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.

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).

Blackberry gin fizz

For ➋
50 g fresh blackberries
2 tbs sugar
12 cl gin
6 cl lime juice (from 2 juicy limes)
club soda
2 sprigs sweet basil or 2 thin lime wedges (for garnish)

Purée blackberries and sugar in a blender until as liquefied as possible. Strain purée through a fine-mesh sieve or tea strainer into two tall or collins-style glasses; discard seeds in sieve. Divide gin and lime juice between glasses and stir to combine.

Add ice to glasses then top each with soda and a sprig of basil or wedge of lime.

Bloody Campari

For ➋*
2 or 3 large blood oranges, juiced, about 6 tbs (8 cl) juice
3 cl Campari
chilled sparkling brut white wine (prosecco, champagne, cava, cremant...)
blood orange peel or blood orange slice*

Pour 3 tbs (4,5 cl) of blood orange juice in a (chilled) champagne flute.
Add 1 tbs (1,5 cl) of Campari.
Top off each drink with sparkling wine (8 cl).
Garnish with a slice of blood orange and enjoy.*

*For larger quantities, mix the fruit juice and Campari (3 to 1) and chill in the refrigerator. Add sparkling wine in the glass.
**Optional.

A sophisticated 21st century twist on the popular 70's mix Campari orange mix. The herbal bitterness of the Campari, the tart sweet sourness of the blood orange and the sparkling bitter of the brut mix together well. Campari orange was mainly an American invention, quickly followed by Western European countries. In Italy, it is still drunk as an aperitivo, with soda water to release the bitter fragrances of quinine, rhubarb, ginseng, orange peels and aromatic herbs. The aperitivo was launched in the 1840's, to counter the bitter sweet cordials from Holland, spreading over Europe. It was mainly drunk as an opener, 'apertitiuvum' in Latin, to speed up the appetite for the coming dinner. Bitters have long been considered to stimulate digesting.
Campari is also used as a main ingredient for the Negroni (equal parts gin, white vermouth, Campari on ice) and James Bond favourite Americano (white vermouth, Campari and a splash of soda on ice) cocktails. It has become fashionable again, due to extensive marketing, including lush limited edition calendars.
Read more on twisted cocktails: fino martini, quick mint cider.

Watermelon lemonade

For ➋ glasses*
6 cl fresh-squeezed lemon juice
12 cl fresh watermelon puree
3 tbs simple syrup
18 cl cold water**
ice

Make syrup by heating 1 part of sugar with 1 part of water. Let cool when the sugar is dissolved. (Use half the quantity of water, and add cold water to cool it quicker.)

Purée the watermelon, and strain through a coarse strainer to remove seeds.

Stir it all together and serve over ice.

Garnish with a thin watermelon or lemon wedge.

*Keep proportions when making more.

**Use half spritz water to add bubbles.
***Add dash of vodka to have a cocktail.

****Replace water with dry white wine to have a wine cocktail. Adjust sugar level, depending on dryness of wine.

Bourbon sour

For ➊ drink
6 cl Bourbon whiskey*
juice of 1 lemon**
2 ts fine sugar
(egg white)***

Place all of the ingredients and half a tumbler of ice into a cocktail shaker.
Shake.
Pour into a tumbler glass.
Garnish with a cherry.

*Use a rye whiskey instead, or even a European whisky.
**Use lime juice instead to achieve a more complex taste.
***Sometimes added to have quicker froth on top. Avoid it and shake the cocktail more vigourisly.

The whiskey sour had its (revival) high day in the early and mid 60's. It belongs to one of the old families of original American cocktails, appearing in Jerry Thomas’ 1862 drinks book alongside other cocktail ancestors, the juleps, slings, sangarees, cobblers and smashes. The whiskey sour has survived the ages, due to its simple nature in making, not to mention its humble ingredients, and great effect in drinking.
It's part of the great international conspiracy of sour cocktails, spreading from whiskey (or Bourbon) sour to the daiquiri, the pisco sour, the margarita, the sidecar, the aviation, the amaretto sour and the cosmo, all based on the simple formula: two parts spirits, juice of half a lemon, and just enough sugar, or a sweet liquor to drink it smoothly.
A notable variant is the Ward 8, which often is based either on Bourbon or rye whiskey, with both lemon and orange juices, and grenadine syrup as the sweetener. The egg white sometimes employed in other whiskey sours is generally not included in this variation.
While it can be made with all good American rye whiskeys, or even European whiskies, it works smoothly with Bourbon. The name derives from Bourbon County, a frontier district at the Virginia/Kentucky border, where distilleries were established in the late 19th century.
The picture shows über virile Western movies' actor Hugh O'Brian in a 1964 ad for Heublein Whiskey Sour. Minus the lemon...

Bahia clericot

For ➍
1 bottle dry white wine
1 diced apple
1 peeled orange, sliced
2 peeled peaches, diced
½ pineapple, peeled & diced
a few cut strawberries
a few seedless grapes
1-3 tbs of sugar

Put all the fruit in a pitcher. Add sugar and enough white wine to cover the fruit. Let the fruit absorb the alcohol for a couple of hours in the fridge.

When ready to serve, add the remaining wine and a lot of ice.

*Essential is the combination of white wine and fruit, most fruit is suitable.

This classic Brazil summer breeze drink was invented in colonial Punjab in the 19th century. Let's call it Indian and English as well.
For a stronger version, see another clericot.

Another Bahia clericot

For ➍
1 bottle dry white or pink wine
1 orange, thinly sliced
1 pear, peeled & cubed
2 peaches, peeled & cubed
12 ice cubes
1 glass maraschino
1 glass Grand Marnier
soda water

Put the orange slices in a jar. Add the maraschino and the Grand Marnier.

Let rest for 30 m.

Add the pear and peaches.

Pour the wine on the fruit.

Add the ice and a little soda water.

*Essential is the combination of white wine and fruit, most fruit is suitable.
For a softer, less alcoholic version, see Bahia clericot.