bitters: .None
Sodas: None
Shake all ingredients together with ice. Pour into a glass over ice. Enjoy.
Creamy brown in the glass thanks to the Orgeat and Rum. Rum and roasted pineapple dominate the nose. On the palate, a smooth creamy texture carries brown sugar, tart lime, sweet almond and pomengranate flavors. The pomengranate mixes with the lime to provide a lasting tart finish that mingles with the alcohol. The tart lime in particular lasts very long. Very complex and tasty for a tiki cocktail. A little sweet, you may want to add lots of ice for dilution.
The original Mai Tai calls for cheap rum and a cheap orange liqueur. I upscaled both by using high-end rum and my own homemade Pineapple Marnier for a more tropial flavor. You can make your own using dried pineapple and following my instructions on my homemade Marnier thread, but you can also find many pineapple liqueurs on the market so you don’t have to make one yourself. Or you can substitute in a traditional orange liqueur for the classic recipe.
I also used homemade orgeat which I created by combining almond milk, orange flower water and sugar. You can of course buy your own as well but buyer beware – many orgeat syrups on the market are simply sugar syrup with almon extract added. That means you are paying premium price for water and sugar you could have boiled together yourself into a syrup and added almond extract to afterwards.
Because it is often made by bars using cheap light or white rum and cheap orgeat syrup, a traditional Mai Tai has very little color to it and is often served with a float of cheap grenadine syrup on top which adds even more sweetness and virtually no flavor. This upscale version requires you to use real pomegranate molasses which is both extremely sweet and extremely tart. Assuming the parts you are using is ounces, .15 part of pomengranate molasses is a scant teaspoon. Do not use any more than this, pomegranate molasses is extremely powerful stuff and is best used in moderation. Once you taste it, however, you will never go back to cheap grenadine syrup ever again for your cocktails.
I found this rather pretentiously named and complicated to make cocktail on the Punch website which appealed to my snobbery so I immediately set out to make it:
FAIRBANKS LOAN NO. 2
Spirits: 1 part Gin
Liqueurs: 1 part Pineapple liqueur OR Pineapple Rum (see note below)
Fruit: .25 parts Lime; .25 parts Lemon
Sweets: .25 Honey
Bitters: .25 Vermouth; .125 Amaro; .08 Campari (or other red Italian aperitivo) (see notes below on measurement)
Sodas: None
Place all ingredients in a shaker and stir or dry shake gently to dissolve the honey. Then add ice and shake. Pour into a glass over ice. Enjoy.
Light translucent brown in the glass. No particularly dominant aroma though I can smell some juniper and Vermouth spices. On the palate this is very well integrated with complex flavors of herbs, spices, red berry fruit, and lime. Not too sweet but not too tart either. A particularly smooth texture and body, almost like wine despite the presence of the ice. Nice cocktail.
The original cocktail recipe calls for Pineapple rum. Now I don’t know about you guys, but I have yet to encounter any pineapple flavored rum that wasn’t cheap artificially flavored garbage. As such, I called for using pineapple liqueur as an option. In my case, I used my homemade Pineapple Marnier.
The original cocktail also calls for a half part of something called Lilletpertif. I’d never heard of this before and annoyingly it turned out to be a mix of 1 part Lillet, .5 parts Vermouth and .25 parts Campari. This resulted me in having to annoyingly calculate a correct proportion of each individual ingredient to equal that .t part. If my numbers above annoy you in terms of figuring out the proportions, this might help: assuming a single serving and that each part in my formula is exactly one ounce, then you need .25 ounces Vermouth to substitute for the Lillet (or you can use actual Lillet or any bottled Americano), 3/4 tsp Amaro and a scant 1/2 tsp Campari. You could also mix your Lilletpertif but bear in mind that I have yet to find any other cocktail that uses it which is why I figured out the exact proportions for a single serving.
This sour cocktail is very different from the nearly identical named Fairbanks No. 2. which is an ancestral cocktail highlighted by its use of Creme de Noyaux or Amaretto. Do not get them confused with each other.
This cheery and cheekily titled cocktail is actually quite unusual in that it’s pretty much a Gin based tiki cocktail:
O-FISH-ALLY OPEN
Spirits: 1 .5 parts Gin
Liqueurs: .25 part Absinthe
Fruit: .75 parts Lemon; .25 parts Grapefruit; .25 parts Orange
Sweets: .25 Simple syrup
Bitters: None
Sodas: None
Shake all ingredients together with ice and pour into a glass over ice. Enjoy.
Golden yellow in the glass thanks to the unusual blend of ruby pink, white, orange and green colors of the juices and Absinthe. Anise rules the nose followed by citrus. In the mouth, well integrated tart citrus and sweet licorice flavors play the heroes while the herbacious gin subtly blends into the background.
The original cocktail calls for no simple syrup. After one small sip, I deemed this absolutely necessary as the combination of both lemon and grapefruit citrus was far too astringent and bitter together, not sour. Once a touch of sweetness was added, everything magically came together. Feel free to omit it though if prefer a drier cocktail.
Here’s an interesting variation on the classic Mojito made better by the simple addition of one choice ingredient:
STYGIAN MOJITO
Spirits: 2 parts Rum
Liqueurs: None
Fruit: 1 part Lime
Sweets: .5 Simple syrup
Bitters: .5 Amaro
Sodas: 4 oz Soda
Shake the Rum, mint leaves, lime juice and simple syrup together over ice. Pour over ice into a tall Collins glass or frosty mug. Add the soda water. Enjoy.
Light brown in the glass due to the Rum and Amaro, almost beer colored. Sweet mint rules the nose followed by citrus. In the mouth, well integrated mint, lime candy, and brown sugar flavors. Not too tart and not too sweet, either. Well integrated and made refreshing by the soda water. The bitter Amaro is basically just an accent that only shows up on the finish. Basically this is a soda for adults.
This cocktail is just your classic Mojito along with an addition of Amaro bitters to enhance it a bit. I don’t really notice the bitters until the finish, but I am using top shelf rum instead of cheap white rum so that may be why it’s more of a background supporter than a star player in this drink. You may notice it more if you use classic white rum.
Alternatively, you could just use a few dashes of Angostura bitters instead of the Amaro.
Been a while since I’ve done a Scotch cocktail. Here’s a new one to try:
PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY
Spirits: 1.5 parts Scotch whisky
Liqueurs: 1 part Drambruie
Fruit: 1 part Lime
Sweets: None
Bitters: .5 Campari, Aperol, Rosso Antico or other red apertivo
Sodas: None
Shake all the ingredients together over ice. Pour over ice into a glass. Enjoy.
Translucent brownish-red in the glass. Nose is quite muted, faint hits of Scotch and Rosso Antico. In the mouth, however, a nice melange of smoke, barley, bitter herbs, and honey sweet lime. There is no star player or hero in the cocktail, you can get a sense of everything individually and together.
This cocktail ingredient list reads almost like a trainwreck but in the end everything plays well together. Though it would be anathema to Scotch purists, it does make a very interesting base for sour cocktails.
The Chivas Regal 18 blended Scotch I use here isn’t a peaty smokehouse, but I think this would actually be slightly better with some peat flavor in it. I may have to invest in some Johnny Walker 18 in the near future and try this again.
It occurred to me that I had yet to try a single Ancestral style cocktail that only required booze so I decided to give one a crack tonight and The Educated Barfly just happened to post a new one today so I tried it:
A RED CAR NAMED DESIRE
Spirits: .5 parts aged Bourbon; 1 part Canadian Whisky (original calls for 1.5 parts Bourbon)
Liqueurs: .5 parts Cherry Brandy (original calls for Maurin Quina); .5 parts Maraschino
Fruit: None
Sweets: None
Bitters: .5 parts Amaro (original calls for Cynar specifically)
Sodas: None
Shake all the ingredients together over ice. Pour over ice into a glass. Enjoy.
Translucent brown in the glass. Nose is muted, mostly Bourbon smoke and char and not a hint of cherry despite using two different cherry flavored spirits. On the mouth, I get really just mostly the smooth Canadian whisky and smoke and char from the Bourbon. I’m getting no bitterness from the Amaro and absolutely no cherry flavor at all. The large amount of booze is actually making the drink feel heavy the more I drink it.
If I’m being honest, this is really quite the letdown. It lacks the sweetness and complexity of a Manhattan made with quality Whisky and Vermouth. In fact, now that I think about it the entire formulation seems geared to getting the cherry spirits and the Amaro to do the job of the Vermouth and they’re failing at it. I really wasn’t enjoying this so I decided to add .5 parts fresh lime juice and .25 of Agave syrup to turn it into a sour where the flavors at leasted blended together into a tolerable sour. It’s somewhat insane to me that five high quality spirits somehow turn out a less than average cocktail in my eyes. This may be enough to actually get me to stick to just Manhattans and sour cocktails. I’ll definitely try a Sazerac or a Boulevardier next to try and redeem Ancestral cocktails.
This is a booze only cocktail. They are often referred to as Ancestrals, nightcaps and lowballs. The major characteristic is no citrus juice additions of any kind.
To be fair, the original calls for Maurin Quina which is not a cherry brandy but a fortified wine that uses cherry brandy to fortify it and then adds spices and quinine. A cherry flavored Vermouth or Lillet if you will. That may have spruced it up a bit more than using pure cherry brandy which I used here with my homemade Cherry Marnier.
On the other hand, it uses the artichoke based Cynar as the bitter component which is an acquired taste, to say the least, even for those of us that love sipping Amaros neat or on ice by themselves. I can’t imagine that additional vegetal note adding more to this cocktail.
I’ve never been one for Martinis but this was honestly more of a sour than a Martini so I gave it a try:
BREAKFAST MARTINI
Spirits: 1.75 Gin
Liqueurs: .5 parts Grand Marnier (I used my homemade Pineapple Marnier)
Fruit: .5 Lemon; 1 tsp marmalade, jam or preserves (I used cherry)
Sweets: None
Bitters: None
Sodas: None
Shake all the ingredients together over ice. Pour over ice into a glass. If you don’t want the jammy fruit in the glass, then strain when you pour. Enjoy.
Dark red in the glass due to the jam. Smooth nose of gin and cherry. In the mouth, the gin is actually the star player and combines with the jam for a very smooth texture and lightly sweet taste accented with just a touch of lemon sour. Really smooth and nice cocktail.
This is the smoothest Gin cocktail I have had yet and is the first to really make me actually consider the texture of the cocktail
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
Just seems quite potent if for a single serving. But hey, they didn’t invent the phrase “Make it a double!” for no good reason! ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
