There were five clear standouts for this list, and then it got a bit murky. There were drinks I remember enjoying but did I like them enough to single them out? I had to go back and read some old posts to remind myself. Was it honest praise or dramatic hyperbole? Was I being an [...]

Heads up, gentle reader. These four cocktails make it an even 100 cocktails in 100 days as promised. That means, of course, that I’ll be taking some time off from the drinking & mixing. I’ll keep this blog afloat by trying new recipes, inventing new cocktails, reviewing bars and their fare. But you’re not gonna [...]

I thought it would be cute, you know, to offer a passel of gin drinks, two connected by having men’s names in their appellation…but they were mostly a colossal bore. So I added the Bloody Mary to spice up the night.

The Tom Collins

The Tom Collins has The Essential Cocktail‘s most confusing and least interesting origin [...]

The Kir

The Kir is white wine with a bit of crème de cassis (black currant liqueur). It sounds sophisticated and simple. Well that’s half right anyway. Cassis is fantastic though. I can imagine making a simple syrup with cassis and coming up with a delicious topping for pancakes, waffles, ice cream…

White wine
1/2 ounce creme de [...]

The Mai Tai

Mai Tai. Not Your Tai.

This tropical classic is rum, orgeat (almond) syrup, orange curaçao, and freshly squeezed lime juice. It is born of the heyday of the tiki bar craze, when Trader Vic Bergeron and Donn “Don the Beachcomber” Beach were the rock stars of the tropical night club scene.

Let me say [...]

The Vesper

The Essential Cocktail  has a brilliant entry on The Vesper. It highlights the drinks invention by James Bond novel author Ian Fleming’s neighborhood bartender, includes the frisky but eloquent text from Casino Royale in which The Vesper appears, and even explains what in the hell Lillet is.

The first Vesper I ever had attend to [...]

A celebration of ginger. Ginger beer and ginger ale…and Ginger Grant.

The Moscow Mule

According to The Essential Cocktail, the Moscow Mule was another of Smirnoff’s marketing triumphs. Along with the Bloody Mary, the Screwdriver, and the Vodkatini, the Moscow Mule was promoted in the 1950s to sell Smirnoff the brand. Back then, ginger beer was as [...]