Cocktails
658 recipes found

The Marea
A signature drink from the Manhattan restaurant Marea, this concoction was meant to evoke an underwater garden in a glass. It uses grappa, lemon-flavored Acqua di Cedro liqueur, passion fruit and preserved wild hibiscus flowers from Australia, which are jarred in syrup and sold by wholesalers and at specialty food stores. The deep magenta blossoms are edible, a chewy mouthful of sweet rhubarb and berry. The hibiscus petals unfurl with the rush of alcohol, swaying like the tentacles of a sea anemone bobbing in the ocean’s current.

1958: Eggnog
This recipe appeared in The Times in an article by Craig Claiborne. As Freeman pointed out, ''It's important to get good farm-fresh eggs, with really orange yolks and really thick cream; these are the main constituents of the drink.'' Halve the recipe for a smaller gathering.

Butterscotch Scotch Eggnog
In this recipe, the smoky Scotch makes the eggnog more complex and gives it a savory taste, which goes nicely with the caramelized flavor of the brown sugar. If you’re wary of using raw eggs, here’s a version with a cooked custard base.

Basil Paloma
As with most highballs, there’s no harm done in playing with garnishes and aromatics. I love the way basil interacts with grapefruit (I often chiffonade a few leaves to festoon a broiled grapefruit half at breakfast), so I’ve found that muddling a segment of the fruit with a few bright, fresh basil leaves is a good foundation for a Paloma. And as with the margarita, you may opt for salt on the rim of your glass — or not.

Cantina Band
My favorite amaro cocktail was at Perla in Greenwich Village, where I ordered a Cantina Band with some suspicion. A highball with gin and ginger beer as its main components, it also listed lime, cucumber and Fernet, the bitterest of all the amari, among its ingredients. What arrived tasted like the love child of a Pimm’s Cup and a Dark and Stormy. The cough syrup flavor was drowned in a sea of lime and ginger. What remained was a drink as fresh as a breeze on a calm summer sea.

Take 3

Dry Rye Manhattan

Cooked Butterscotch Scotch Eggnog

Lemon Daiquiri
Is a daiquiri a daiquiri only if it includes lime? Nope. Even bars in Cuba, the drink’s homeland, play pretty fast and loose with daiquiri variations. The lime shortage of 2014 inspired me to try it with lemon instead, and the result is bracing and a little disorienting (in a good way) — like a union between a traditional daiquiri and a Tom Collins. And I like what the distinctive funkiness of rhum agricole adds to the drink. Swap in different fresh, seasonal citrus juices whenever the mood strikes (but adjust the amount of simple syrup accordingly, as other fruits are inherently sweeter than lemons). I’m thinking a daiquiri with clementine juice will hit the spot come winter.
