Perfect Manhattan
Adapted from “Raising the Bar,” by Nick Mautone. Makes 2 drinks.
Ingredients
4K ounces rye or bourbon whiskey
O ounce dry vermouth
O ounce sweet vermouth or cherry brandy
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Marinated cherry or lemon twist for garnish
Directions
Fill the base of a cocktail shaker with ice and add the whiskey, dry vermouth, sweet vermouth, and bitters. Stir vigorously until the outside of the shaker is thoroughly beaded with sweat and is extremely cold to the touch.
Strain the drink into cocktail glasses and add garnish. Serve immediately.
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Bloody Mary
Adapted from “Mr. Boston Platinum Edition.” Makes 2 drinks.
Ingredients
3 ounces vodka.
8 ounces tomato juice
K ounce fresh lemon juice
A few dashes Worcestershire sauce
A few dashes Tabasco
Pinch of salt
Pinch of pepper
Wedge of lemon
Celery stalk (optional)
Directions
Combine all ingredients in bar glass. “Roll” drink by pouring back and forth between two bar glasses.
Strain into a pint glass and add garnish. Serve immediately.
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Simple Syrup
Many drinks call for simple syrup, a honey-like mixture of sugar and water.
This recipe is a good start. If you want it sweeter, just add more sugar. If it’s too sweet, add less.
Ingredients
3 cups sugar
3 cup water
Directions
Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat a bit, and simmer the mixture for 10-15 minutes. Let it cool, then taste. If it’s what you’re after, put it in the refrigerator. Otherwise, add more sugar or water, reheat it, and taste again.
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Sweet and Sour Mix
Most bartenders use pre-made sweet-and-sour mix. Bummer. The stuff wrecks otherwise lovely drinks. Good barkeeps make their own, and so should you.
Ingredients
1 batch simple syrup (see above recipe)
2 cups lemon juice
2 cups lime juice
Directions
Put the juices and the syrup in a pitcher, stir until blended, and stick the pitcher in the fridge. It will last about a week.
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Margarita
Graham Murty, the bartender at La Sandia Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar in Denver, swears by his bar’s signature margarita, which eschews the dash of orange flavor – either Cointreau, Grand Marnier or Triple Sec – found in most margaritas. All it took was one sip. We were converts.
Ingredients
2 ounces of a good clear or “blanco” tequila, like Sauza Blanco
2 1/2 ounces homemade sweet-and-sour mix
Directions
Pour a little kosher salt on a plate, rub the rim of your drinking glass with a wedge of lime, and press the rim into the salt. Set glass aside.
Fill a pint glass with ice. Pour the tequila into the glass, then the sweet and sour mix. Clasp the metal shaker over the glass, and shake for a solid 20 seconds. Put a strainer over the shaker full of margarita, and pour the contents into the salted-rim glass. Garnish with a wedge of lime.
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French 75
We nearly gasped when we tasted Cruise Room bartender Lisa Johnson’s French 75. It was the essence of refreshment, fizzy lemon with champagne grapes and a juniper-gin backbone. Sounds strange. Maybe it is. Named after a World War I artillery piece, it’s been around for decades, and for good reason. You sip and say “Mmmm.”
Ingredients
Sugar cube
Juice of half lemon
K ounce quality gin, like Bombay Sapphire
Champagne to top the glass
Directions
Plop a sugar cube in a chilled champagne glass. Add the lemon juice. Muddle for a few moments to mix the sugar and juice. Add the gin, then fill the rest of the glass with champagne. Pour slowly, and wait, because the champagne reacts with the lemon juice and fizzes wildly. When the champagne reaches the top of the glass, rub a lemon twist around the rim of the glass, drop the twist into the cocktail, and serve.
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Whiskey Sour
Adapted from “Raising the Bar,” by Nick Mautone. Makes 2 drinks.
Ingredients
4 ounces rye whiskey
1 1/2 ounces lemon juice, from about two lemons
1 teaspoon superfine sugar
Directions
Fill cocktail shaker with ice. Add all ingredients. Shake vigorously until the outside of the shaker is beaded with sweat and frosty and drink is frothy.
Strain into glasses, maintaining frothy top, and serve.
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Mojito
Murty makes a mean mojito, too. Cold. Minty. Sweet. Spring and summer at its finest. Many recipes ax the sour mix and replace it with pure lime juice, but Murty’s version sang to us.
Ingredients
1 1/2 ounces light rum
5 or 6 mint leaves
Tablespoon of refined sugar
2 ounces homemade sweet and sour mix
2 lime wedges
Directions
Put sugar in the pint glass, then mint leaves and lime wedges. Using a muddle, grind the trio until limes have released their juices. Fill the rest of the glass with crushed ice. Add rum and sweet and sour. Clasp shaker over the top and shake for 20 seconds. Pour a splash of soda water into a cocktail glass. Strain mojito into the glass. Garnish with mint sprig.
