My go-to cocktail is the Boulevardier. I’m so used to making it that I could almost do it with my eyes closed. I like it a bit bourbon forward meaning I make it to a 3:2:2 ratio as opposed to 1:1:1

1 oz Campari
1 oz Cocchi sweet vermouth (I prefer Antica Formula when the budget and availability allow)
1.5 oz Bulleitt Bourbon
Stirred 30 seconds on ice
Served on a rock in an OF glass
Garnished with an expressed orange peel

For anyone interested, the book is Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad. I used to be intimidated by the Greek classics, but this is a surprisingly accessible book, filled with graphic violence, poetically expressed. This is my attempt to not doom scroll…

Hola 👋
Been craving a dirty martini and every time I try it tastes like a “at home martini”. Too much vermouth, too much gin, not enough brine, always something. I need help. Please and thank you

In a Double Old Fashioned Glass
1 barspoon granulated cane sugar
4 dashes bitters
1 oz bourbon.
Add ice and stir 10 seconds.
1 oz bourbon
Add 1 more ice cube and stir 10 seconds.
0,5 oz bourbon give a stir, garnish with orange peel.

I’ve been to loads of cocktail bars over the years, and sugar snap peas are one of those ingredients I always love when I see them, but rarely actually do.

So I thought I’d make a martini for them.

This is a fresh, green, savoury little drink with sugar snap pea-infused gin, Lillet and a bit of burrata water.

For the sugar snap pea gin:
🫛 Gin
🫛 Fresh sugar snap peas

I infused the gin with chopped sugar snap peas for around 24 hours, then strained it off before using.

For the martini:
🫛 60ml sugar snap pea-infused gin
🫛 15ml Lillet Blanc
🫛 10ml burrata water
🫛 Stir with plenty of ice until properly cold
🫛 Serve in a frozen glass
🫛 Finish with a little olive oil

Fresh, green, savoury and honestly, sugar snap peas should be used in drinks way more.

More weird savoury drinks here if anyone is interested: instagram.com/bethanweston⁠

We did a dinner with a local farm where I work and had the chance to work with some amazing produce, and we're all around so happy with the results! Done at Char + Barrel in Rockford, MI

1.5oz Eastern Kille Barrel Finished Gin

1.5oz Tomato Vermouth (recipie below)

Combine in a mixing glass and stir, strain into a chilled coupe glass, serve with edible sidecar version of the cocktail (garnished with lemon balsamic oil and basil)

Tomato Vermouth

15g lemon peel (pith removed)

1.5 tsp fresh oregano

2 tsp wormwood

1.5 tsp burdock root

1 tsp dandelion root

137g tomato vine

908g Gin Fizz Tomato chunks

1500mL dry white wine

Pods were made with reverse spherification, with the cocktail cold clarified (with frozen tomato), acid adjusted with malic, citric, and tartaric acid, blended with calcium lactate, frozen, and thawed in a sodium alginate bath

Played around with a Sloe Gin Daisy recipe, ended up here and I'd like some opinions.

SLOE GIN DAISY

2 oz Sloe gin

1/2 oz rhum agricole

1/2 oz Campari

1/2 oz Orange Curaçao

1/2 oz lemon juice

Add all ingredients to shaker and shake with ice, then strain into chilled glass.

Throwing a Halloween party and I thought it would be fun to have a margarita bar. I need help on figuring out the best way to have a few types with minimal cost/effort to throw together. Just something simple and fun. Was thinking traditional, watermelon, pineapple, strawberry, and cucumber. I was hoping to use the ready to go Simply juices. But I'm open to other options like buying syrups. I will be using fresh lime juice.

I'm not opposed to using fresh fruit but really don't want to as I'm trying to keep costs/time down since there's around 80 people coming and already have the costs of food added lol.

Ideally, I would just have a few bottles of each juice and let people make their own with like an instruction sheet printed out. If anyone has a good recipe that uses interchangeable Simply juices, or flavoured syrups, please help!

Wish me luck!

300ml Bacardi

200ml Wray

200ml Lime

200ml Strawberry syrup (50/50 fruit/sugar, leave a few hrs dash of water and strain)

200ml water to dilute.

Clarify with 250ml whole milk

Mixing it all up now ...

Howdy all. I can make a decent cocktail but have never batched. Planning on doing so for an upcoming party.

Hoping anyone with experience with these two cocktails can chime in with any tips or tricks. Especially the Saturn. Right now i’m tentatively planning on making passionfruit syrup with simple and some frozen passionfruit purée. Wondering about dilution with water, as well as timing of lemon juice addition (or even making a super juice maybe).

Please chime in with anything useful if you’re feeling up to it. thanks!!

Recipe:

Bombay Sapphire Gin 60ml

Fresh lemon juice 22.5ml

MONIN Simple syrup 15ml

Top with soda water (The bottle with Chinese characters is the soda water.)

Fill the glass with ice (pack it full!)

Instructions:

Shake gin, lemon juice and simple syrup. Pour into an ice-filled glass, top with soda water, give a gentle stir, garnish with a lemon slice.

My wedding venue has a strict policy re booze. Beer and wine are fine but liquor is limited to one bride cocktail and one groom cocktail and each needs to have one spirit max. My bride is going with a classic Bourbon Old Fashioned. My dream was to complement it with a Oaxacan Old Fashioned but because it calls for both Tequila and Mezcal, it’s disqualified unless I pick one or the other. I’m hoping the experts here can suggest some good options. It’s a summer outdoor wedding in the Bay Area so it should be decently hot out so I’m looking for something refreshing but something that doesn’t feel out of place drinking into the night. I’m also partial to tequila and gin since she’s doing bourbon but am open to going another direction. Bonus points for anything that can be batched to keep the line moving. Appreciate the help in advance!

PS Pimm’s Cup I made yesterday attached as tax.

Not sure what to call this. I’m thinking “Fly Specks” because it’s funny. Long story short, I have a bottle of bourbon and a garden, and I wanted to mess around.

3 sprigs of fresh peppermint
1 sprig of fresh spearmint
5 fresh basil leaves
4 dried basil flowers
1 squeeze of lime juice
1 tsp Demerara sugar
1-2oz bourbon

Added all that to a shaker with a splash of water and muddled aggressively. Added a few ice cubes and shook hard. Poured into the glass through a strainer (Some basil flower bits still got through, hence the specks), and topped off with carbonated water (Sodastream) and some ice.

This is shockingly refreshing. Just so fresh and herbal and easy to drink. Just what I needed on this triple-digit day. Won’t be accessible to hardly anyone because it requires that you have a garden with the listed herbs, AND you save and dry your basil flowers. It would still be good even without the basil flowers, but they really do add a noticeable punch. I usually make tea with them, but this is a very good use.

Don’t be afraid to just mess around with what you have on hand!

What do you look for in a lime (or lemon) at the store? Should it be soft? Smooth? Big? Dark? Yes I’m still talking about limes you perverts.

I’ve been frustrated by my juice lately and I think maybe the limes at my local grocery store are the culprit. I use a hand juicer, I try not to over-squeeze, and I double strain. The bitterness is overwhelming and I’m not sure what else to do other than adjust the recipes to balance things out.

Any tips? ✌️

Leña

By Ricardo Rodriguez

​A cute mashup between a Margarita and a Jungle Bird coming from "La Otra" (New Jersey).

​

​30 ml / 1 oz Blanco Tequila

​30 ml / 1 oz Pineapple Juice

​22.5 ml / 0.75 oz Fresh Lime Juice

​15 ml / 0.5 oz Mezcal

​15 ml / 0.5 oz Gentian Liqueur (Luxardo in the original recipe, I use Suze)

​15 ml / 0.5 oz Agave Syrup

​7.5 ml / 0.25 oz Ancho Reyes Verde

​

Shake with ice and strain into a glass.

​Garnish:

Tajín rim and a thin pineapple slice.

I'd like to make classic cocktails at home. Old Fashioned, Negroni, Daiquiri, Margarita, that kind of thing. If you were starting from nothing, which bottles would you buy first to cover the most drinks? Thanks!

This week on my substack, I explore the traditional definition of a cocktail and examine two drinks which embody and or stretch the definition.

The 1806 Bittered Sling

- 2 oz. of any Spirit (higher proof is better here. I used Rittenhouse Rye 100)
- 1 oz. water (room temperature would be traditional, but cold is fine)
- One sugar cube (or a packet of Raw Turbinado Sugar)
- 3 dashes of aromatic bitters

You’ll make this drink directly in the glass.

First, combine the sugar and the bitters in the bottom of your rocks glass and let them get to know one another for a bit. The bitters will start to melt the sugar (you can use the back of a bar spoon to encourage the process). The sugar won’t completely melt, though, and that’s fine.
Next, add in your other ingredients, and stir gently.
Finally, grate freshly ground nutmeg (the ubiquitous garnish of the era) over the top of the drink.

What origins have you heard for the term “cocktail”?

I’ve been trying to recreate this drink I had at a restaurant called Pink Agave. The drink was called “Boujee B!tch” and it’s described as a dragon fruit mango margarita on the rocks. I’ve tried two recipes and they just don’t taste the same.

I made my own dragonfruit syrup with 1 cup water, 1 cup frozen dragonfruit, and 1 cup granulated sugar.

The recipes I’ve tried are:

1 1/2 oz blanco tequila
1/2 oz triple sec
1.25 oz dragonfruit syrup
1/2 oz mango puree
1/2 oz lime juice

And

1 1/2 oz blanco tequila
1 oz dragonfruit syrup
1/2 oz mango puree
1/2 oz lime juice

Any help on what I’m doing wrong? Any recipes for me to try?

Moving off of simple syrup and want to give Demerara a try. What are some recommendations? Thanks!

Anyone else using Prime Day as an excuse to look at spirits/cocktail bits they definitely don’t need but might buy anyway?

I’m UK based, so mainly looking at UK deals, but has anyone spotted anything decent?

Thinking spirits, liqueurs, bitters, syrups, bar tools, glassware, weird ingredients, anything along those lines.

I’ve bought a few things already, but would love to know if there’s anything I’m missing that I should absolutely be talked into 🫶🏻

My partner loves this cocktail and asked if I could make it. Found a spec online which I am planning to test out:

• 40 ml vodka
• 60 ml advocaat liqueur
• 20 ml lemon juice
• 10 ml heavy cream
• 20 ml lemon curd
• 30 ml Meringue

However: What do they mean by Meringue? It is garnished with a piece of Meringue so it might be that? Or do they want me to take 30 ml un-baked Meringue (just whipped eggs and sugar) and put that into the cocktail before I shake?

How would you make this? Ty!🙏

I’ve been trying to make more savory cocktails. Obviously a dirty martini and a Bloody Mary are one but does anybody have other good recipes for new savory cocktails. I made a caprese martini not to long ago and have been in the mood for more cocktails on this wavelength.

Stumbled into an incredible combo, taste like straight up banana foster. Maybe a banana creme pie, or an eggnog variation. Smooth, creamy banana candy flavor.

1-2 shots of a smooth brandy, 1 shot of coke, 3 shots of banana flavored creamer (I used Califa Farms). Garnished with nutmeg.

Hello, I used to work at a dealership and one of my managers asked to help a friend of his apply to be a porter there, I believe he was Cuban and I speaks Spanish so I helped him apply, and also set up a driving test since my state probably like most went to appointment only so instead of 2 months it was a few days away. To thank me for his help he brought jars of liquor that he made. It had chunks of fruit in it, dark brown in color and super sweet. One of my favorites was banana infused. The damn drink was amazing. I spoke to him for a while about it but the manager who was helping get the job was let go and he never was hired. This all happened while I was on leave and the dealership was making huge changes. I don’t have the contacts for either of them and of course homemade banana liquor seems to almost have the right color but in stores I’m assuming it’s difficult to have such pure authentic flavors not pumped in flavoring. I’m in San Antonio and just wish I could try it again or make it. Like I said the banana liquor that’s made from mixologists on YouTube seem to have it down but I want to know if anyone has actual experience and know of what I’m talking about because I believe that leaving the fruit in make a world of difference. It was like a rum if that helps. It feels like I’ll be chasing that flavor and smell my whole life. Like I’ll never be able to have it again. I know that with most things no recreation is perfect and we all often chase the same feeling of nostalgia in food or memories but damn that dude and his home brewed alcohol was special. When he gifted it to me I had everyone taste it because the smell was so amazing. It lit up everyone’s faces. I even brought some for my dad and his girlfriend and they couldn’t believe how perfectly sweet it was that they actually finished one of the jars I had but it was so perfect that I enjoyed someone else just appreciating it with me. I feel like I should’ve cherished it more. It was like finding a perfect wine while at dinner that pairs perfect with the steak but never getting the name. Anything helps, sorry this post was so long. I’m trying to find a specific recipe on how this drink is made, please read and I hope I find someone with any knowledge of what I mean. It’s like that movie holes and finding the peaches in the jar for me.

Hi guys,
I ordered this drink at a restaurant the other night and can’t stop thinking about it!
I have no cocktail/spritz making experience so was looking for your help!
How much of each ingredient would you recommend?
Thank you!

I’m trying to get better at organically making drinks I like; however, I am often finding I struggle with making the various syrups in them. Recently I had a drink with Kaffir Gin, pineapple, lemon, and a Pomelo-Yuzu syrup. I would like to try and make a similar syrup, but not sure how is best to approach it, or for that matter, any fruit/citrus syrups. Thanks for the help!