Cocktail Recipes

[Paddy]

I'm really into making cocktails at the moment. Not the syrupy concoctions you get at most bars or from "mixes", but properly balanced drinks you make from scratch.

I spent a couple of hundred quid on ingredients above and beyond what is normally in my drinks cabinet and I've been working my way through the International Bartender's Official List. I've been trying to make them as perfect as possible. Tonight I'm making Pisco Sours.

Does anyone have any favourite cocktail recipes they'd like to share?

My mum (rip), in her youth was unusually a female bartender in the cocktail bars on the Southampton - NewYork ships in the 1940s. She served many celebrities and was featured on TV, she kept her own recipes and various books on cocktails. As she used to say, "mixing a few bottles and sticking an umbrella on top is not a cocktail" Unfortunately they were stolen while she was in hospital.

Getting to the point, looking at the recipes on the link; they are very basic, they lack the important ingredients that bars no longer stock. I would suggest look around some old second-hand bookshops and get some books (preferably American) that were written between the 20s and 50s.

[Lockhouse]

My mum (rip), in her youth was unusually a female bartender in the cocktail bars on the Southampton - NewYork ships in the 1940s. She served many celebrities and was featured on TV, she kept her own recipes and various books on cocktails. As she used to say, "mixing a few bottles and sticking an umbrella on top is not a cocktail" Unfortunately they were stolen while she was in hospital.

Getting to the point, looking at the recipes on the link; they are very basic, they lack the important ingredients that bars no longer stock. I would suggest look around some old second-hand bookshops and get some books (preferably American) that were written between the 20s and 50s.

Thanks, very interesting story. eBay.com here I come.

[d000hg]

Old fashioned, negroni, cosmopolitan, raultini, martini etc.

I hate sugar in cocktails, it should only be there to take away an edge rather than to sweeten.

Old fashioned and cosmo are both sweet cocktails, even made properly. And sugar syrup is a common ingredient in 'proper' cocktails. It's diluting the cocktail with coke or other soft drinks which leads to them tasting sticky and sugary and crappy, in a proper cocktail which is mostly liquor you legitimately add sugar to balance the harshness of just having a glass full of spirits.

My favourite cocktails would probably be a Vesper (although it's rather lethal), a mint julep (made with mint from the garden ), and old fashioned or for lighter occasions, a strawberry daiquiri - possibly replacing rum with tequila.

[norrahe]

Get yourself the Larousse book of cocktails, I've been working my way through that slowly.

Though my faves are a vodka martini or a negroni atm.

[hyperD]

Get yourself the Larousse book of cocktails, I've been working my way through that slowly.

Though my faves are a vodka martini or a negroni atm.

WNS.

Negroni's are fab. I love a good espresso martini or a vesper. Margarita's are nice and refreshing while a long island ice tea tastes just like coke but after several, are lethal. Like whisky sour as well.

Had a surprisingly nice white chocolate martini at TGI Fridays yesterday.

[norrahe]

WNS.

Negroni's are fab. I love a good espresso martini or a vesper. Margarita's are nice and refreshing while a long island ice tea tastes just like coke but after several, are lethal. Like whisky sour as well.

Had a surprisingly nice white chocolate martini at TGI Fridays yesterday.

Standards are slipping

[Bunk]

Standards are slipping

He can't hang around with contractors all the time.

[hyperD]

Standards are slipping

He can't hang around with contractors all the time.

Ok, yup, guilty as charged. I've been really letting the GrubClub side down. I even had a MaccyDs the other day! I quite enjoyed it

Well, I'm going to take GF#1 to Foxlow's before the GrubClub if that's any consolation?

[mudskipper]

Ok, yup, guilty as charged. I've been really letting the GrubClub side down. I even had a MaccyDs the other day! I quite enjoyed it

Well, I'm going to take GF#1 to Foxlow's before the GrubClub if that's any consolation?

Mmmmm, maccyDs...

[d000hg]

A McD burger goes quite well with a fine single malt, if you are a fan of juxtaposition.