What should I make? I'm thinking a Daiquiri, but I'd love to know your recommendations. Thanks!

My friend is out of town, went to feed her cats last night and saw she had managed to find a bottle of my favorite violet liquor.
This is Zydeco’s Aviation and my favorite drink ever. My husband and I owned Zydeco’s for almost three decades but that NOLA umbilical cord is STRONG so we closed December of 24 and he is now home, living his best life on the North Shore and I’m in Indiana making my little cocktail.
I do vary a little from the original recipe. I use lime juice instead of lemon, a botanical gin and if it’s hot out these make the best spritzers.
Okay:
2 ounces botanical gin
1 ounce luxardo maraschino liquor
1/2 ounce violet liquor
1 ounce lime juice
1 Luxardo maraschino cherry
Add all but the cherry to a shaker with ice. Put the cherry in a coupe glass (sadly, I have none at the moment)
Or a martini if you must (I must)
Take your cherry delivery spoon and stir it in the shaker to infuse that cherry-ness into the drink.
Shake and decant.
If you’re not feeling a martini or it’s just too hot out, decant into a zombie glass (because it’s fun to say) and fill with seltzer.

What would you make?

Assume a well enough stocked bar other than these bottles :)

Kinmen Kaoliang 38° Baijiu, Green Cardamon, Lychee, Pamplemousse, Lime

This was at Providencia cocktail bar in Washington, DC.

Recently discovered the Pawpaw fruit, so naturally, I bought 5 pounds and decided to make syrup. Decided to go for a cold overnight 1:1 maceration as I've read that heating the fruit can upset people's stomach. Straining went well, tho I feel like I've ended up with more a puree than a syrup. Kinda the consistency and color of cloudy raw honey. Would you give this another strain? Water it down maybe? or just keep it as is. Taste is amazing, but was looking for a more syrupy texture.

45 ml 10 to 1 white Rum

15ml lime juice

90 ml baja blast (glass bottle made with real cane sugar)

6-8 mint leaves

(Opt 15-30ml soda water to cut the baja blast a bit) I dare anyone to try this. Unironically amazing

Hey everyone,

The mixing glass I had been using from Crate & Barrel chipped and I’m looking to replace it. It got the job done well but I want to get something a little more aesthetically appealing this time around. It’s for at-home use and I’m very careful with my glassware and hand-wash all of it so it doesn’t have to be industrial strength or anything; in fact, ideally, I’d like the glass on the thinner side.

I’m looking for one that’s about 800 ml. I like this one from Cocktail Kingdom but it’s been sold out for a while:
https://cocktailkingdom.com/products/yarai-mixing-glass-seamless-extra-large-800ml-28oz-flat-base

Classic Yarai/diamond pattern preferred but certainly not essential. I’m located in the US.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated :)!

If I’m looking for an “easy” at home Tom Collins, would I be able to swap out the lemon juice and simple syrup for lemonade?

Not sure if it’s sacrilegious or a huge no-no, but thought I’d ask considering sometimes I want one but don’t want to squeeze lemons, or I don’t have lemon juice, or don’t have simple syrup

Wanted to build a cocktail around Takamine 8 - one of the most interesting Japanese whiskeys I've tried in the last year. It is a 100% barley mash fermented with koji rice mold aged in white oak. It's very high-toned, delicate, with a saline/umami finish. I get notes of graham cracker, honey, lemon zest, and seaweed.

Goal is to really amplify the base spirit here - not simply 'combine it with other flavors'. I tried a few different form factors including a split-base old fashioned spec I didn't really like; everything was just way too condensed/muddy. I landed on a fairly simple but focused martini riff that worked really well:

- 2 oz Takamine 8

- 0.75 oz Cocchi Extra Dry Vermouth

- 1 tsp White Creme de Cacao

- 1 tsp Cinnamon Syrup

- 1 dash Bitter End Togarashi Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a nick and nora glass, no garnish.

As far as the ingredients, I was looking for a few elements: something that adds structure + length to the cocktail, something that rounds it out, something that adds a grassy/tropical note, and something that amplifies the umami finish.

Vermouth does most of the lifting here. Cocchi Extra Dry has a heavy melon/white flower thing going on which I like with the other notes. Creme de Cacao + Cinnamon syrup add body to the mid-palate without contributing too much sweetness, and the bitters amplify the natural finish of the whiskey. It very much still leans dryer/crisper which was important for me to preserve in this recipe. The Creme de Cacao is probably the most noticeable ingredient of the bunch, and adds a really nice rich contrast to the salty finish.

Anyway, just wanted to share my thought process. I see a lot of people talking about 'this bottle is too good to mix with' or 'this should only be drunk neat'. I personally think almost any bottle can make a killer cocktail, but once you get into the $100+ range, you just have to be a little more deliberate about what you're doing and why you're doing it, otherwise you might be doing something that can be achieved with a cheaper bottle or combination of bottles.

Would love to see any of your personal (or not personal) favorite 'luxe' cocktail specs.

Reposting with a recipe for Classic Ceasars.
Ceasar Rimmer
2.5oz Vodka
Dashes of Tabasco
Dashes of Worcestershire Sauce
Little squeeze of lemon juice

I like a little horseradish but didn’t have any.
Would have added a squeeze of Lime too but Tequila shots were had.

Jungle bird

30 ml Chairman's Reserve Original

15 ml Smith & Cross

22,5 ml Campari

45 ml pineapple juice

15 ml brown sugar sirup

15 ml lime juice

Shake with large ice cubes until the tin starts to frost on the outside, double strain over large ice cube in a tumbler.

• 0.75 oz high-malt rye whiskey
• 0.75 oz V.S. Calvados
• 0.5 oz Suze
• 0.75 oz Manzanilla Sherry

Stir down to dilute and chill; serve on the rocks in a chilled old-fashioned glass

*recipe copied with further notes in comments

Another from the happy accident files.

The other day I set out to make a Martini, only to realize that I was out of vermouth.

But I did have Cardamaro, and I thought, "well that's an aromatized wine too...why not?"

Cardamartini

2oz London Dry gin

1 barspoon Cardamaro

Olives

Add a barspoon of Cardamaro to a coupe or martini glass and swirl. Stir gin with ice in a mixing glass.

Dump the Cardamaro if you prefer drier, keep for a pleasant aroma and sweetness.

Pour chilled gin into the glass. Garnish with olive and enjoy.

One of my favourite cocktails for sure. Didn’t have any good cherries unfortunately.

2 ounces of Buffalo Trace
1 ounce lemon
3/4 ounce of Demerara syrup
1 egg white

Add All ingredients in a shaker and dry shake
Add ice and shake again to chill and dilute

Garnish with a few drops of angostura and some cherries

Anybody got some good recipes or ideas that would include grenadine syrup?

Deeply bitter and satisfying.

I'm out of campari and wanted to try the Mitamaro I picked up yesterday. I thought a boulevardier with Gran Classico would work, and given how bitter this was like to be with the open vermouth being Punt e Mes Old Grand dad 114 was probably the whiskey to cut through it all.

The gran Classico complements the Mitamaro much better than the surgical bitter note of Campari and the Punt e Mes stitches it all together.

1 1/4 oz OGD 114

3/4 oz Bresca Dorada Mitamaro

3/4 oz Punt e Mes

1/2 oz Gran Classico

1 dash Angostura bitters

Stir until diluted, pour into double rocks with large ice. Express an orange peel and use for garnish.

Rich dark fruit over balsamic glaze and spice. This was a good first use of the Mitamaro.

Fun little cocktail

• 30 ml cocoa-butter-washed Bacardi Carta Blanca
• 10 ml Green or Yellow Chartreuse
• 10 ml St-Germain
• 15 ml Le Fruit de Monin Passion Fruit
• 15 ml fresh lime juice
• 1 eggwhite

Method:

1. Add all ingredients to a shaker without ice.
2. Dry shake vigorously for 10–15 seconds.
3. Add plenty of ice and shake hard for another 12–15 seconds.
4. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
5. Optionally garnish with 2–3 saffron threads.
6. some bitters of your pick

Make a coca butter washed in a white rum i used Bacardi Carta Blanc i used a ratio or 30grams to 500ml

I find that the og Bloody Mary proportions yield a very strong and very tomatoey drink. The best Bloody marys I've ever had never once used the original proportions (as far as my taste can determine). Like they are much more savory. Am I right or Is It my impression?

Differencies of the og Bloody Mary vs "my" usual Bloody Mary approximation when I try to replicate what I've had

120ml tomato/60ml vodka vs 120ml tomato/40ml vodka

Lemon juice about the same as og or a few milliliters more (no real difference)

Pinch salt pinch pepper about the same, of not a liiiitle bit more salt if I put a bit more of lemon juice

A few drops of worchester vs 4-6 full on dashes

A few drops of tabasco vs 3 full dashes

No pikle juice vs a few drops of pickle juice (optional)

Basically Its more seasoned

Curious of others have the same impression and about your best Bloody Mary recipes!

Slight twist on this staple .

2oz vodka

0.75oz lime juice

0.5oz simple syrup

0.25oz maraschino liqueur

4oz ginger beer

2 cherries

Mint leaves

Combine vodka, line juice, liqueur, 2 cherries, 5 mint leaves with ice in a shaking tin and shake for 15 seconds.

Strain into a rocks glass.

Top off with ginger beer

Mint leaf, cherry, mint for garnish

I know this cocktail has reached a level of overexposure and some are fatigued by it, but I like it - and, I finally figured out my ratio. I started out with Dan Fellows' spec (from YT), but now I do this:

* 40 cc (around 1⅓ oz) Havana 3

* 40 cc Coffee Liqueur (I use Schmerling's)

* 40 cc Freshly Brewed Espresso

* 1 gram Saline (1:5)

If making single serve: brew the coffee. Meanwhile put the other ingredients in a shaking tin, and place it in the freezer. Wait around 15 minutes for the coffee to cool down a bit (I do not recommend doing this in advance, as the flavor gets flattened), and for the alcoholic ingredients to chill considerably.

Combine and shake, strain into a prechilled coupe.

If making it for more then 1-2 people, put the rum in the freezer ahead of time and proceed.

The Harvest Widow

Last night my partner made an Angostura Colada. It had been a long time since I’d had one, and as soon as I tasted it, I had an idea.

It hit me how unexpectedly autumnal the drink already was. Underneath the pineapple, coconut and lime, using Angostura by the ounce brings out all this clove, allspice, cinnamon and bitter-orange character. It almost reminded me of wassail.

And apparently the timing was perfect. The temperature here in Utah has dropped dramatically over the last few days, and suddenly it felt like fall was right around the corner. So I immediately started wondering what I could add to push that side of the drink a little further.

What I didn’t want to do was create a Starbucks pumpkin latte in cocktail form. I wanted something toasted, earthy and nutty that would naturally work with the warm spice already coming from the Angostura.

That led me to toasted pumpkin-seed orgeat.

The Harvest Widow

1¼ oz Angostura aromatic bitters

¾ oz Planteray 3 Stars white rum

2 oz pineapple juice

½ oz Coco Lopez

¾ oz toasted pumpkin-seed orgeat

1 oz fresh lime juice

Shake hard with ice and open-pour over crushed ice. Mound with additional crushed ice, and garnish with a large slapped sprig of mint and finely microplaned toasted pumpkin seeds over the top.

This is a riff on Zac Overman’s Angostura Colada. The original uses 1½ oz Angostura and ½ oz Smith & Cross.

Smith & Cross is funky, aromatic and overproof enough that half an ounce can still make itself known underneath all that Angostura. I had Planteray 3 Stars, which is considerably lighter, so I brought the Angostura down to 1¼ oz and pushed the rum up to ¾ oz.

There’s still an outrageous amount of Angostura in the drink, so it remains unmistakably an Angostura Colada riff, but the rum gets enough room to actually participate.

I also cut the Coco Lopez back substantially rather than simply adding another sweet ingredient. The pumpkin-seed orgeat is meant to replace part of the coconut’s role, not sit on top of it. That keeps enough coconut for the colada identity while making room for the toasted pumpkin seed to come through.

Toasted Pumpkin-Seed Orgeat

1 cup raw hulled pumpkin seeds

1½ cups warm water

White sugar equal by weight to the strained pumpkin-seed milk

Tiny pinch of salt

Toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry pan over medium-low heat, moving them frequently, until fragrant and lightly colored.

Blend thoroughly with the warm water and let steep for 20–30 minutes. Strain well.

Weigh the strained pumpkin-seed milk, then add an equal weight of white sugar and the pinch of salt. Warm gently just until the sugar dissolves, then cool and refrigerate.

I left out almond extract and orange-blossom water intentionally. I didn’t want the pumpkin seeds to imitate traditional almond orgeat. I wanted it to taste specifically like toasted pumpkin seeds.

I named it The Harvest Widow because the toasted pumpkin seed and fall character gave me the “harvest” half, and my original garnish idea was some kind of dark spiderweb across the top, which gave me the “widow” half. I never actually ended up doing the spiderweb garnish, but by then the name had already stuck.

I hosted a cocktail party this weekend and set up a semi-DIY cocktail bar for people to help themselves (and so I wouldn't be playing bartender all night). I served 3 whiskey-based cocktails: Rob Roy, Whiskey Sour, and Presbyterian. I think those were a nice mix.

How the cocktail bar worked: I pre-mixed as much as I could beforehand in carafes and let them chill in the fridge. On the table I set out ice, the correct glasses, and prepared garnishes. I wrote instructions on cards (3rd picture) for people to pour their drinks. When guests arrived I made them their first drink and explained the set up, thereafter they helped themselves.

I think it worked really well. Guests had fun trying the different drinks and I could be a bit more hands off as the host and just enjoy the party.

Recipes: (these are for one drink, I scaled these all up by 7 for a batch)

Rob Roy - 90ml whiskey, 30ml sweet vermouth, 4 dashes orange bitters. Pre-mixed in a carafe, stirred, chilled in the fridge. Set out for guests to pour into coupes and garnish with orange peel.

Whiskey Sour - 60ml whiskey, 20ml lemon juice, 20ml orange peel-infused simple syrup (I skipped the egg white this time because I wasn't sure it'd hold up well in a batch over a few hours). Shaken and poured into a carafe. Set out for guests to pour into short tumblers and garnish with maraschino cherry.

Presbyterian - 45ml whiskey, 70ml ginger ale, 70ml soda water. Here I just decanted the whiskey into a carafe and let my guests mix with ginger ale and soda water themselves, in tall tumblers and garnish with lemon slice.

Not the most elaborate cocktails but I was trying to strike a balance here. Will definitely be doing this again. Sorry I don't have better photos.

Always open to more ideas, if you've tried something similar or have suggestions I'd like to hear them!