Cocktails
658 recipes found
Negroni Mela
This apple-centric twist on the Negroni comes from the bartender Jacques Bezuidenhout. He created it for the opening gala of the Manhattan Cocktail Classic, a bygone cocktail convention, and thus had the Big Apple on his mind. Wanting the drink to speak its native language, Mr. Bezuidenhout gave it the Italian word for apple.
Bourbon: Old-Fashioned
This simply made and elegant cocktail focuses on the flavor of the bourbon, so keep that in mind when shopping for booze because bad-tasting liquor makes a lousy drink. Still, that doesn’t mean that you have to break the bank.
Brachetto Holiday Punch
The Southern Slope
This recipe, from Julie Reiner of the Clover Club in Brooklyn, is a bourbon Manhattan, sweetened up with apricot and smoothed out with vermouth. It’s a strong one, and it goes down easily. (The New York Times)
Lazy Madame
Fountain of Youth
Ice Queen
Natasha David has served a wide variety of spritzes at her Lower East Side bar, Nitecap, since it opened in 2014. Some she delivered in the fashion of a standard cocktail — that is, chilled but iceless. Despite its name, that is the case with this bright and sparkling take on the classic daiquiri. Fragrant crème de menthe and the light flavor of the muddled cucumber give the drink an additional garden freshness.
Live Basil Gimlet
Sidecar
Brooklyn
Frank of America
NoMad Espresso Martini
The espresso martini, made with vodka, coffee liqueur and fresh coffee, has became a global sensation since it was invented in the 1980s by British bartender Dick Bradsell. At the NoMad Bar in Manhattan, it is one of the most popular cocktails on the menu. But Nathan McCarley-O’Neill, the bar director, has put his own stamp on the recipe, including cold brew liqueur, cold brew concentrate and a touch of aquavit. “By using a concentrate, we reduced the amount of water and dilution being added to the cocktail,” he said. “This meant that the espresso martini had a distinct freshness to it.” For the NoMad drink, Mr. McCarley-O’Neill makes his own concentrate, but for home bartender purposes, a high-quality purchased brand like Stumptown can be substituted. The drops of saline solution — a common trick that cocktail bartenders have been employing for more than a decade — serve to bring out the drink’s innate flavors.
Hemingway Daiquiri
Amaretto Sour
Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the bar manager of Pépé Le Moko and Clyde Common in Portland, Ore., enjoyed amaretto sours as a young man. As a bartender, he embarked on a project to make a better version of this often-mocked drink, which was typically composed of just amaretto and sour mix. He boosted the alcoholic strength by mixing in nearly a full ounce of overproof bourbon, replaced the sour mix with real lemon juice and added an egg white — a common ingredient in many sour recipes from the past. Given all the alterations, he might have given the cocktail a new name, but decided against that. “There wouldn’t have been any point,” he said. “There’s a big difference between if I took this drink and made it good, and if I invented a new drink with amaretto. The latter wouldn’t have the same gravitas.”
Throat Coat
Concord Grape Mint Julep
Last Word
Journalist
Fade to Black
A spin on the old drink category of the flip — which involves the use of a whole egg — the Fade to Black illustrates the potential versatility of cocktails using beer. Rich, dessertlike and potent, this is that rare beast: an after-dinner beer cocktail. Using raw egg has become a common practice in cocktail bars over the past decade. There is no good substitute for the texture and flavor that a raw egg lends, so readers who fear contamination may want to refrain.
Fair Play
This light-bodied, low-in-alcohol, aperitif-style cocktail from Natasha David shows off the benefits of its collection of disparate ingredients. The Lillet assumes easy, refreshing drinking; the Suze and vermouth lend a slight bitterness and subtle complexity; and the bourbon anchors it all. The marmalade, meanwhile, nods to brunch, and may make you hunger for a bit of food.
Vieux Carré
The Bramble
The bramble, invented in 1984 by Dick Bradsell, the patriarch of England’s cocktail uptick, at Fred’s Club in London’s SoHo, is essentially a short gin sour with a drizzle of crème de mûre, a French blackberry liqueur, over the top. Served on crushed ice, it gets a quick garnish of a lemon slice and, to be true to Bradsell’s original, two blackberries. In the winter there’s nothing to this, and the drink is great as is. But something as elemental as the bramble invites toying, and with summer’s berries arriving, you can up the ante in one of many.
Classic Eggnog
Aaron Goldfarb, a liquor writer who was raised Jewish, was not introduced to the joys of eggnog until he married a woman who loved Christmas. Making a batch of homemade eggnog became his self-designated duty at their annual Christmas party in Park Slope, Brooklyn. For the spirits, Mr. Goldfarb prefers Maker’s Mark or another bourbon with a heavy wheat content, which lends sweetness. He also cautions against using spiced rum, as he feels the spirits involved already possess enough intrinsic baking-spice qualities. Mr. Goldfarb loves a slightly aged nog; see Tip for his advice.
Los Amores
This vibrant, ruby-red cocktail — devised for Valentine’s Day by Bien Trucha, a group of Mexican restaurants in the suburbs of Chicago — is a superb opener for an intimate dinner. But there’s no need to limit the drink to one annual event. Serve it at Mother’s Day; it’s actually mild enough for brunch. It also suits an anniversary party, a summertime celebration and — prepared in a generous quantity to fill a punch bowl — one of December’s festive occasions. It’s easily made. The drink was inspired by the classic Kir Royale (Champagne and cassis) though a variation that suggests a margarita is another option: Replace the strawberries with a couple of blood orange segments and use a triple-sec liqueur instead of the cassis. Garnish it with a blood orange segment.