Commodore Cocktail

Commodore Cocktail

1 1/2 oz rye whiskey

3/4 oz lemon or lime juice (Lime in this case)

3/4 tsp simple syrup

2 dashes orange bitters

Recipe

Calvados Cocktail

Calvados Cocktail

1 1/2 oz calvados

1 1/2 oz orange juice

3/4 oz Cointreau

2 dashes orange bitters

XYZ Cocktail

XYZ Cocktail

2 oz rum

1 oz Cointreau/Triple-sec

1/2 oz lemon juice

I have a big bottle of triple-sec gathering dust so decided to use it in this drink.

Much better with Cointreau.

Blue Moon Cocktail

Blue Moon Cocktail

2 oz gin
1 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz creme de violette

Sidecar Cocktail

Sidecar Cocktail

2 oz brandy

1 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz lemon juice

Bacardi Cocktail

Bacardi Cocktail

1 1/2 oz light rum Bacardi

3/4 oz lime or lemon juice

2 dash grenadine

Shake and strain.

High Hat Cocktail

High Hat Cocktail

1 1/2 oz rye whiskey

1/2 oz lemon juice

1/2 oz cherry liqueur

Shake and strain.

Pink Rum and Tonic

Pink Rum and Tonic

1 1/2 oz light rum

1/2 oz lime juice

1/4 oz grenadine

Shake and strain into an ice filled highball type glass, top with tonic water.

Bacardi Punch Variation

Bacardi Punch Variation

2 1/2 oz Bacardi Light rum

3/4 oz Grenadine

Soda water

http://www.cocktaildb.com/recipe_detail?id=142

Kamikaze Cocktail

Kamikaze Cocktail

1 1/2 oz Vodka

1 oz triple sec

1 oz lime juice

Aviation Cocktail

Aviation Cocktail

3/4 oz Lemon Juice

1 1/2 oz Gin

1/2 tsp Maraschino

1/2 tsp Creme de Violette

1/2 tsp Simple syrup

Recipe from http://www.artofdrink.com/

Royal Jubilee

Royal Jubilee Cocktail

3/4 oz Lemon

3/4 oz Cointreau

1 1/2 oz Calvados

Violet Fizz Cocktail

ATTY Cocktail

Arsenic and Old Lace

Arsenic and Old Lace Cocktail

1 1/2 oz gin

1/2 oz pastis

1/4 oz dry vermouth

1/2 oz creme de violette

A drink I found on CocktailDB.com when looking for drinks that contain Creme de Violette. I picked up this elixir on a recent trip to France, the stuff is virtually impossible to find outside of France so I was happy to grab a bottle.

The above drink is really dominated by the pastis, but after a couple sips the other ingredients started to come out a bit. The Creme de Violette was barely noticeable mid-sip after the gin before the pastis took over.

An interesting drink, perhaps reduce the pastis a little next time.

Betweet The Sheets

Between The Sheets Cocktail

1 oz brandy

1 oz light rum

1 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz lemon juice

Recipe from The Essential Bartender's Guide by Robert Hess.

A very nice drink. A cross between the Sidecar and the Daiquiri, this cocktail has a sharp flavor and is slightly alcoholic. Unique in that it contains 2 base spirits, all ingredients of this drink come out nicely balanced in the end.

Fallen Leaves

The Fallen Leaves Cocktail

3/4 oz calvados

3/4 oz sweet vermouth

1/4 oz dry vermouth

Dash brandy

Squeeze lemon peel

Recipe from The Essential Bartender Guide by Robert Hess.

First time drinking calvados, an apple brandy from France. Interesting drink, could have really benefited from some freshly opened vermouth (mine is getting a bit musty and old). I felt in the end the drink was wanting a bit more sweetness.

The Blinker

The Blinker

2 oz rye

1 oz grapefruit

2 bar spoons grenadine

Recipe from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails

hmmm, tastes like sweetened rye whiskey. Only get a slight hint of juice and then some sweetness from the grenadine. Not very exciting. I think if I had had better grapefruit juice this drink would be been much more interesting.

Palm Beach Special

The Palm Beach Special

2 1/2 oz gin

3/4 oz grapefruit juice

1/2 oz sweet vermouth

Recipe from Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails

hmm, kind of boring I think. Not tasting much other than the gin. I am using fresh squeezed juice but the juice does not taste as sweet as I think it could be, perhaps the grapefruits used were not fully ripe or something. Anyway, questionable juice and small amount of vermouth made this a gin heavy cocktail but not in a good way (for me).

Hemingway Daiquiri

The Hemingway Daiquiri

1 1/2 oz light rum

1/4 oz maraschino

1/2 oz grapefruit juice

3/4 oz simple syrup

3/4 oz lime juice

Recipe from Robert Hess

Had some fresh squeezed grapefruit juice on hand, decided to make a couple drinks with it.

Delicious drink. The Maraschino is super balanced with the other ingredients, something I found in the other drinks with Maraschino to be lacking. Not much grapefruit coming through, but at only 1/2 oz it was never going to play a dominant part of this drink.

The Scofflaw

The Scofflaw Cocktail

1 1/2 oz rye
1 oz dry vermouth

3/4 oz fresh lemon juice

3/4 oz grenadine

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

Recipe from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh.

An interesting drink that dates from 1924 when it was first mixed up at Harry's New York Bar in Paris. The drink mixed from the recipe above seems slightly off, a little bit peculiar in one way or another. The first sip is nice, but after that I feel the grenadine took over and there was very little else to enjoy.

Robert Hess gives a recipe that is vastly different from the one above. I think this version might make a more interesting drink, given the significantly less amount of grenadine and the addition of orange bitters.

The Americano

The Americano

1 oz Campari

1 oz sweet vermouth

Club soda

Pour Campari and sweet vermouth in highball glass willed with ice and stir. Top with club soda.

Hmmm... Seriously lacking some sweetness. The sweet vermouth cant match the Campari and all I was tasting was some watered down Campari. Will I ever really enjoy Campari based drinks?

Daquiri Cocktail

The Daquiri Cocktail

2 oz light rum

3/4 oz simple syrup

1/2 oz lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

The second or third time I have made this drink, and still it is so so delicious. With temperatures around 37c/98f here in Lisbon, this drink is a perfect refreshing cocktail to cool down before cooking dinner. I look forward to trying out some other rums in this drink other than the standard Bacardi.

Pernod Parachute - Pineapple Week

Pernod Parachute

1 1/2 oz pastis

3 oz cranberry juice

3 oz pineapple juice

Build in Highball/Collins glass and fill with ice.

Recipe from CocktailDB.com

Wow, delicious. I was bracing my self for something else entirely than what this drink turned out to be. The drink starts out fruity with a hint of anise, but then the anise flavor develops in your mouth but all the time it has this sweet fruity edge to it. Marta was not as enthusiastic about this drink as I was. Might have something to do with her claiming that it tastes like cough medicine from her childhood. While the drink is called the Pernod Parachute, all I had was Ricard. I suspect using Ricard altered the drink very little if any.

Anyway, I thought it was a nice refreshing drink with a very interesting combination of flavors.

Mary Pickford Cocktail - Pineapple Week

Mary Pickford Cocktail

1 oz white rum

1 oz pineapple juice

1 tsp grenadine

6 dashes Maraschino

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

Recipe from the Savoy Cocktail Book.

Refreshing drink. With the ingredient ratios above you barely notice it has alcohol in it. I have seen recipes for the drink made with a 2:1 ratio for rum and juice, which would alter the drink entirely. The sweetness of the grenadine and the maraschino flavor would have a harder time coming through.

In the recipe above, even the small amount of Maraschino is very noticable and is an interesting contrast to the subtle pineapple flavor.

Park Avenue Cocktail - Pineapple week

Park Avenue Cocktail

2 oz gin

3/4 oz pineapple juice

3/4 oz sweet vermouth

2 tsp orange curacao (I used Cointreau)

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

Recipe from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh

Ok drink, nothing too remarkable. Pineapple and gin are nice together. For some reason I seem to like this combination. I did not pick up much on the vermouth. Even with only 3/4 oz juice I found it very noticeable in this drink, especially at the end of the sip.

Sweeny's Cocktail - Pineapple Week

Sweeny's Cocktail

1 1/2 oz brandy

1/2 pineapple juice

1/4 oz maraschino liquer

2 dash Angostura bitters

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

Recipe on CocktailDB.

After the first sip I am thinking "way way too much maraschino", but after a couple more sips the maraschino became less pronounced. Going into this drink I knew that there would be little, if anything, of the pineapple coming through in the end. And that was definitely the case. Virtually no pineapple taste, if anything it just serves to temper the alcohol of the brandy.

Not particularly an interesting drink.

Louis Special Cocktail - Pineapple Week

The Louis Special Cocktail

1 oz gin

1 oz pineapple juice

1/4 oz sweet vermouth

1/4 oz dry vermouth

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

Recipe on CocktailDB

A nice well balanced drink. The equal parts gin and pineapple juice blend nicely together. In each sip you catch every ingredient of this drink. First the gin and pineapple blending together, followed by the vermouths, especially the sweet vermouth, which works nicely with the sweetness of the juice. Finally at the end you get a more pronounced pineapple flavor.

Perhaps a good drink for those who claim to not like gin?

Pennsylvania Cocktail - Pineapple Week

The Pennsylvania Cocktail

2 oz light rum

1/2 oz pineapple juice

1 dash of grenadine

Mix and shake with ice. Strain into cocktail glass.

I bought this pineapple juice at the store some time ago and it has sat unopened in the fridge for a couple weeks. The expiry date is approaching in July so for the next couple cocktails I have decided to find ones that include pineapple juice. This pineapple juice says 100% juice on the box and the only ingredient listed is juice, so short of juicing your own pineapple (probably not a fun process) this is as good as its going to get.

The first drink for the Pineapple extravaganza was one of the first ones I found on CocktailDB: Pennsylvania Cocktail on CocktailDB.com.

CocktailDB is a great site, however there is one small bone I have to pick with it. On the About section of the website they say:

We differ from other cocktail web sites in numerous ways, but mainly, all of the recipes in CocktailDB have been authenticated in print. This cuts out all the sophomoric, never-once-ordered recipes clogging many other drink sites. We already have the largest collection of verified drink recipes on the Internet or in any book, and this collection will continue to grow.

Which is great, especially if you are all into historical accuracy. However, what the folks at CocktailDB fail to do is list the SOURCE of the cocktail on the individual cocktail pages. It does not do me any good to know that a cocktail came from a book if I cannot know what book it came from.

Which brings me to the Pennsylvania Cocktail. Why does a cocktail called the Pennsylvania Cocktail have both Rum and Pineapple juice in it? Was there a Pennsylvania Bar/Club in Miami? Puerto Rico? Having a citation of what book the drink came from would produce a very useful line of research!

On to the drink!

The drink itself was kind of... blah. Nothing exciting. No pineapple flavor (what was I expecting? 2 oz spirit and only 1/2 juice?) Sipping the Rum neat, and then comparing to the cocktail makes the cocktail seem slightly sweeter and the alcohol softened a bit by some indeterminable agent (the juice obviously, but you cannot tell in the least that it is pineapple juice).

Not a drink I would recommended, perhaps increasing the pineapple juice might help, but I think the cocktail would still be lacking and a relatively uninteresting drink.

Sampling the White Lady

The White Lady Cocktail

2 oz gin

1 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass.

Recipe from The Essential Bartender's Guide by Robert Hess.

I picked up a bottle of Beefeater and was eager to try it out in comparison with Gordon's and Bombay Sapphire. I was going to make a Gin Sour with each of the gins but at the last moment decided to use the White Lady as a comparison cocktail.

First impressions were: the Gordon's is overwhelming. It is so so heavy on the juniper that it distracts from the rest of the cocktail. The Bombay Sapphire and the Beefeater were more similar. The Beefeater cocktail tasted sweeter than that made with Sapphire. Even sipping these two gins neat, I taste the Beefeater as being more sweet. The mixed drink might not have been the best place for all the botanicals of the Sapphire to shine. Perhaps a more apt comparison between Beefeater and the Sapphire might be in a martini with just a splash of white vermouth.

In the end, when it comes to the White Lady cocktail, I preferred the drink made with Beefeater gin.

Rosita

The Rosita Cocktail

1 1/2 oz silver tequila

1/2 oz sweet vermouth

1/2 oz dry vermouth

1/2 oz Campari

dash of Angostura bitters

Stir with ice and strain into ice filled rocks glass.

Recipe from Robert Hess

Nice drink. The tequila flavors are quickly followed by the sweetness of the sweet vermouth, and then the bitter of the Campari comes through in the end. A drink that has campari that I found delicious. The Campari was not that bitter, half an oz is not much when it is thrown in there with the other ingredients but it was still very noticeable at the end.. but not in a bad way.

Pegu Club Cocktail

The Pegu Club Cocktail

1 1/2 oz gin (Bombay Sapphire)

1/2 oz Cointreau

3/4 oz fresh lime juice

2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Recipe from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh

This cocktail dating from around the 1920's was the house cocktail of the Pegu Club in Rangoon, Burma and is a really really good gin cocktail. Make this drink for those who say they don't like gin cocktails. Not too sour, the fresh lime juice really makes this a refreshing drink.

Kir

The Kir Cocktail

5 oz dry white wine

1/4 oz Crème de cassis

Pour wine in wine glass, add creme de cassis.

Recipe from The Essential Bartenders Guide by Robert Hess

Essentially a wine cooler, I thought this drink was pretty boring. It was kind of like a slightly sweetened fruity wine.. which is fine, but nothing too exciting.

Hanky Panky

The Hanky Panky Cocktail

1 1/2 oz gin (Gordon's)

1 1/2 oz sweet vermouth (Martini Rosso)

2 dashes Fernet Branca (Fernet Lazzaroni)

Stir well with ice in mixing glass. Strain into chilled cocktail glass. Twist orange peel over surface of drink.

Recipe from Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh.

Nice drink. Even with the Gordon's. The Fernet I used is not of the Branca variety, but I suspect any Fernet would work well in this drink. Would like to test out some other gin varieties in this drink. I had Bombay Sapphire on hand, but wanted keep using Gordon's in drinks to see if it is a Gin that I can realistically use in mixed drinks and expect to get a drinkable result.

The mix between equal parts gin and sweet vermouth is quite nice. The Fernet comes through a bit at the end, but I thought it would have been stronger. Marta seemed to pick up on the Fernet more than I did,p but I might have added another dash or so of the Fernet to the drink to see how it turns out.

Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail

Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail

2 oz rye whiskey (Old Overholt)

1 oz simple syrup

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Pour simple syrup into rocks/old fashiuoned glass, add couple dashes of Angostura bitters. Fill glass half full with ice, stir to mix. Peel a strip of orange peel using a potato peeler, squeeze over glass to release orange oils into glass. Place orange swath into glass. Fill remaining space with ice. Pour whiskey and stir to mix.

The quintessential cocktail? Perhaps. As defined by Jerry Thomas back in 1862 a cocktail is simply a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters, which is exactly what the Old Fashioned Whiskey Cocktail is.

The recipe and method above comes off Robert Hess' website and it works quite well. The first sip I don't think I noticed much more than the whiskey, but after a couple more sips the drink gained a whole new complexity thanks to the Angostura bitters and orange oils. This is really a delicious drink and it could not be more simple.

The Monkey Gland

The Monkey Gland Cocktail

1 1/2 oz gin (Bombay Sapphire)
1 1/2 oz Orange Juice (Fresh Squeezed)
1 tsp real pomegranate grenadine
1 tsp absinthe (Neto Costa Absinthe)

Recipe from Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh

This cocktail is amazingly delicious. In a drink like this I really think fresh orange juice is what will make or break the drink. The sweetness of the orange juice and grenadine was followed by the gin and absinthe. Very well balanced drink.

The recipe is also given with 2 oz gin and 1 oz orange juice. Will have to try this in the future. Also perhaps substituting Ricard for the Absinthe.

Sidecar Cocktail

The Sidecar Cocktail

2 oz brandy (Macieira)

1 oz Cointreau

1/2 oz lemon juice

I decided to come back to the Sidecar because I remember it being a particularly delicious drink the first time I made it (confirmed) but also because I wanted to make a comparison between using Cointreau and some cheap Triple Sec I picked up recently.

Sipping the Cointreau and Triple Sec reveals vast differences in these two drinks. The Triple Sec is much much sweeter, in fact sweetness is about all that comes through. The Cointreau is much more nuanced and complex, not as sweet and more than twice as alcoholic. I wanted to see how the two would come through in a composed cocktail.

I thought the difference was huge, Marta not so much. The higher alcohol of the Cointreau and the sweetness of the Triple Sec is what I think immediately set these drinks apart. After a few more sips the Sidecar with the stock Triple Sec sort of falls flat on the pallet where I found the Cointreau Sidecar much more interesting and enjoyable to drink. Marta also enjoyed the one made with Cointreau more than that with stock Triple Sec, however I don't think she was nearly as turned off by the Triple Sec as I was due to her sweet tooth.

Daquiri Cocktail

The Daquiri Cocktail

2 oz Light Rum (Bacardi)

1/2 oz lime juice

3/4 oz simple syrup

Super tasty drink. There is really not much to say about this drink. So so good.

Barbara West Cocktail

2 oz gin (Gordon's)

1 oz sherry (Sandeman Fino)

1/2 fresh lemon juice

1 dash Angostura

Where did it all go wrong? Gordon's gin? The suspect Sandeman Fino sherry?

The drink with the ingredients above was not good. Marta and I took a couple sips and the rest went to the sink. The gin, Gordon's, was super strong in flavor, it tasted almost chemical. The Sherry had almost no impact on the drink. This sherry has a very light flavor and was completely covered up by the gin.

I had been making drinks with Bombay Sapphire but I bought a bottle of Gordon's so I could try a different type of gin and decided to go with the "standard" gin that you will find in most home bars, probably because its cheap. Anyway, next time I will try with Bombay Sapphire or another gin entirely, also a more robust Sherry is a must.

The Rose

The Rose Cocktail

2 oz dry Vermouth
1 oz Kirschwasser
1 teaspoon raspberry syrup

Recipe from Vintage Spirits & Forgotten Cocktails by Ted Haigh

The was the drink turned out is not really what the recipe implies. I thought I had Kirschwasser, but in fact I had Edel Kirsch, which is not cherry brandy but rather a Cherry Liquer. Also, I didnt have any raspberry syrup so I substituted for grenadine, but I think this substitution is relatively minor.

So in light of my confusion regarding ingredients and the intentional substitution how did the drink turn out? Really good. I thought it was delicious, if a bit on the sweet side. Marta really really liked it, but she does have a sweet tooth. This drink was almost like sipping liquid candy or something. All three ingredients came through nicely. I will make this again once I get some Kirschwasser to compare.

Harvard Cocktail

Harvard Cocktail

1 1/2 oz Brandy
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/4 oz Grenadine
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
Dash of Angostura bitters

Shake and strain into glass.

I think of all the cocktails I have tried so far I am partial to those with brandy as the base spirit. So when Marta suggested we make the Harvard cocktail as our cocktail of the day I was more than happy!

The above recipe comes from The Essential Bartender's Guide by Robert Hess. Comparing this recipe to the one that appears in the Savoy cocktail book one quickly notices a number of differences. Primarily the lack or addition (depending on your recipe of reference) of lemon juice and the swap of simple syrup for Grenadine. Additionally in the Savoy recipe the Brandy and Sweet Vermouth are equal in parts.

I will make the Savoy version in the coming days, but made per the Hess recipe above the drink was delicious. Marta is suffering from some allergies so her sense of taste is not what it should be, but she too enjoyed the drink. The drink was well balanced with neither the Brandy or vermouth too strong. This is a drink that I will definitely make again.

Peto Cocktail

The Peto Cocktail

1/2 oz Orange Juice
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth (Martini Rosso)
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth (Martini Bianco)
1 oz Gin (Gordons)
2 dashes Maraschino (Maraska)

Shake and strain into cocktail glass.

Delicious and refreshing cocktail where all ingredients were noticeable except for maybe the bit of Maraschino. This one is very easy to drink and a good cocktail to offer to friends who might not enjoy some stronger cocktails.

Marta said this was her favorite cocktail of the ones we have made so far!

Algonquin Cocktail

The Algonquin Cocktail

1 1/2 oz Rye Whiskey (Old Overholt)
3/4 oz Dry Vermouth (Martini Bianco)
3/4 oz Pineapple Juice

After receiving in the mail a couple days ago the book "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails" by Ted Haigh I realized that I would have to do some serious tracking down and buying of ingredients before I could make the majority of the drinks in the book. The Algonquion cocktail, however is one that only required ingredients that I had on hand. That said, the pineapple juice I did have was of questionable quality (small juice box, however the first ingredient was pineapple juice) and I think this changed the final outcome of the drink.

As mixed above I found the drink unbalanced.. Too sweet, perhaps artificially sweet. But I contribute this most likely to the pineapple juice. Marta really enjoyed the drink and says she would have happily ordered it in a bar. I think she tends to have more of a sweet tooth than I so that is understandable.

I hope next time I make this drink I will have some 100% pineapple juice on hand to see if it makes for a more balanced drink.

Aviation Cocktail

Aviation Cocktail

2 oz Gin
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz Maraschino

I had been wanting to hold out making this cocktail until I managed to get my hands on some Creme de Violette, but after reading the drink entry in the great book "Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails" by Ted Haigh, where Haigh says that the original recipe may have had Creme de Violette, in the drinks heyday it was mixed without it. Various other cocktail websites have the drink listed variable with our without Creme de Violette.. So I decided to cut to the chase and just make the drink and then once I get some Creme de Violette I can compare.

The recipe above comes from the Art of Drink website. The recipe here is different than that given by Ted Haigh, mainly in the quantity of Maraschino.

I found the drink above heavy on the Maraschino, Marta on the other hand liked it a lot. Perhaps next time either increase the lemon juice or decrease the Maraschino. Or both.

Margarita Cocktail

Margarita Cocktail

2 ounce Tequila
1 1/3 ounce Cointreau
2/3 ounce lime juice

I decided to use the DrinkBoy Margarita recipe as a reference point on this drink. The comment section on Robert's Margarita video provides an interesting discussion as to the proportions of ingredients.

As mixed, the drink was delicious! I have no idea if the Tequila I am using is a quality Tequila, or how much difference a top shelf Tequila would make in this drink. That would be something interesting to experiment with in the future. I salted half of the glass, but I found that I liked the drink sans salt.
Marta also really enjoyed this drink.

Old Pal Cocktail

Old Pal Cocktail

1 oz Rye Whiskey
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1 oz Campari

I was drawn to this drink as I am still trying to find a cocktail with Campari that I find palatable. Of the drinks I had made with Campari this was the most drinkable for me so far. Marta enjoyed this one as well.

Sidecar Cocktail

The Sidecar Cocktail

1 oz Brandy (Macieira Portuguese Brandy)
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz lemon juice

Not much to say really..it was a delicious drink! One that I will definitely come back to.

Income Tax Cocktail

Income Tax Cocktail

1 1/4 oz gin
3/4 oz orange juice
1/4 oz dry vermouth
1/4 oz sweet vermouth
dash Angostura Aromatic Bitters

Delicious cocktail! I thought the orange would be more pronounced but it took a back seat to the gin and rounded off the drink with a hint of vermouth at the end. Marta suggests making this drink with vodka?

Manhattan again

2 ounce rye whiskey (Old Overholt)
1 ounce sweet vermouth (Martini Rosso)
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Had some friends over for dinner and after eating we started chatting about cocktails. I made a Manhattan cocktail again but this time I poured 1 ounce of sweet vermouth instead of 1/2. For me the drink was much better. The whiskey was not nearly as strong and the vermouth was more notable.

Lucien Gaudin Cocktail

Lucien Gaudin Cocktail

1 oz. gin
1/2 oz. dry vermouth
1/2 oz. Campari
1/2 oz. Cointreau

Mix with ice, strain and garnish with orange.

I first found this cocktail on an episode of The Cocktail Spirit and it looked like a good opportunity to try out Campari again after I did not really enjoy my first encounter with the ingredient in the Negroni Cocktail.

While the Lucien Gaudin uses half as much Campari as the Negroni I still found the bitterness of the Campari strong for me. Marta on the other hand thought the drink was quite delicious. After taking a couple sips I think the Campari started to grow on me and my last few sips were more enjoyable. Still I think I need to experiment with Campari more to find out if this is an ingredient that I will actually enjoy drinking.

Manhattan cocktail

2 ounce rye whiskey (Old Overholt)
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth (Martini Rosso)
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Recipe from Drinkboy.com. First sips are like a softened whiskey, not much vermouth or bitters. I notice more the vermouth on the nose. Marta suggests that all she tastes is whiskey, so I pour some whiskey into a espresso cup with an ice cube for a taste comparison. The comparison convinced her that the Manhattan was more than just whiskey, it was also good for me because after sipping the straight whiskey then tasting the Manhattan I was able to pick out more flavors from the Vermouth. Halfway through the drink I added some more bitters to the glass and gave it a stir. It improved the complexity of the drink significantly.

Next time I will try to boost the vermouth up to 1 oz and add some more bitters. Also would like to try the recipe from the Savoy Cocktail Book:

2 oz sweet vermouth
1 oz Rye or Bourbon
1 bar-spoon Maraschino
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Orange Bloom cocktail

1 1/2 oz gin (Bombay Sapphire)
3/4 oz Cointreau
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth (Martini Rosso)

Strong alcohol taste. The first sip is pleasant enough, but after a couple sips I felt like watering it down a bit.

Looking around for information on this cocktail I came across the following post Underhill-Lounge on the Orange Bloom cocktail, and really agree with what is posted there regarding this cocktail.

White lady Cocktail

1 oz gin
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz Cointreau

I liked this more than the Balalaika cocktail, but that probably has a lot to do with the reduced lemon.

Balalaika

Balalaika Cocktail

1 oz Vodka
1 oz Lemon juice
1/2 oz Cointreau

Lots of lemon. Taste goes from Lemon to Vodka then back to Lemon at the end. The aftertaste is reminiscent of sucking on a raw lemon. Marta and I both agree next time to half the lemon.

Negroni

1 oz Gin
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1 oz Campari

Nice at first, but then the Campari hits the tongue and its very bitter for me. Probably need to get used to the Campari taste as this was my first time drinking it.

Marta says the drink is improved with a chocolate afterwards.

Gin & Tonic

First drink made in my endeavor to learn about the world of mixed drinks and cocktails.

2 oz gin (Bombay Sapphire)
Tonic (Schweppes)
Lime

Delicious drink. Not sure how much gin I was tasting in the drink as I am new to this whole thing and dont really know what flavors correspond to what. This is a drink I will be coming back to.