One of the things we’ve been doing lately is trying or re-trying some different cocktails. We have gotten pretty settled in our cocktail routine: gin and tonics as our go-to, everyday drink, with maybe a martini on the weekend, and for a bit of a treat, a wee dram of Scotch (for me) or bourbon (for the BaldMan). We have been trying to branch out a bit more. These last few weeks (because the fancy stuff is usually kept for weekends), we’ve been revisiting some classics.
I have two books with drink recipes in them. One is called simply Cocktails, and has recipes for classic mixed drinks and some more modern ones, as well. The other is How to Cocktail, from America’s Test Kitchen. That one not only has the drinks in it, but also recipes for some of the mixers and other ingredients for the drinks. It’s been interesting to try things, some new, some old friends.
Here’s what we’ve done so far:
Tom Collins (gin, lemon juice, simple syrup, soda water): Neither of us was really impressed.
Tequila Sunrise (tequila, orange juice, grenadine): We drank a lot of these in college! Still a nice drink.
Screwdriver (vodka, orange juice): Well, we had orange juice, so why not? It was good. Pretty much like drinking a glass of orange juice.
Whiskey Sour (whiskey, simple syrup, lemon juice, bitters, egg white (optional for extra frothy)): Another one I used to drink all the time. Using lemon juice and simple syrup instead of a pre-made sour mix lets you adjust the sweetness to your taste. Most mixes are really sweet. The egg white gives it a nice head of froth. This recipe came from Chef John, who does a YouTube cooking series, Food Wishes. The recipe is available on allrecipes.com
Negroni (gin, campari, sweet vermouth): This was a new one for me. It was good. Not too sweet, with a hint of citrus and bitterness from the campari. We had the standard recipe as a before dinner cocktail, and after, I mixed the same thing in a tall glass of ice and topped it with soda water. Nicely refreshing.
Not sure where we go from here, but I did just get some orgeat syrup, which is used in a fair number of drinks, so I am sure that will figure in soon.
Sláinte!
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