Thomas

Mixologist

The Mojito is one of the most popular rum cocktails served today, with a recipe known around the world. The origins of this classic drink can be traced to Cuba and the 16th-century cocktail El Draque. Named for Sir Francis Drake, the English sea captain and explorer who visited Havana in 1586, El Draque was composed of aguardiente (a cane-spirit precursor to rum), lime, mint and sugar. It was supposedly consumed for medicinal purposes, but it’s easy to believe that drinkers enjoyed its flavor and effects.

Eventually, rum replaced aguardiente and the name was changed to the Mojito. It’s unclear exactly when this transpired, but the Mojito first appeared in cocktail literature in the 1932 edition of “Sloppy Joe’s Bar Cocktail Manual, a book from the famed Havana institution.

Appropriately, almost all of the ingredients in the Mojito are indigenous to Cuba. Rum, lime, mint and sugar (the island nation grows sugar cane) are joined together and then lengthened with thirst-quenching club soda to create a delicious, lighthearted cocktail.

Mojito

 It takes a special kind of person to walk up to the bar, look a barkeep squarely in the eyes and order an Adios, Motherfucker. We’re talking about the real deal. Not an AMF or an Adios, Mother F’er, as the drink is called in more squeamish circles. And certainly not the more family-friendly Walk Me Down. You can’t soften the seven-syllable force of a fully articulated Adios, Motherfucker.

The drink is bold, boozy and blue. Featuring five—yes, five—alcoholic components, it’s very similar to the Long Island Iced Tea. But where the LIIT calls for triple sec and cola, this cocktail requires a slug of blue curaçao and a topper of Sprite or 7UP. That curaçao swap results in the vibrant color, while the soda switch gives the drink a lighter, more citrusy flavor.

Those are your marching orders. But what makes an Adios, Motherfucker a true Adios, Motherfucker is the motherfucker who mixes it: cool, confident, uninhibited. That motherfucker can be you. 

Adios Motherfucker

 We’ve all heard of people seceding because of a desire for liberty, a deep political grievance or a sense of ethnic solidarity. Understandable, if sometimes wrongheaded or unwise. But what about seceding just for fun?

That’s what happened on May 1, 1732, when a bunch of prosperous Quakers from Philadelphia, the chief settlement of the Pennsylvania Colony, leased a little property from the Lenni-Lenape tribe. There, on the banks of the Schuylkill River a few miles upstream from the city, they built a clubhouse—a castle, they called it—and promptly declared themselves the Colony in Schuylkill, an independent entity with its own governor, lieutenant governor, councilmen, coroner and sheriff.

In 1782, in keeping with the times, the group shook off "Colony” and became the State in Schuylkill. It has had to move a couple times since, but as far as one can tell (its affairs are kept very quiet), the club is still going strong in its current castle, just outside Philadelphia on the Delaware.

The purpose of all this political business? Fishing. Well, that and barbecuing. And, of course, drinking. In the 18th century, it was customary for a gentlemen's social organization of this character to carouse a fair bit. The fuel for this carousing was invariably a large bowl of punch. Every club had its own version, most of which have been lost to history. But not the recipe the State in Schuylkill always served at its “Fish House,” as the castle was informally named. Since at least 1794 (the earliest mention we have of it), the concoction has been pretty much the same: lemon juice, sugar, rum, cognac and old-school peach brandy—a high-proof, dry, barrel-aged brandy distilled from peaches, as opposed to a sticky-sweet peach-flavored liqueur.

There’s a reason for this longevity: Fish House Punch is one of the most pleasant inebriants known to science. Definitely worth seceding over. 

 Fish House Punch

Fish house punch

Tea has always had a quiet place behind the bar. Long before cocktails became festival drinks and menu showpieces, punch bowls were already using tea to add depth, dryness and a little bit of mystery. It softens strong spirits, stretches fruit flavors and gives a drink the kind of roundness that makes people wonder what they are tasting.

The Peach Tea Sour is built on that idea. Cognac brings warmth and body, peach liqueur gives it soft stone-fruit sweetness, black tea adds structure, and lemon keeps everything fresh. The egg white turns it silky and gives it that proper sour-style foam. It sounds simple on paper, but in the glass it feels like iced tea dressed up for the VIP area.

peach tea sour

Peach Tea Sour

The Daiquiri is one of those drinks that proves a cocktail does not need to be complicated to become legendary. Born from the simple Caribbean combination of rum, lime and sugar, it became famous as a clean, sharp and elegant Cuban classic. Sailors had been mixing rum, citrus and sweetness long before anyone gave it a proper name, but the Daiquiri turned that survival drink into something worth ordering twice.

This frozen strawberry version takes that classic idea and sends it straight into summer festival territory. The lime keeps it bright, the rum keeps it honest, and the strawberries turn it into something dangerously easy to drink. It is not pretending to be a serious, quiet cocktail. It is cold, pink, loud enough for the afternoon sun, and exactly the kind of drink that disappears faster than expected.

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri

The Old Fashioned is arguably the most well-known whiskey cocktail in the world. 
Essentially just a slug of bourbon that’s been lightly sweetened with sugar and modified with a couple dashes of bitters, it’s dead simple to make, but within this basic template is a world of opinions and flavor. 

The Old Fashioned as we know it comes from an early mixed drink simply called the Whiskey Cocktail, thought to be popularized in the late 1700s when it was fashionable to add a few dashes of bitters to a glass of whiskey. The cocktail’s creation goes hand in hand with the proliferation of both whiskey and commercial bitters, an aromatic ingredient with medicinal origins that involved steeping herbs, barks, botanicals, and other plant extracts in spirits to create a curative that could be mixed with water or other ingredients, often to aid in digestion.

Old Fashioned

Old fashioned

Daisies are essentially a style of sour drink that's sweetened with a liqueur and/or flavored syrup, and topped with sparkling water. However, the drink's been around for 150 years and the template has evolved, so there's more to understanding the Daisy.

The Daisy cocktail, a classic sour with added orange liqueur and soda water, has a history rooted in the late 19th century and is considered a precursor to many modern cocktails. Its origins are often traced back to the late 1800s in Washington, D.C., with variations appearing in early cocktail books like Jerry Thomas's The Bartender's Guide. The Daisy's simple formula of base spirit, orange liqueur, citrus, and soda water has served as a template for numerous cocktails, including the Margarita and the Sidecar. 


Gin Daisy

 New Orleans has played a significant role in cocktail culture over the past century-plus. The City That Care Forgot has been responsible for classics like the Sazerac and Ramos Gin Fizz. Its contributions also include the Vieux Carré, which was first stirred to life during the 1930s by Walter Bergeron, a bartender at New Orleans’ legendary Carousel Bar (then known as the Swan Room) inside the Hotel Monteleone. Vieux Carré means “old square” in French and refers to the city’s French Quarter neighborhood.

Like so many classic cocktails from that city, the recipe represents the crosscurrents of America at the time: brandy and liqueur from France, vermouth from Italy, and rye whiskey from just up the Mississippi. The Vieux Carré is at once boozy, sweet, bitter and smooth—in other words, it’s New Orleans in a glass. 

Vieux Carré

This spin on an NY Sour celebrates the return of the best season with a bold mix of bourbon, crisp apple cider, zesty lemon, and warming ginger, crowned with a smooth red wine float.


Autumn Ember

A tall, long, refreshing mule style drink that mixes grassy tequila with full flavored blackcurrant liqueur and topped with fiery ginger beer.

The recipe first appeared in print as the Mexican El Diablo in Trader Vic’s Book of Food and Drink, which was published in 1946 and lists Vic as the drink’s creator (later recipes shortened the name to El Diablo, as it’s been known since). That first recipe called for ginger ale, and you can still opt for the gingery soda if you like. But ginger ale during this time period was spicier than most options available today, the former version having more in common with ginger beer. This recipe uses ginger beer to best recreate the cocktail’s traditional flavor. 

Eldiablo

El Diablo

The name Halekūlani is a combination of Hawaiian words (hale + kū + lani) meaning "House Befitting Heaven"

The Halekulani cocktail is a classic Hawaiian drink, created in the 1930s at the Halekulani Hotel's House Without a Key lounge in Waikiki. Unlike many tiki cocktails, which are rum-based, the Halekulani features bourbon as its base spirit. It's known for its refreshing, citrus-forward flavor profile, with a subtle sweetness derived from demerara syrup and a hint of grenadine. 


Halekulani

On paper, Penicillin(scotch) or the Gold Rush (bourbon) is a very simple drink. Composed of bourbon, honey syrup and fresh lemon juice, it’s essentially a Whiskey Sour with honey in place of sugar. This also essentially makes it a variation on the classic Bee’s Knees cocktail, but one that uses bourbon rather than gin. The interplay of whiskey and honey transforms the cocktail’s flavor and mouthfeel, making the Gold Rush a drink that transcends the sum of its parts.

The Gold Rush was first created at famed New York City bar Milk & Honey in the early 2000s, and became a staple of bars worldwide at such a pace that the cocktail is often commonly assumed to have been a pre-Prohibition classic, rather than a modern drink. But its appearance came at a time when new drinks were appearing all over the U.S. fueled by a new generation of craft bartenders experimenting with tweaks to classic cocktails. Newly available liqueurs were poured liberally, alternate base spirits were swapped into tried-and-true recipes, and rules were broken with regularity. 

Gold Rush

Penicillin

Irish bars are all about craic—Gaelic for banter, chit-chat, conversation, chin-wagging—so I won’t be trying to wow the punters by telling them when and how vermouth came into vogue in the U.S., changing the face of the cocktail scene forever (late-19th century, making the creation of the Manhattan and the Martini possible). That’s not the sort of thing that pub customers want to hear. In an Irish pub, it’s a case of who can spin the best tale, not “my gin’s drier than your gin.” It’s a case of craic over cocktails.

And it’s not about mixing fine drinks either. In an Irish pub, it’s all about a decent pint, tasty whiskey and engaging conversation. The bartender might be able to fix you a delicious Dubliner cocktail (a citrusy take on the Manhattan), and there’s a good chance that he or she will guide you toward a dram of something special that will knock your socks off, but that’s not really the point. Community, camaraderie and craic—that’s what an Irish pub is about. 

Dubliner

The Bee’s Knees is a Prohibition-era cocktail featuring gin, lemon juice and honey. The unique name is a convention of the time: The phrase “bee’s knees” was popular slang used to call something excellent or outstanding.

The drink is credited to Frank Meier, an Austrian-born bartender who plied his trade at the Hôtel Ritz Paris during the 1920s. It’s a simple extension of the classic Gin Sour (gin, lemon, sugar) that features honey instead of sugar. The honey creates a richer drink, and it may have been employed to mask the taste of subpar gin, which was prevalent at the time. 

Bee’s Knees


The Clover Club cocktail can be traced back to the late 1800s and Philadelphia’s Bellevue-Stratford hotel. This popular hangout drew crowds of writers, lawyers and titans of industry, who convened to talk about issues of the day. Naturally, their meetings included drinks, and the Clover Club with gin, fresh lemon juice, raspberry syrup and egg white was a favorite among this genteel set.

The pre-Prohibition classic is one of Philadelphia’s greatest contributions to cocktail history, but like many drinks of its day, the Clover Club all but disappeared for most of the 20th century. Eventually, it found its way back into rotation, helped in part by its appearance in modern cocktail books, including Gary Regan’s “Joy of Mixology.” Its resurgence was solidified in 2008, when Julie Reiner opened a cocktail bar in Brooklyn named for the classic drink. Naturally, the bar put a Clover Club on the menu, and the cocktail has remained there since. 

Clover Club

The Singapore Sling combines gin, Grand Marnier, cherry liqueur, herbal liqueur (often Benedictine), pineapple, lime, bitters and club soda. It was first created in the early 20th century at Long Bar in the Raffles hotel in Singapore.

The original recipe is attributed to Raffles bartender Ngiam Tong Boon and is a variant on the Gin Sling, a type of single-serving punch. The earliest published version of the recipe appeared in “The Savoy Cocktail Book,” a 1930 classic written by Harry Craddock. Subsequent recipes followed, and by 1948, David A. Embury states in his book “The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks” that no two published recipes for the Singapore Sling are the same. 

Singapore Sling

 Trinidad’s Queens Park Hotel may have closed in 1996, but its eponymous drink has endured well into the 21st century. It’s not hard to see why: The icy mix of demerara rum, mint, sugar, lime juice, and Angostura bitters has served as a delicious and eye-catching way to cool off since it debuted at the Port of Spain hotel in the early 20th century. Today, the drink is enjoyed on the island and beyond; the Trinidad-based House of Angostura has even angled to make it Trinidad and Tobago’s national drink. 

A refreshing interplay of rum, lime juice, sugar, and mint make the Queens Park Swizzle similar to the Mojito. In addition to those ingredients, however, it also calls for one of Trinidad’s most famous exports, Angostura bitters, yielding a more aromatic and flavorful drink. It also employs demerara rum rather than the light rum called for in a Mojito. The former is distilled a boat ride away from Trinidad in the country of Guyana, using sugarcane grown on the banks of the Demerara River. (Guyana had a more established rum industry at the time of the drink’s invention.) Known for its rich, earthy, caramelly, and slightly smoky flavors, demerara rum is perhaps most comparable to Jamaican rum; reach for a high-quality bottle such as El Dorado.  

Of course, half the fun of the Queens Park Swizzle is its dramatic green, gold, and red layers. The swizzle method will ensure the muddled mint stays packed at the bottom, and adding the four dashes of bitters after mounding the drink with ice produces the top red layer.  

Queens Park Swizzle

The Dark ’n Stormy is a delicious, easy-to-make cocktail that features a refreshing trio of dark rum, ginger beer and lime. It also goes down a lot easier than the moody name might imply. It’s a close cousin to the Moscow Mule (vodka, ginger beer, lime) and should be an easy transition for vodka drinkers wanting to try something new, but also familiar. 

The popular cocktail can be found all over the world, from craft cocktail bars and chain restaurants to island hideaways. Its origin, like that of many drinks, is a bit hazy, though it’s likely that rum and ginger beer were first combined by sailors who enjoyed the obvious benefits of rum and the stomach-settling qualities of ginger. But Dark ’n Stormy’s direct lineage can be traced squarely to one island in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Dark & Stormy

Dark 'N' Stormy

 The Whiskey Smash made its recipe-book debut in the 1887 edition of “The Bartenders Guide” by Jerry Thomas, though variations of this fruit-and-whiskey concoction were likely made for decades prior to this inclusion. After all, bartenders and drinkers had been making juleps since the 1700s, and the citrusy Whiskey Sour was already in rotation when the Whiskey Smash came onto the scene.

A good smash requires a good muddler. You want to compress the lemon wedges to release not only their juices, but also the oils in the peel, which creates a richer taste when combined with the whiskey and sugar. Adding a few fresh mint leaves to the shaker (Mr. Thomas specifically calls for spearmint) lends cooling minty notes.

Legendary bartender Dale DeGroff, aka King Cocktail, began serving Whiskey Smashes at the Rainbow Room in New York when he was behind the bar during the late 1980s and 1990s, which helped to popularize and reintroduce this classic to modern drinkers. He made his version with bourbon, muddled lemon wedges and mint. Most recipes call for bourbon, but rye and even Canadian whiskies also create a fine drink. 

Bourbon Smash

Spirit, citrus and sugar are the trinity that combine to form the classic sour, one of the oldest types of cocktails. One of the most popular members of this group, the Whiskey Sour, has sated thirsty drinkers for more than one and a half centuries. It’s unknown exactly when the cocktail was conceived (or who was the architect), but its history stretches back to at least the administration of Abraham Lincoln, and the first printed recipe appeared circa 1862 in Jerry Thomas's famed book The Bar-Tenders Guide.

The Whiskey Sour was traditionally made with whiskey, lemon juice, sugar and egg white, an ingredient that tames the tart flavor and creates a richer, smoother texture. Today the egg is optional, and it’s often more common to find bars serving Whiskey Sours without egg white. But if you want to taste the original incarnation of the drink, and put a little protein in your system, give it a try. 

Whiskey sour

 The El Presidente cocktail hails from Cuba and was created in the early 1900s. It was likely named for President Mario García Menocal, who ran the country from 1913 to 1921.

During that time, Cuba was a popular vacation spot for U.S. citizens, and that popularity only grew after Prohibition was enacted, when thirsty yankees flocked to Havana for good weather and also good cocktails. Among those cocktails: the Mojito and Daiquiri, which are two of the island nation’s most famous contributions to drinking. But don’t overlook the El Presidente, a classic in its own right that is made with white rum, orange curaçao, French dry vermouth and grenadine.

This recipe comes from acclaimed bartender and spirits pro Simon Ford. It yields a tasty, well-balanced cocktail, but the El Presidente has changed through the years, with many bartenders and drinkers tweaking the formula.

El Presidente

Recipe adapted from If Crab No Walk: A Traveller in the West Indies, a 1932 book written by British travel writer Owen Rutter, who writes of the Queen's Park Hotel, Port of Spain, Trinidad, "The cooking is good; the servants, though slow, are attentive; there is an excellent ballroom, a first-rate band, and a good bar: 'the Long Bar with the Brass Rail,' where you may drink the Queen's Park Hotel Super Cocktail."

The Queen's Park Hotel Super Cocktail

The 20th Century Cocktail features gin, Lillet blanc, white creme de cacao and lemon juice. According to William J. Tarling’s 1937 “Cafe Royal Cocktail Book,” it was created by British bartender C.A. Tuck and named for the luxurious 20th Century Limited passenger train that ran between New York City and Chicago from 1902 to 1967.

At first glance, the ingredients comprising the drink may seem strange. Gin’s dry nature and botanical flavor profile pair perfectly with Lillet blanc, a light and floral aromatized wine. But creme de cacao (a chocolate-flavored liqueur) and tart lemon juice do not scream synergy. However, something magical happens when you merge everything. The Lillet blanc softens the gin, while the creme de cacao adds a touch of sweetness that’s balanced by the lemon juice. And when you break down the recipe, it’s really just a riff on the Corpse Reviver No. 2, with the creme de cacao taking the place of the orange liqueur. 

The 20th Century

The Blue Lagoon is probably the most famous cocktail with blue curaçao. A beautiful summery long drink cocktail with the clarity of a tropical lagoon and the taste of a fresh breeze! This blue summer cocktail is a trip down memory lane. 

It’s believed that the Blue Lagoon was created by Andy MacElhone, the son of famed bartender Harry MacElhone, at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in the 1960s or early 1970s. So, the drink predates the 1980 movie of the same name. 

Blue Lagoon cocktail

Blue Lagoon

 The Bramble is one of those cocktails that feels like a century-old classic. It looks the part, and every good barkeep knows how to make one.

But the drink wasn’t first invented until 1984, when Dick Bradsell (whose resume also includes the Espresso Martini) mixed this modern-classic at Fred’s Club in London’s Soho neighborhood. It’s one of that decade’s best success stories, standing apart from the era’s provocatively named drinks that eschewed fresh ingredients in favor of bottled, neon-hued mixers.

The Bramble was named for the bush that blackberries grow on and was inspired by the fresh berries that Bradsell picked as a child on the Isle of Wight. After receiving some creme de mure (a blackberry liqueur) for the bar, Bradsell began experimenting and came on a combination of gin, fresh lemon juice, simple syrup and creme de mure that was part Gin Sour and part Singapore Sling. He shook up the ingredients, then strained them over crushed ice to tame the sweetness. 

Bramble

 The Corpse Reviver No. 2 is a classic drink that belongs to a family of pre-Prohibition cocktails that were said to be created and consumed for the chief purpose of rousing the drinker from the dead—in other words, meant to cure hangovers, increase vigor and otherwise improve one’s morning.

Corpse Revivers can be traced back to at least the 1870s, with many lost to the ravages of time. This version is the best known recipe, although the Corpse Reviver No. 1 (cognac, Calvados, sweet vermouth) is still in rotation today and enjoys occasional placement on bar menus. 

Corpse Reviver nr.2

 The recipe can be traced back to at least 1916, when it appeared in Huge Enslinn’s book “Recipes for Mixed Drinks” as the South Side Fizz. His version called for gin, lemon and lime juices, sugar, mint and club soda. Lose the bubbles and cull one of the citrus fruits, and you get the South Side as we know it today.

Multiple accounts peg the South Side’s creation to the 21 Club in New York, a bar that poured countless South Sides throughout the decades. But considering that the first iteration of the famous speakeasy didn’t open until 1922, it’s more likely that the bar popularized the drink rather than invented it.

Browse South Side recipes at cocktail bars today, and you will find some drinks made with lemon and others with lime. This citrusy kerfuffle may stem from Enslinn’s recipe containing both juices

Southside Cocktail

The history of this cocktail is a bit of a mystery. Jeff “Beach bum” Barry attributes it to other cocktail riffs centered around the popular 1950’s cannibal theme in tiki bars. Still others believe its from the Mai Kai bar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Shrunken Skull

The Jungle Bird cocktail dates back to the 1970s, when it was served as a welcome drink to visitors of the former Kuala Lumpur Hilton, which opened in 1973. The cocktail was crafted by Jeffrey Ong inside the hotel’s Aviary Bar, hence the drink’s name, and the Jungle Bird is said to have been served inside a porcelain bird-shaped vessel. 

The Jungle Bird made its recipe-book debut in 1989, when it appeared in “The New American Bartender’s Guide” by John J. Poister. It was later cataloged in Jeff “Beachbum” Berry’s book “Intoxica,” first published in 2002. Despite the drink’s popularity in Malaysia and its recipe having been recorded for posterity, the drink took a few decades to gain traction outside its home country. But today, the Jungle Bird is a fixture on Tiki bar menus and cocktail bar menus, and it has even inspired the names of bars in multiple cities, including New York and Sacramento.

Transport yourself back to 1970s Malaysia. Or to your favorite local cocktail bar, which is likely to be serving a Jungle Bird of its own. 

Jungle Bird

 The Mai Tai is one of the most famous Tiki drinks in the world. Composed of rum, orange curaçao, fresh lime juice and orgeat (a nuanced almond syrup), it’s held sway over cocktail enthusiasts and Tiki aficionados for decades. It even enjoyed a star turn in the Elvis film “Blue Hawaii.”

Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron is often credited with inventing the drink at his Trader Vic’s bar in the 1940s, though it’s likely that Donn Beach laid the groundwork for the famous recipe during the 1930s at his Don the Beachcomber bar. The original Trader Vic’s recipe featured Jamaica’s J. Wray & Nephew rum. Once Bergeron ran out of his supply, he moved to blending rums in an attempt to create a similar flavor profile. 

Mai Tai

The Moscow Mule is a classic combination of vodka, ginger beer, and lime. Known for it's iconic copper mug, the drink's enduring popularity has left it as a mainstay in bars since the mid-20th century. Despite its name, the Moscow Mule was actually invented in Los Angeles as part of an early stateside marketing push for vodka, and the drink itself is considered an example of the Buck family of drinks—those that include a spirit with citrus and ginger beer.
The History of the Moscow Mule

The Moscow Mule is a mid-century classic that was born in 1941 and helped contribute to vodka’s rise in America. As the legend goes, it was concocted by two men. John Martin needed to sell Smirnoff vodka, a new and generally unknown spirit during the middle of the 20th century that his distribution company had recently purchased. Another man, bar owner Jack Morgan, wanted to deplete the stash of ginger beer taking up space at his Cock ‘n’ Bull pub. They decided to combine the two ingredients with a little lime, and the rest is history.

Moscow Mule

The Sidecar, with a century of history behind it, is probably the most famous of all classic cognac drinks, and it remains a favorite today. The tart, dry cocktail features cognac, orange liqueur and fresh lemon juice, plus a sugared rim, and it’s a direct descendant of the Brandy Crusta, an old New Orleans cocktail that has enjoyed something of a comeback in recent years.

The Sidecar was likely invented around World War I. It graced the pages of two books in 1922: “Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails” by Harry MacElhone and “Cocktails and How to Mix Them” by Robert Vermeire. Both books listed the recipe with equal parts cognac, Cointreau and lemon juice, but subsequent versions altered the ratios, calling for two parts cognac, one part Cointreau and one part lemon. The latter formula is still common today and is used for this recipe.

The sugared rim is optional when making a Sidecar, but considering that this cocktail lands on the drier side of the sweetness spectrum, a few sugar granules with each sip provide a welcome treat.

How the Sidecar got its name is a source of debate: Both a French and English bar claim to have invented the cocktail for a customer who arrived at the location in the sidecar of a motorcycle. That seems plausible enough. 

Sidecar

The Margarita is one of the most popular cocktails in North America—for good reason.

Combining the tang of lime and the sweetness of orange liqueur with tequila's distinctive flavor profile, the classic Margarita remains one of the most recognizable and timeless examples of the sour category of cocktails. 

What’s less certain, however, is the drink’s origin. 

Some say the cocktail was invented in 1948 in Acapulco, Mexico, when a Dallas socialite combined blanco tequila with Cointreau and lime juice for her guests. Others say that the Margarita, which translates to daisy flower in Spanish, was an inevitable twist on the earlier Daisy cocktail, another category of drinks that follows a template of spirit, citrus, orange liqueur and soda. Make one with tequila, leave out the soda, and you get a Margarita. But regardless of how or when it was invented, the Margarita has earned its way into drinkers’ hearts. 

Margarita

Though modern variations come in many forms, the original Espresso Martini is a simple combination of vodka, espresso, and coffee liqueur. The drink originated in the 1980s and has seen its popularity vary wildly in the decades since, from one of the most visible representations of the pre-Millennium ’tini era, to a forgotten punchline, followed by a massive resurgence in recent years, almost four decades since its first creation.

The most common telling of the drink’s origins is that the Espresso Martini was created in 1983 by London-based bartender Dick Bradsell at Fred’s Club. 

As the famous story goes, Bradsell was asked by a well-known model to make something that would “wake me up and fuck me up".

Martini espresso

Espresso Martini

Sweet, and refreshing! The Port Light cocktail is one all your guests will love. The sweetness of the passion fruit syrup and the grenadine ae rounded out by the tartness of the lemon juice and the spices in the rum. This blend makes for the perfect sipper in any occasion.

Original served in a Port Light glass, which resembles a rounded lantern with red glass and gold trim; the same glass in green is called a Starboard Light glass. 

Port Light

 Sloes are tiny berries that grow wild in hedgerows around England. Unpleasantly astringent on their own, they are popular in sweetened jams and preserves, and they develop a rich, tart flavor when infused in gin. Naturally, enterprising distillers have been incorporating them into liquor since the 17th century. The spirit takes on the essence and bright color of the berries, and then sugar is typically added to counter the fruit’s tartness. What’s left is not technically gin, but actually a gin-based liqueur.

To experience the authentic flavor of sloe berries, use a British-style sloe gin, such as Plymouth, Hayman’s or Sipsmith. Most sloe gins are less boozy than their unflavored counterparts, and it’s common for them to clock in around 25% to 30% ABV.

The British traditionally used sloe gin in wintry drinks, but it’s become most famous for its turn in America’s refreshing Sloe Gin Fizz, where it’s paired with club soda, citrus and simple syrup. This synergistic combo yields a cocktail that is sharp and quaffable, with sloe gin’s characteristic reddish purple hue.

The Sloe Gin Fizz is certainly the most famous and craft-focused cocktail to utilize the colorful spirit, but sloe gin can also be found in ’80s-era favorites like the Alabama Slammer. However, while that college staple may feature the liqueur, it doesn’t highlight it front-and-center like the fizz. 

Sloe Gin Fizz

The Blinker was first mentioned in print in Patrick Gavin Duffy’s 1934 bartending book The Official Mixer’s Manual and was resurrected in Ted Haigh’s 2009 Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. 

It’s a simple and elegant concoction, essentially a variation on a classic Whiskey Sour and a close cousin to the Ward Eight. The drink’s original incarnation called for rye whiskey, grapefruit juice, and grenadine, a common cocktail sweetener made with pomegranate juice. In recent years, however, fans of the cocktail have found that substituting raspberry syrup instead renders a far more delicious version of the drink.  

Blinker

Adapted from a recipe created in 2004 by Jeffrey Morgenthaler at Bel Ami Lounge in Eugene, Oregon. Jeff named this cocktail after a band his  business partner, Tony Figoli, was in years before, saying "I thought the name was absolutely brilliant, so I decided to do up a drink to commemorate the band – and my favorite spirit at the time."

Bourbon Renewal

 The Vesper, also known as the Vesper Martini, was invented by author Ian Fleming for his iconic British secret agent, James Bond. The drink first appeared in Fleming's Casino Royale, which was published in 1953, the cocktail being named for the fictional double agent (and Bond love-interest) Vesper Lynd.

When Bond orders his signature drink from the bartender, he provides strict instructions, which leaves little ambiguity in how to prepare the cocktail: “A dry martini. One. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.”

While a general bartending rule of thumb is to always stir a spirit-only cocktail like a Martini, there's an argument to be made in support of (the now-iconic) shaking of a Vesper. Given that the drink contains four ounces of liquor, along with an extra half-ounce of Lillet, the drink is functionally a double. In order to make a palatable drink, the added water dilution from shaking can be preferable to that achieved by stirring.

It may also serve a broader literary purpose of portraying Bond as a hard-drinking secret agent who chose to take his drinks exceedingly strong and shaken until they were so cold that the alcohol couldn't be felt as it went down.

Bond claims that, when he’s concentrating, he never has more than one drink before dinner. But he likes that one drink to be very large. It’s easy to appreciate such a loophole. But if you want a less boozy drink, you can dial back the volume while keeping the proportions intact. 

Vesper

Vesper (Martini)

 Bacardi brand ambassador Jacob Briars created the Corpse Reviver No. Blue as a joke, but it’s become a popular order, so he gets the last laugh. It is essentially the same drink as a Corpse Reviver No. 2, but it swaps out orange-flavored Cointreau in favor of orange-flavored blue curaçao—hence the name and the color. His homage to the classic offered a playful nod to the self-serious industry and proved that blue drinks could be craft-focused and delicious.

The Corpse Reviver No. Blue is produced in the same way as the non-blue original. Absinthe is used sparingly; rather than going straight into the shaker, it rinses the glass, lending hints of its anise flavor and aroma without overpowering the cocktail. The gin, lemon juice, Lillet Blanc and curaçao are shaken with ice and strained into that absinthe-rinsed glass, and a lemon twist is applied as the finishing touch.

Corpse Revivers were originally designed to jumpstart one’s morning, so don’t hesitate to serve this drink after a long night. Make it for someone who likes blue cocktails, or make it for someone who professes to hate blue cocktails. Chances are strong they’ll both enjoy it. 

THE CORPSE REVIVER No. BLUE RECIPE

The Corpse Reviver No. Blue

The Pegu Club’s origins date back to the early 20th Century, and to the club of the same name located just outside of Rangoon in what is now called Myanmar. Like many British social clubs in southeast Asia, the Pegu Club was a product of imperialism, a place for British officials to enjoy some libations in their newly colonized territory. Its signature cocktail borrowed the name, at least when it was published in the famed “Savoy Cocktail Book” by Harry Craddock.

As for the drink itself, it’s essentially a Gin Sour but without the egg whites and with the addition of bitters. Rather than simple syrup, the Pegu Club takes the Sidecar route and uses triple sec for sweetness and additional citrus notes.

Pegu Club

Pegu club

The modern Daiquiri is thought by many to have been invented around 1898 in a mining village situated near beach of the same name on the southeastern tip of Cuba, just east of the city of Santiago de Cuba. One popular telling credits the Daiquiri’s creation to an American mining engineer named Jennings Cox, and a U.S. Navy medical officer who brought Cox’s recipe from Cuba to Washington, D.C., popularizing it stateside.

However, given the drink’s simple combination of three staple ingredients of the Caribbean, it’s likely similar combinations predate this story. Grog, a drink favored by British sailors that involved watered-down rum rations which were often combined with lime and sugar to create a palatable way to combat scurvy, predate Cox’s creations by at least 150 years. 

MOJITO

ADIOS MOTHERFUCKER

FISH HOUSE PUNCH

PEACH TEA SOUR

FROZEN STRAWBERRY DAIQUIRI

OLD FASHIONED

GIN DAISY

VIEUX CARRÉ

AUTUMN EMBER

EL DIABLO

HALEKULANI

PENICILLIN

DUBLINER

BEE’S KNEES

CLOVER CLUB

SINGAPORE SLING

QUEENS PARK SWIZZLE

DARK 'N' STORMY

BOURBON SMASH

WHISKEY SOUR

EL PRESIDENTE

THE QUEEN'S PARK HOTEL SUPER COCKTAIL

THE 20TH CENTURY

BLUE LAGOON

BRAMBLE

CORPSE REVIVER NR.2

SOUTHSIDE COCKTAIL

SHRUNKEN SKULL

JUNGLE BIRD

MAI TAI

MOSCOW MULE

SIDECAR

MARGARITA

ESPRESSO MARTINI

PORT LIGHT

SLOE GIN FIZZ

BLINKER

BOURBON RENEWAL

VESPER (MARTINI)

THE CORPSE REVIVER NO. BLUE

PEGU CLUB

DAIQUIRI