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Amaro Mio and the Hanky Panky
Amaro Mio is a fernet-type digestif, lighter than Fernet-Branca, but with the same minty, mentholish herbal presence. The nose is classically medicinal. The first taste is sweet and minty, then...
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The Negroni Cocktail
The Negroni cocktail is a delight to the eye, handsome in a rocks glass, clear and red. It is “not for fence-sitters,” as Mark Kingwell observes in his amusing Classic Cocktails, A Modern Shake. A...
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Derby Cocktail (Bourbon)
Trying to track down the One True Derby Cocktail is a fool’s errand–so many Derbies, so little time. There are so many Derbies, in fact, that it looks like every bartender who wanted to promote himself...
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Trilby Cocktail (Bourbon)
In my previous post I revealed my hick astonishment that there are so many versions, or personalities, of the Trilby cocktail, and focused on the vermouth version. I was prepping a Manhattan the other...
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Affinity Cocktail
Since I’m not much of a Scotch cocktail drinker, my recent addition of the Affinity to my short repertoire of Scotch whisky-based cocktails was sort of a surprise. In addition to giving me another...
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Manhattan Cocktail, Cold and Dusky
…give us the manhattan, cold and dusky in a frosted glass, the luxurious swirl of rye and vermouth, a dash of Angostura bitters for tone, the one and only cocktail that really demands a cherry. Mark...
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Leap Year Cocktail
I’m one of those people who is fascinated by cosmic markers like solstices and equinoxes. It’s hard to explain—I guess it’s sort of a feeling of being in the presence of greatness. Or cosmic forces. Or...
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1794 Cocktail — the Boulevardier Comes to Manhattan
The 1794 cocktail is a welcome modernization of the Boulevardier, whiskey-heavy, with rye in place of bourbon. Attributed to Dominic Venegas, it is a natural evolution of that drink, and changes a...
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Saratoga Cocktail
When one of my friends asked for a Saratoga Cocktail recently, I was skeptical. I had tried this drink before, and I was not impressed. It seemed unbalanced, or unfinished—the flavors just didn’t seem...
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Mixing with Fernet Branca—the Hanky Panky Cocktail
I have no idea where I first came across the Hanky Panky, nor why I thought it would be a good idea to try a drink with such an off-putting, cutesy name (it turns out there’s a Prohibition-era story...
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La Louisiane Cocktail
If it is true, as Mark Twain opined, that obscurity and a competence … is the life that is best worth living, then La Louisiane Cocktail has lived a worthwhile life indeed. A first-rate cocktail that...
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Absinthe and Brandy—The Bombay Cocktail
The Bombay Cocktail is an obscure bit of greatness from Harry Craddock’s 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. If anise or absinthe is part of your palate, if the Sazerac or the Corpse Reviver are on your regular...
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The Scotch Saratoga
I love it when forgotten ideas return, especially the ones I’ve shrugged off as “surely doomed,” and then they reappear as great stuff. That’s how Scotch whisky got into my Saratoga cocktail. The first...
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The Satan’s Whiskers Cocktail
Satan’s Whiskers is a Bronx Cocktail with a suit and tie. I like the Bronx, but it’s quite spartan compared to the lush richness of Satan’s Whiskers. If I had to pick one or the other, the Satan’s...
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Drinking the French Quarter: The Vieux Carré Cocktail
The Vieux Carré is New Orleans’ contribution to the Manhattan family. More specifically, it is a Saratoga, sweetened with a splash of Bénédictine and the city’s historic Peychaud’s bitters. The Vieux...
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The Blackthorne Cocktail
We have Gary Regan to thank for the modern Blackthorne Cocktail. The basic model of the drink has been around for something like a hundred years, but its original incarnation, as the Blackthorn (no...
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Tequila and mezcal — messing with the Negroni
The Negroni has inspired many cocktails, but few (most famously, the whiskey-based Boulevardier) have used its equal parts model literally. So I was intrigued when I came across the Agavoni, a...
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Remember the Maine
Remember the Maine is built on the Manhattan model, with a delightful, surprising substitution for the bitters: absinthe and Cherry Heering. Remember the Maine has been around since before Prohibition,...
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Searching for the Martini: The Martinez Cocktail
If you’re looking for a sweet cocktail, something more historic than the Cosmopolitan, I can think of no better place to start than the Martinez. The Martinez is the proto-Martini. The newly-invented...
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The Harvard Cocktail
The Harvard Cocktail is another tribute to the design of the Manhattan, but based on cognac instead of rye whiskey. It is named, of course, after the Ivy League college of the same name, and was first...
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