Cocktails
658 recipes found
Red Hot Ale
Cocoa-Currant Cocktail
Arrows Restaurant in Ogunquit, Me., had a request for a signature wedding cocktail utilizing cocoa powder. The bartender devised one in which gin is shaken with red currant sorbet and cocoa-infused simple syrup, then served in a glass rimmed with cocoa powder. It’s a lively, complex drink — a far cry from the weak gin-and-tonics that once defined wedding reception drinking.
Dubonnet Cocktail
Now that a reformulated Dubonnet has been introduced in the United States, a cocktail is in order. The most famous one is this mix of Dubonnet and London dry gin; this recipe is endorsed by Lynn House, a bartender and brand representative for Heaven Hill, the distiller that makes Dubonnet in the United States. She helped reconfigure the American recipe for Dubonnet. This cocktail is a bit stronger than that reportedly preferred by Queen Elizabeth II, who opts for two parts Dubonnet to one part gin. The recipe works equally well on the rocks. Another old cocktail that once went by the same name calls for dry sherry instead of gin. It is also worth a try.
Cartagena Limeade
Flutemaginley Cider Punch
This recipe, from the cocktail writer David Wondrich, is adapted from the “Steward and Barkeeper’s Manual,” a cocktail book from 1869. The punch may have been named after Tim “Flute” Maginley, a New York flutist of the 1860s. It can be scaled up as needed.
Yukon Cornelius
The bartender Natasha David likes to create beer cocktails because she doesn’t like beer and wants to “make it taste better.” With this drink, she did so by combining it with a sprawling and unlikely array of flavors: herbal aquavit, sweet peach liqueur, spicy ginger syrup and smoky mezcal. The flavorful result is bright, fruity and unexpected.
Grasshopper
The Grasshopper served at Dante, a New York City cocktail bar, is a fairly straightforward affair, calling on the crème de menthe, crème de cacao and cream demanded by the drink’s classic formula. To this, Dante adds an extra dose of both mint and chocolate flavor. The mint comes in the form of Branca Menta, the minty cousin to the Italian amaro Fernet Branca. Meanwhile, a slight shower of shaved chocolate on the drink’s surface crowns the cocktail. Be sure the crème de menthe brand you end up using is of the green variety, and not the clear. The color of the cocktail, said Linden Pride, an owner of Dante, is “part of its success story; it catches people’s attention.”
What-You-Will Punch
I named this punch after the subtitle of Shakespeare’s comedy “Twelfth Night”: A wonderfully boozy play merits a suitably potent (and fun) drink. The whiskey-based punch includes nutmeg and cinnamon, flavors that evoke the winter holiday from which the play takes its title — but it’s delicious any time of year. Be sure to prepare the oleo-saccharum in advance.
Deathbed Manhattan
Allen Katz, founder of the New York Distilling Company in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, spent years worrying over his first rye whiskey, tasting and testing it until it was ripe for bottling. So it only makes sense that he would fuss over the manhattan recipe that uses his new Ragtime Rye. After some tests, he settled on splitting the vermouth component between two products: the bolder, fruitier Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth and the more complex, dry, herbaceous Punt e Mes. Otherwise, it’s a straightforward version of this classic cocktail, which traditionally called for rye. And it lives up to its name: It’s so good, you may request it as your final drink.
Pork Margarita
Harvest Sling
Vietnamese Sangria
Caesar Cocktail
Sometimes it seems there are as many Caesar recipes as there are Canadians of drinking age. The building blocks are usually the same: vodka, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, spices (for the rim of the glass) and clam-tomato juice, be it the standard Mott’s Clamato or one of the newer brands. But every bar and citizen has a special twist, usually in the departments of spices and garnish. This recipe is an adaptation of the one used by the bartender London Richard at his restaurant Sorso, near Calgary, Alberta. For vodka, he prefers Calgary’s own Burwood Vodka. For the spiced rim, the nationally popular mix known as Montreal steak spice plays a part. The garnish is a pickled pineapple and a bacon-wrapped, cream-cheese stuffed pickle. This version is a bit less complicated. But since a Caesar is a form of individual expression, follow your creative urge wherever it takes you. As long as you’ve got the Clamato and a decently complex spiced rim, you’ll end up with a wonderfully savory eye-opener that may render the Bloody Mary a dim memory.
Scotland Yard
Zin Cup
The Zin Cup is a sort of British sangria in which Pimm’s is mixed with red zinfandel and ginger beer. Sprightly and a little cheeky, the drink has been the top seller at Nios since its opening.
Pickled Cocktail Onions
This flavorsome — and relatively fast — recipe comes from Los Angeles-based bartender Gabriella Mlynarczyk. Pickled onions are the classic garnish for the Gibson cocktail, but if you love these briny, crunchy, little alliums as much as I do, you might find yourself tossing them into your gin and tonics and vodka and sodas, too (and adding them to cornichons and mustard as accoutrements for pâté).
The Bone
Peppadew Martini
Scirocco Punch
This is a gentle-tasting but fully potent punch made with Cognac, maraschino, lime and nutmeg. It’s a concoction meant to celebrate the waning days of summer, the weeks before you put away the grill and pull out your sweaters. Pair it with savory grilled lamb and a salad, and you’ve got an end of summer feast.
Spiked Market Cider
This cider-based cocktail from Union Square Cafe in New York has seasonal allure. It’s lip-smacking and attractive. They make vats of it in the restaurant and keep it chilled, but the recipe is easily to scaled down to reproduce at home. Come spring you might replace the Demerara syrup with maple syrup.
Green Tea Punch
This rum-based drink is made with lime juice and freshly brewed hot Sencha tea and Moroccan mint green tea.
Sparkling Mango
Pirlo
Like Andrea Pirlo, the celebrated Italian midfielder with whom it shares its name, the drink called Pirlo comes from Brescia, in northern Italy. But I can’t think of an aperitivo hour anywhere where it would not be perfectly at home. My friend Damiano Abeni, also a Brescian, introduced me to the Pirlo in Rome. It’s the easiest thing ever to make: Stripped to its essentials, the drink simply combines Campari with sparkling white Italian wine. But Damiano specifically uses Pignoletto frizzante (“NO PROSECCO allowed,” he wrote to me by email, caps his), and prefers to garnish with half a slice of Sicilian blood orange of the Tarocco variety. He favors 2-3 parts of wine to one part Campari, allowing that one “can play with the proportions,” and that in warm weather, ice may be added — but for Damiano, the addition of ice usually means “more Campari.” Unsurprisingly, he forgoes the club soda — but you may wish to add some if you like extra fizz (and lower alcohol).
