Recipes

Greyhound Cocktail

The Greyhound is a two-part classic drink that you can make as quickly as you think. Composed of gin or vodka and grapefruit juice, this cocktails is simple and refreshing—just what you need on a warm day or whenever you’re drinking before noon.

The Greyhound’s first known mention arrived thanks to bartender and author Harry Craddock’s “Savoy Cocktail Book,” a classic tome that was published in 1930. Today, it’s common to see both spirits Vodka and Gin employed in the Greyhound, so try both and see which one you prefer. But be sure to choose a high-quality base spirit.

Over the decades, many bars have used canned grapefruit juice in their Greyhounds. This is an option, of course, but fresh juice gives the drink a more refreshing kick. Using fresh grapefruit in the Greyhound results in a cocktail that is perfect for breakfast, brunch and midday pick-me-ups. Fortunately, one grapefruit yields a lot of juice, so you often only need one to make the cocktail.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 oz Vodka
  • 4 oz fresh grapefruit juice
  • Lemon or Lime slice, for garnish

Steps

  • Gather the ingredients.
  • Pour the vodka and grapefruit juice into a collins glass filled with ice cubes.
  • Stir well.
  • Garnish with a lemon or lime wedge.
  • Serve and enjoy!

Amaretto Sour

Amaretto (Italian for “a little bitter”) is a sweet Italian liqueur that originated in Saronno. While originally flavoured from bitter almonds, various modern commercial brands are prepared from a base of apricot stones, peach stones, or almonds, all of which are natural sources of the benzaldehyde that provides the principal almond-like flavour of the liqueur.

Well, now’s the time to try your hand at a new cocktail, a deliciously refreshing Amaretto sour. The “sour” element comes from two types of citrus, freshly-squeezed lemon juice and a slice of orange. Garnish with a cherry for a pretty presentation.

You can find almond flavor a little overpowering. The secret? Balance it out with bourbon! The bourbon whiskey provides just the right notes of oak, vanilla and caramel to balance the almond notes, plus egg white for a dash of body and a silky texture. It makes for a rich and complex flavored drink!

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces amaretto liqueur
  • 3/4 ounce cask-proof bourbon
  • 1 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed
  • 1 teaspoon rich simple syrup
  • 1/2 ounce egg white
  • Garnish: lemon twist
  • Garnish: 2 brandied cherries

Steps

  1. Add all ingredients into a shaker and dry-shake (no ice).
  2. Add ice and shake again until well-chilled.
  3. Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.
  4. Garnish with a lemon twist and 2 skewered brandied cherries.

Classic Negroni

The Negroni is a popular Italian cocktail, made of one part gin, one part vermouth rosso (red, semi-sweet), and one part Campari, garnished with orange peel. A traditionally made Negroni is stirred, not shaken, and built over ice in an old-fashioned or rocks glass and garnished with a slice of orange. Outside of Italy an orange peel is often used in place of an orange slice.

Bitter, sweet, dry, and refreshing all at once, the red colored cocktail has developed a reputation as a all time drink and there is never a bad time to whip one up.

INGREDIENTS

  • Gin
  • Sweet vermouth
  • Campari

Steps

Add the ingredients to a mixing glass with 1 handful of ice and stir for 30 seconds mkaing the drink chill and less dilute then shaking in cocktail shaker.

Strain into a lowball or Old Fashioned glass filled with ice.

Variations

There are many variations of the Negroni and my favourite one is “Boulevardier”. you can read below how a simple swaping of spirit brings up a different profile and taste.

Boulevardier: swap out 1 ounce gin with 1 1/2 ounces bourbon whiskey.
Old Pal: swap gin with whiskey and swap the sweet vermouth for dry vermouth.
Americano: swap out the gin for soda water for a bubbly highball cocktail.
Mezcal Negroni: swap out the gin for mezcal.
Negroni Sbagliato: swap out the gin for Prosecco!
White Negroni: a lighter, floral take: swap sweet vermouth for Lillet Blanc and Campari for Suze.

Classic Gimlet

The gimlet is a cocktail made of gin and lime juice. Earliest described as “gin, a spot of lime, and soda” later as “half gin and half Rose’s lime juice” and today is usually two parts gin to one part lime and some other non-alcoholic ingredient, like soda water.

Variations

A variant of the cocktail, the vodka gimlet, replaces gin with vodka. A similar lime juice cocktail using rum instead of vodka or gin is the daiquiri.

When it comes to making gimlets, it really is open to interpretation. You can shake or stir them; they can be served in any stemmed glass; and they don’t even need to be made with gin to be considered a gimlet.

It’s a simple three-ingredient recipe that should be in every cocktail lover’s back pocket.  So grab your favorite bottle of gin, and let’s make a gimlet!

INGREDIENTS

  • 5 oz London gin
  • 2 oz Rose’s Lime Juice, sweetened
  • 1 oz fresh lime juice
  • Lime slice, for garnish

Steps

  • Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice and shake.
  • Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or an Old Fashioned glass filled with fresh ice.
  • Garnish with a lime wheel.
  • (You can substitute 1 oz lime cordial, such as Rose’s lime juice, for both the lime juice and simple syrup.).

Chocolate Martini

This cocktail is the perfect combination of boozy and sweet. It’s the perfect evening treat when you’re craving something sweet. This liquid dessert combines chocolate-flavored liqueurs with vodka and half-and-half for a boozy and decadent drink.

There are many versions of a chocolate-flavored martini and most have two things in common: vodka and chocolate. This is one of the easiest recipes because it simply mixes vodka with your favorite chocolate liqueur. It’s also much lighter, skipping the cream entirely so you can just enjoy the delicious taste of chocolate.

Ingredients

  • Garnish: cocoa powder (for rim)
  • 1 ½ fluid ounces chocolate liqueur
  • 1 ½ fluid ounces creme de cacao
  • ½ fluid ounce vodka

Directions

  • Pour chocolate liqueur, creme de cacao, vodka, half-and-half, and ice in a cocktail shaker.
  • Cover and shake until chilled.
  • Strain into a chilled prepared cocktail glass.
  • Garnish with a chocolate candy.
  • Serve and enjoy!

Cosmopolitan Cocktail

The International Bartenders Association recipe is based on vodka citron, lemon-flavored vodka. The cosmopolitan is a relative of cranberry coolers like the Cape Codder.Though often presented far differently, the cosmopolitan also bears a likeness in composition to the kamikaze cocktail.

This Cosmopolitan cocktail is fun and celebratory drink. It’s great to with the events as:

  • Bachelorette party drink
  • Girls night drink
  • Gender reveal party drink (this pink drink is perfect!)
  • Happy hour drink
  • Dinner party drink

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 ounce vodka or citron vodka
  • 1 ounce cranberry juice.
  • 1/2 ounce Cointreau
  • 1/2 ounce lemon juice
  • 1 lime wedge
  • 1/2 ounce simple syrup(Optional)
  • For the garnish: lime wheel (Optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Place the vodka, cranberry juice, Cointreau, lemon juice, and syrup in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake 15 seconds until cold. Strain the liquid into a martini glass.
  2. Squeeze with the lime wedge and serve, garnished with a lime wheel if desired. 

Gin Fizz Cocktail

So what to do with a bottle of gin? Make the best gin cocktail we could find. This Gin Fizz is perfectly balanced, both sweet and tart, and adding soda water magically creates a frothy egg white foam topping. Oh and it takes only 5 minutes to make! Are you ready?

Gin fizz cocktail

Gin Fizz ingredients

You’ll need just a handful of ingredients for a Gin Fizz. For our version, we’ve used maple syrup instead of simple syrup. We like making naturally sweet drinks with no refined sugar, and find that maple syrup is a gentler sweetener than a simple syrup. But even better, you don’t have to make a simple syrup at home: just grab a bottle of real maple syrup! Depending on where you live, you can often find locally produced maple syrup as well.

Here are the Gin Fizz ingredients that you’ll need:

  • Gin
  • Lemon
  • Maple syrup
  • Egg white
  • Soda water

How to make a gin fizz cocktail

How to make a Gin Fizz? You’ll simply shake together the gin, fresh lemon juice, maple syrup, and egg white in a cocktail shaker with ice to make it cold, then pour it into two glasses. When you top off each glass with soda water, the carbonation combines with the egg white to make a frothy foam topping. It’s like magic! And it’s a trick that’s sure to impress all your guests.

Classic Margarita

Stop right there. Here’s the best margarita recipe you’ll find: zingy, clear, and classic. It’s simple and uses only 3 ingredients. Did you know that a classic margarita doesn’t even use added sugar? So many restaurants and pre-made mixes have loads of sugar. You won’t even miss it here! This drink is perfectly tangy and balanced. Make a single drink, or a pitcher of this cocktail for a night with friends. Here’s how to make a classic margarita on the rocks in just 5 minutes!

What’s in a margarita? (3 simple ingredients!)

This popular Mexican cocktail was invented in the 1930s. It’s a classic sour cocktail this means that there’s an “official” definition of the margarita, which is:

  • Tequila
  • Cointreau
  • Lime juice
Classic Margarita

How to make a margarita on the rocks (3 simple steps!)

The version we make is “on the rocks,” meaning that it’s served over ice. It’s incredibly easy to make; here’s how!

  1. Rim the glass with salt. A classic margarita has salt on the rim. Why? The salt enhances the sweet and sour flavors in the drink! How to make the perfect salt rim? See below.
  2. Shake in a cocktail shaker. Take that tequila, Cointreau and lime juice and shake it together in a cocktail shaker with 4 ice cubes. This gets it extremely cold. What if you don’t have a cocktail shaker? See below.
  3. Strain into a glass and add ice. Strain the drink into a glass and add ice. What kind of glass to use for a margarita? Well, it’s a very flexible drink. The margarita is often served in a lowball or Old Fashioned glass like you see here, though of course you can use the classic margarita glass too.

Whiskey Sour

We have a myriad of cocktail recipes but this is one of finest cocktail to start with.

The whiskey sour is a perfectly sweet tart, balanced whiskey cocktail that actually dates back to the 1870’s. This recipe uses bourbon and maple syrup: and man, is it tasty! Here’s the recipe and how it came to be.

Whiskey sour ingredients

The whiskey sour (aka bourbon sour) is a classic cocktail. The ingredients for making a whiskey sour recipe are simple! Here’s what you’ll need for this classic sour cocktail:

  • Bourbon whiskey: as high quality as possible (you can use any whiskey, but we prefer the flavor of bourbon)
  • Lemon juice
  • Maple syrup or simple syrup
  • Garnish of orange peel and cocktail cherry

I like to use maple syrup to sweeten our cocktails. It’s a natural sweetener and brings a nuanced flavor to a drink that simple syrup does not. In back to back taste tests, maple syrup always wins!. If you prefer the pure, straightforward taste of simple syrup, you can use that too.

Another variation: Make the whiskey sour with honey syrup and it becomes a Gold Rush!

Whiskey Sour

How to make a whiskey sour

Simply shake up the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, and you’re good to go! The measurements in the recipe below: in both ounces and tablespoons to make it easy for family cooking. Just shake all the ingredients together in a cocktail shaker until cold. You can also cheat and just stir them together until the syrup has dissolved. Serve over lots of ice and enjoy! Try clear ice if you want a stunning look.

Whiskey sours are traditionally served with a slice or orange and a cocktail cherry. You can also add an egg white to get a frothy foam topping: that makes it a Boston Sour! When you make this drink with bourbon like we do, you can also call it a Bourbon Sour.

Classic Moscow Mule

It’s bubbly, tangy, looks impressive, and goes down easy. Meet the classic Moscow mule! This drink was invented in the 1940’s, but it’s having a moment now, too. It’s got only 3 ingredients and takes 3 minutes to make: perfect for parties or a lazy evening on the patio. Outside of the margarita, it might be one of our favorite drinks of all time. Though really…how can we pick just one? Here’s how to make this refreshing vodka cocktail!

What’s in a Moscow mule?

A Moscow mule is a classic cocktail born in the 1940’s, made with vodka and ginger beer. It’s actually part of a family of cocktails called a buck: a cocktail made with liquor, ginger ale or ginger beer, and citrus juice. So, it can also be called a vodka buck! The official definition of a Moscow mule is:

  • Vodka
  • Ginger beer
  • Lime juice
Classic Moscow Mule

How to make a mule

Because a Moscow mule is all about the carbonation in the ginger beer, this drink is not mixed in a cocktail shaker. To preserve the carbonation, it’s simply mixed right in the mug and served over ice. You don’t even need a cocktail shaker! This makes it one of the easiest cocktail recipes you can find. Here’s what to do:

  1. Pour the ingredients into a copper mug. (Why a copper mug? Keep reading… )
  2. Add ice cubes, and garnish with lime. It’s that simple!