bottoms up
Cocktails and dresses as pretty as we used to be when salons were still open...
It’s Friday (not that it matters here in lock down), but I am finding myself a little bored with my quarantini and am fantasizing about my next encounter with a well made cocktail. Here is some inspiration for days ahead when we can actually clink our glasses wearing something more than a waist up “outfit” on Zoom.
Old Fashioned
2 tsp sugar
60 ml bourbon or rye whiskey
2 dashes Agnostura bitters
splash of water
orange slice
maraschino cherry
Put the sugar, bitters and water in a small tumbler. Mix until the sugar dissolves if using granulated. Fill your glass with ice and stir in the whisky. Add a splash of soda water if you like and mix. Garnish with the orange and cherry.
Campari-Fennel Aperitif
handful of fennel fronds
1 small sprig for garnish
3 lemon wheels
2 ounces dry sparkling wine
3/4 ounce Campari
1/2 ounce simple syrup
2-inch-long strip of lemon peel Ice
In a cocktail shaker, combine the fennel fronds with the lemon wheels, sparkling wine, Campari and simple syrup. Muddle 20 times. Add ice and shake well. Strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Squeeze the lemon peel over the drink and add it to the glass. Garnish with the fennel sprig and serve.
Negroni
ice
1 1/3 ounces frozen gin preferably London dry
1 ounce sweet vermouth
2/3 ounce Campari
1 orange wheel, for garnish
Fill a rocks glass with ice. Add the gin, vermouth and Campari and stir well. Garnish with the orange wheel.
Paloma Italiana
1 1/2 ounces reposado tequila
3/4 ounce Campari
3/4 ounce fresh pink grapefruit juice
1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice
1/2 ounce agave nectar
ice
2 ounces chilled Italian orange soda, such as San Pellegrino Aranciata
pinch of kosher salt
1 spiral-cut grapefruit twist, for garnish
Bourbon Blackberry Collins
4 blackberries
ice
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
3/4 ounce simple syrup
2 ounces chilled club soda
In a cocktail shaker, muddle 3 blackberries. Add ice and the bourbon, lemon juice and simple syrup and shake well. Strain into a chilled, ice-filled collins glass. Stir in the club soda and garnish with the remaining blackberry.
Pisco Sour
2 ounces pisco
3/4 ounce fresh lime juice
3/4 ounce
simple syrup
1 large egg white
ice
4 drops of Angostura bitters
Put all of the ingredients except the ice and bitters in a cocktail shaker; shake for 10 seconds. Add ice; shake for 10 more seconds, then strain into a chilled coupe. Dot the drink with the bitters and draw a straw through the drops.