Modern gimlet

For ➊
6 cl gin
1 cl lime juice*
1 cl simple syrup (1:1, sugar:water)
lime wheel for garnish

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker.
Add ice and shake until chilled.
Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass. (Add a splash of soda, if wanted).
Garnish with a lime wheel.

*Before fresh juice was standard in cocktails, Rose’s Lime Cordial was the traditional substitute for simple syrup and lime juice. Some still insist that a gimlet is not a gimlet without Rose’s, but we prefer to use fresh citrus whenever possible.

This cocktail was created for English sailors as a way to prevent scurvy. It used Rose’s Lime Cordial, lime juice mixed with syrup, to add vitamine C. This preventative drink turned out to be delicious as well. Modern Rose’s Lime Cordial is a much sweeter concoction than the original and should be replaced by fresh juice. Replace the sugar in the syrup with stevia, if wanted.

Orange & Aperol

For ➊
5 cl Aperol
10-15 cl fresh orange juice*
ice
5 cl of ice-cold sparkling water

Mix the Aperol with ice cubes in a shaker. Pour into a high cocktail glass.
Add fresh orange juice, more ice and sparkling water.
Enjoy.

*Use half lemon, half orange juice. Or diluted rhubarber syrup. Or pureed watermelon or melon flesh. Adjust liquid.

Paloma

For ➊ drink
4.5 cl reposado tequila (or any good quality blanco)
juice of half a ruby grapefruit
1.5 cl of agave syrup or sugar syrup*
7.5 cl club soda
a squirt of fresh lime juice (optional)

Pour some kosher salt on a plate. Rub half of rim of a highball glass with grapefruit wedge; dip rim of glass in salt..
Mix the grapefruit juice, tequila and sugar syrup until well mixed.
Pour over a tall glass filled with ice and top up with soda water. You could add a squirt of lime juice. And rim the glass with salt.**

*To reduce your sugar intake, simply leave the sugar out. It's less sweet but delicious.
**Combine grapefruit juice, lime juice, and sugar in glass; stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in mescal, add ice, and top off with club soda. Garnish with grapefruit wedge.
***Replace the fresh grapefruit and soda with sparkling grapefruit lemonade.
***Or have a related Margarita.

Little is known about the historical origin of the Paloma, the most popular tequila-based cocktail in Mexico. Some believe that it is named after La Paloma ('The Dove'), the popular folk song composed in the early 1860s. Diffords guide states it was created by the legendary Don Javier Delgado Corona, owner and bartender of La Capilla, in Tequila, Mexico.
More Paloma recipes @ https://www.liquor.com/slideshows/paloma/#gs.PclY1XI

Margarita

For ➊ drink
9-12 cl fresh squeezed lime juice
3 cl Cointreau, triple sec or another orange liqueur
4.5 cl oz Blanco tequila
kosher salt (optional)
lime wheel
Glass: Cocktail or rocks

Add the ingredients to a shaker filled with ice and shake.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass or rocks glass filled with fresh ice.
Garnish with a lime wheel.
For a slightly sweeter drink, add a dash of agave syrup (one part water, two parts agave nectar) before shaking. Or replace the Cointreau with it.

*Do another version, try 6 cl tequila, 3 cl lime juice, 3 cl agave syrup (1 part water/ 1 part agave nectar)
**Or have a related Paloma.

A very fino martini

For ➊
4 cl Bombay gin*
0.5 cl fino sherry

Stir gin and sherry over ice-cubes in a mixing glass.
Strain the drink (without ice!) into a pre-cooled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

*Optionally, replace gin with top vodka.
**Some recipes recommend 4 cl gin  + 2 cl manzanilla or fino

Negroni sbagliato

For ➊ drink
6 cl spumante (or prosecco / champagne/ white chardonnay)
3 cl sweet vermouth
3 cl Campari
1 slice orange for garnish

Stir well over ice in a balloon-size wine glass.
Garnish with a slice of orange.

Made by mistake (sbagliato) in a Milano bar: instead of gin , use spumante. Or prosecco. Or champagne. Or white wine.

Boulevardier

For ➊
3 cl Campari
3 cl sweet vermouth
4.5 cl bourbon / Bulleit Rye whiskey*

Pour ingredients into a mix glass. Add ice.
Stir until the cocktail is cooled.
Strain in a cooled Martini glass or tumblr. Finish with an orange twist or even an olive. It can be served over ice like a Negroni.

*Change bourbon to 6 cl. The original cocktail used a ⅓/⅓/⅓ part, as in the Negroni, but might be too sweet with the strong Campari.
Change 1 measure of bourbon to 2 measures of rye whiskey, and you get a '1794'. Change the sweet vermouth to a dry one, and you get an 'Old Pal'.

The Boulevardier' was served in the Paris Harry's bar. It appeared in the 1927 bar guide, 'Barflies and Cocktails'. It was the signature drink of Erskine Gwynne, expatriate writer, socialite and nephew of railroad tycoon Alfred Vanderbilt. Gwynne edited a monthly magazine, a sort of Parisian New Yorker, named 'The Boulevardier', obviously, a Negroni with bourbon in lieu of gin. The Negroni, however, would not see print for another 20 years, and Americans had never heard of Campari in 1927.

Bob Dylan's finest mint julep

For ➊ drink
6 tbs Bourbon whiskey
1 tbs powder sugar
4 mint sprigs
1 tbs water

A traditional way to make a julep is to bruise the mint leaves, and put them in a glass with sugar, and add ice and bourbon. Bob Dylan described in his Theme Time Radio Hour how to make, by his preferences, a perfect mint julep:
“First up, you take four mint sprigs, two and a half ounces of bourbon. I'd put three. A table spoon of powder sugar, and a table spoon of water. You put the mint leaves, powder sugar and water in a Collins glass. You fill the glass with shaved, or crushed ice, and then add bourbon. Top that off with more ice. And... I'd like to garnish that with a mint sprig. Serve it with a straw. Two or three of those, and anything sounds good."

Read more Bob Dylan suggestions: Bob Dylan's perfect meatballs.

Quick mint cider

For ➊ drink
½ tbs white mint syrup*
15 cl brut cider**

Freeze long-stemmed glasses until frosted. Put mint syrup in glass. Pour cider in.

*Avoid syrups that are too sweet, or that contain artificial colouring or flavours.
Or make your own fresh mint syrup.
Or put some sugar and fresh mint leaves in a larger glass and pour over the cider.
**Use a good Normandy bitter apple cider, not too sweet.

This is a quick version of a traditional mint cider punch. (Put a good bunch of chopped fresh mint and 1,5 l apple cider in a pot, bring to boil and simmer for 5 m. Cool and strain. Add 25 cl lemonade or soda and refrigerate. Add 10 cl lemon vodka and 10 cl green apple vodka before serving. Cut the vodka if you want.) This also inspired the Rumor cocktail (mix white old rum, mint, cider, fresh lime and top with soda).
Recently, the Japanese beverage giant Suntory launched a soft drink Cool Mint Cider, with just too much sugar in it, and dressed with icy penguins.

Mint julep

For ➊ drink
10 cl good Bourbon whiskey*
5 cl (4 tbs) white mint syrup**
6 tbs crushed ice
fresh mint sprig to garnish

Put a deep glass*** in the freezer for 30 m or more. When frosted, take them out by the edges with a towel.
Fill with crushed ice. Pour in mint syrup*, then bourbon.
Serve with a fresh sprig of mint and a short straw, peeping just above the rim.

*Or Tennessee sour mash.
**Avoid syrups that are too sweet, or that contain artificial colouring or flavours.
Or make your own fresh mint syrup.
Or use another method: see Bob Dylan's finest mint julep.
***Silver goblets may be used to great effect.

Mint juleps were developed in the 18th century in the Eastern American states like Virginia, but have now become a traditional Southern drink, due to the bourbon or sour mash used to make it. Mint juleps show up in popular culture, with several songs about it, including the great One Mint Julep by the Clovers, also a big hit for Ray Charles about the disastrous combination of just 1 mint julep & just 1 bad woman.
The julep uses a similar mixing method as the mojito. The word 'julep' is derived from Arabic 'julab' and Persian 'gulab', meaning 'rosewater'.
Read more on mint drinks: quick mint cider.

Old-Fashioned

For ➊ cocktail
1 sugar cube (or ½ ts loose sugar)*
3 dashes Angostura bitters
club soda
6 cl rye whisky or Bourbon

Place the sugar cube (or ½ ts loose sugar) in an old-fashioned glass.
Wet it down with 2 or 3 dashes of Angostura bitters and a short splash of water or club soda. Crush the sugar.
Rotate the glass so that the sugar grains and bitters give it a lining. Add a large ice cube. Pour in the rye (or bourbon).
Serve with a stirring rod.

*Or use simple syrup (¼ to ¾ whiskey).

The Old-Fashioned is the ur-cocktail, dating from the early 19th century. A 'cock tail' was a morning drink made up of a little water, a little sugar, a lot of liquor, and a couple splashes of bitters. Freeze the water, make it with whiskey, and you have an Old-Fashioned. The 60's variation, with a cherry and orange peel was revived with the 'Mad Men' television series.
The Jack Daniel's bourbon variation: gently muddle orange peel, cherry, 1.5 cl sugar syrup and 4 dashes of bitters in an old-fashioned glass. Optionally, add a Maraschino cherry. Add ice and stir in part of the JD Single Barrel bourbon until it dilutes. Keep adding Single Barrel and ice. Garnish with orange peel.
It could also be made with Dutch or Belgian jenever or rum.

Montezuma chocolate cocktail

For ➋ (large)- ➍(medium)
60 cl milk
75 g plain chocolate
pinch allspice
pinch powdered ginger
1 tbs honey
7.5 cl rum
5 cl eau de vie de marc or brandy
rind ½ lemon, grated

Heat the milk gently with the chocolate, spices and honey.  When the chocolate has melted, leave to cool. Pour the milk into a cocktail shaker, add rum and brandy/eau de vie de marc, and grated lemon rind. Shake well.
Refrigerate.*
Shake again before serving.

*Serve it warm, without cooling. Don't shake,but blend.

A cold grog variation on Mexican spiced hot cocoa.

Mexican hot chocolate with tequila & cayenne

For ➋ servings
70 cl milk
125 g premium dark chocolate, broken into chunks
6 tbs cocoa
2 tbs cane sugar
⅛-¼ ts cayenne (or paprika)
12 cl tequila (or white rum)
10 cl heavy whipping cream
ground cinnamon for garnish

Warm the milk in a medium size heavy saucepan on medium heat, watching carefully.
Add the chocolate, the cocoa and the sugar.
Heat until the chocolate dissolves, whisking to combine all ingredients.
Season with the cayenne pepper. Start with ⅛ teaspoon and season to your taste.
Pour the warm milk into 2 large mugs and add 2 oz of tequila.
Top with whipped cream. Sprinkle whipping cream with cinnamon.

Zombie cocktail

For ➊
1 measure* dark rum
1 measure* white rum
1 measure* old rum (optional)
½ measure* apricot brandy**
2 measures* pineapple juice
½ measure* lime juice
2 ts powdered sugar***
cocktail cherry & pineapple wedge

Add all the ingredients into a cocktail mixer with ice and shake, then pour into a hurricane glass. Spear the pineapple and cherry onto a cocktail stick and place on the edge of the glass.
Finally add a straw.

*1 measure would be 3 cl.
**Use orange curaçao instead.
***Use a (grenadine or cinnamon) syrup instead.

The Zombie, also known as skull-puncher, is a cocktail with an extremely high alcohol content (1 Zombie equals 3-4 average cocktails, hence the Zombie name). It is made of fruit juices, liqueurs, and various rums. The first recipe seemed to have had 3 different kinds of rum, lime juice, falernum, Angostura bitters, Pernod, grenadine, and a combination of cinnamon syrup and grapefruit juice. It was invented by Donn Beach of Hollywood's Don the Beachcomber restaurant in late 1934. It became popular at the 1939 New York World's Fair. It survived as a trendy cocktail at tiki Hawaiian style parties of the 40's and 50's.

Red negroni

For ➊
4 cl gin
4 cl Campari
4 cl sweet (red) vermouth

In a mixing glass, add ingredients and cracked ice. Stir for at least 15 s.
Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Twist an orange peel and garnish.

The negroni was invented in Florence, Italy in 1919, at Caffè Casoni. Count Negroni invented it by asking the bartender, Fosco Scarselli, to strengthen his favorite cocktail, the americano, by adding gin rather than the normal soda water.
The 'negroni sbagliato' ("wrong negroni" in Italian) uses sparkling wine (e.g., prosecco) instead of gin.
Negroski is a recipe with vodka again as substitute for gin.
Cardinaloski is a negroski with some angostura drops.
Punt e Mes negroni instead replaces standard red vermouth with a specific, distinctively more bitter-tasting brand called Punt e Mes.
The cin cyn uses Cynar an artichoke based liquor, instead of Campari.
Pinkish negroni is made with pink wine (instead of gin).
A raultini is a variation using Aperol instead of Campari, giving its distinctive orange color, lighter alcohol content, and a bit of sweetness.
The most basic variation is served straight up in a martini glass with a splash of carbonated water floating on top of the alcohol mixture and a twist of lemon zest replacing the orange peel, known as the American version.
Other Italian versions substitute spumante brut or vodka for gin. A sparkling negroni is made with champagne or prosecco.

French 75

For ➊ cocktail
6 cl London dry gin or cognac or brandy
1 ts superfine sugar or 1.5 cl simple syrup
1.5 cl lemon juice
15 cl brut champagne or a good sparkling wine

Fill ½ a chilled shaker with cracked ice. Shake well. Then strain into a Collins glass half-full of cracked ice and top off with champagne.

Named after the 75-millimeter M1897, a light gun with a vicious rate of fire, the mainstay of the French field artillery in World War I. The drink was created in 1915 at the New York Bar in Paris, later Harry's New York Bar, by barman Harry MacElhone. The French 75, or Soixante-quinze was popularized in America at the Stork Club in New York.
(Some stories claim it was invented for the fighter pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille, made up of French and American aces. The story goes that they began toasting their fallen comrades with champagne but soon started to fortify the drink with something more potent. Lacking whiskey, the Americans opted for the more readily accessible Cognac. Others argue the drink was instead invented by the British who during World War I received a daily gin ration and began adding it to the locally available Champagne. This gin version is the recipe that first appeared in print, and is the best known French 75 recipe.)
The version with cognac with brandy or cognac yields a King's Peg, although often recipes for these omit the lemon and sugar.
You can use a champagne flute for esthetics.
Drawing by Jacques Tardi in 'Putain de guerre'.

Orange chocolate martini

For ➊ cocktail
25 cl cold chocolate milk
3 cl of Grand Marnier orange liquor (or vodka) (from the freezer)*

Pour the chocolate milk into a chilled glass then add the Grand Marnier. Stir to combine.
Serve.

*For a more potent drink, use 3 cl of vodka and 3 cl of Grand Marnier.

Hot Tennessee toddy

For ➊
1 part (3 cl) Bourbon
1 tbs honey
1 cinnamon stick
1 squeeze of fresh lemon juice
boiling water

Pour the Bourbon into a heavy mug.
Add 1 tbs spoonful of honey, cinnamon stick and lemon juice.
Top with boiling water and stir.
Drink before going to sleep.

A toddy is a traditional drink in North England, mixing whisky with hot water or milk and some spices, meant to cure a cold. The name might have been derived from a Scottish nickname for whiskey. The American versions mostly use Bourbon, or, as in Wisconsin,  brandy. Sometimes the water is replaced by ginger ale, omitting the cinnamon. This is the version preferred by Tennessee whiskey distiller Jack Daniels.

Spritz (Italian light cocktail)

For ➊
3 parts  white wine, sparkling wine like prosecco or spumante preferred, cooled
2 parts  aperitivo like Aperol (or Campari for a more bitter taste), cooled
2 parts  selzer or soda water, cooled
a slice of orange (or lemon when using a strong aperitivo)
some ice

Pour the wine and the aperitivo in a tumbler or stemmed wine glass. Add sparkling water (from a syphon if available). Add some ice and a slice of orange.

Serve with small bites of Italian snacks.

When Austria reigned the North of Italy, they developed a habit of diluting the wine with water, called 'Spritzer'. Italians rethought the formula by adding a bitter aperitivo to (sparkling) white wine, and tipping it with a splash of sparkling water, hence the Austrian name 'Spritz' or 'injection'. The typical Venetian spritz has 3 equal parts of each ingredient, other recipes tend to use 40% of wine, and 30% each of water and aperitivo. When using a sparkling wine and a low alcoholic aperitivo like Aperol, you can omit the sparkling water or limit it to a splash, 6 cl wine, 4 cl Aperol, splash of soda, the classic recipe of Aperol since 1950.
Normally, a red/orange aperitivo is used, but it can be replaced by others, like Cynar, or even the  orange-based curaçao blue (resulting in a blue cocktail).

White witch

For ➊ drink
3 cl vodka
3 cl crème de cacao
12 cl vanilla ice cream

Mix in blender until smooth.

Serve in chilled coupe glasses.

There is a long tradition of concoctions, supposedly drunk by witches of all kind. Though we may never know what brew the three witches cooked for Macbeth, evil was one of the main ingredients. In the sixties' cocktail culture, people went wild over the rather over-sweet and quite disgusting Witch's Brew, based on classic Italian strong herbal liquor Strega ('strega' meaning 'witch', the village of the distillers is believed to be a gathering place for all Italian witches), pernod and crème de menthe. As the good wicca took over, it was time for a more sophistaced and gentler witch's brew, such as this one, though there is still magic in the air.