Irish Maid

As we stagger through the last weeks (or so we hope) of oven-like heat, I’m still looking for light and refreshing at cocktail hour – which for me usually means something based on gin or white rum as opposed to the darker, heavier spirits. But light and refreshing whiskey-based sips do exist, and here’s a perfect one.
 
Based on Irish whiskey, the Irish Maid comes out of NYC, that ever-bubbling cauldron of cocktail excellence. It’s a variation on the Kentucky Maid (based on Bourbon) and the London Maid (based on gin) and it lands in between those two on the light-and-refreshing scale.
 
The key here is cucumber. Cucumber aroma and flavor along with the St-Germain and lemon, lift the whiskey into a whole new atmosphere. Light, but not too light, semi-sweet, tons of flavor, and a fairly serious kick. 
 
Perfect for the dog days of summer as we slide (or so we hope) into a more reasonable season!

Irish Maid

• 2 slices cucumber, quartered

• 2 oz Irish whiskey – I used Tullamore Dew

• .5 oz St-Germain elderflower liqueur

• .75 oz lemon juice

• .5 oz simple syrup

Muddle the cukes in the bottom of a shaker. Add the other ingredients and shake with ice until cold. Strain into a rocks glass with ice – I like to use one or two big cubes – and serve.

Cat’s Pajamas

Here’s a refreshing summer cooler I picked up at Germantown Café, one of my go-to places here in Nashvegas for decades. If you Google Cat’s Pajamas cocktail, you’ll come up with at least a dozen recipes – all different from each other and different from this one. 

This version, invented by the Café bar staff, is the only one I’ve tried, and it’s delicious – so we’re going with it. Maybe we’ll sample the others later.
 
The base, a refreshing combo of gin (always a great place to start!), Campari and lime, is made fizzy and fun by the addition of bubbly. The gin, Campari, and lime combination always reminds me of grapefruit – as it does in the Act III a creation of my own (under the cocktails tab right here at davidpainerealtor.com). The addition of the bubbly adds lightness and a perfect summertime fizz. 
 
Guaranteed to put you right after a long hot day of toil. Or a long hot day of sitting on the deck. Whatever. It’s delicious however your day plays out.

Cat’s Pajamas

• .5 oz gin

• .5 oz Campari

• .5 oz lime juice (fresh, as always!)

• 2 oz bubbly – can be cava, prosecco, champagne as long as it’s dry. 

Combine the first three ingredients in a beaker and shake with ice. Strain into a highball glass with fresh ice and top with the bubbly. One quick stir with a bar spoon (or any long-handled implement) and you are ready to sip.

Ménage à Quatre

Now that summer has landed – with both feet! – it’s time for something that will cut through the sludge and refresh without being sweet or sappy. This confection, from Francophile, David Lebovitz’s, excellent book, Drinking French, is just the ticket.

Like so many of my favorite cocktails, it’s a sweet-sour combo. But unlike most others, this one leans toward the sour. Arresting! And delicious! Especially at the end of a long, hot day when you feel like you want to slip into a coma for a couple of weeks rather than go on living. 
 
Simple: four ingredients, in equal measure, living together (in your glass, until you drink it) in harmony. Hence the name. 
 
Gin, Grand Marnier, Lillet, and lemon. How French! How refreshing! How deluxe!

Ménage à Quatre

Equal parts:

• Gin

• Grand Marnier (Another good choice would be Mandarine Napoleon, or if you prefer something a bit sweeter, Cointreau) 

• Lillet – that luscious softly sweet aperitif

• Lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. A lemon peel makes a nice garnish.

French Gimlet

This this month we have a variation on a timeless classic, the Gimlet. A Gimlet is a typical sour, combining a base spirit, gin, with a sweet ingredient, simple syrup, and a sour ingredient, lime juice. 

The French Gimlet uses St. Germaine elderflower liqueur as the sweetener instead of simple syrup. And the substitution totally changes things – floral, a bit sweeter, and much rounder than a traditional Gimlet. Absolutely perfect for spring drinking – as we finally move into warmish evenings and maybe having a sip outdoors.
 
As a cool bonus, we are making ours this evening with Empress 1908, a lovely gin, which has the interesting distinction of being purple. You can make a French Gimlet with any London dry style gin and it will taste great. But with Empress you get a wonderful color that evokes fin de siècle Paris. Think Moulin Rouge, Toulouse Lautrec, Sarah Bernhardt, languid afternoons, romance, intrigue, spies, assignations, bowler hats … 
 
Sip a few of these, put a flower in your lapel, and take a stroll down the Champs-Élysées – if only in your mind.

French Gimlet

• 2 oz gin – Use Empress 1908 if you want a lavender cocktail.

• 1.5 oz St. Germaine 

• .75 oz lime juice

Stir (or shake if you must) with ice until very cold and serve straight up.

Rob Roy

Now and then, I shake up something I haven’t had in a long while, and it reminds me of how many great drinks there are, and how getting into a rut can cause you to miss a lot of fun. Last night I had a Rob Roy for the first time in years. I loved it so much, I decided to repeat it here for all of you who may have missed it when I featured it the first time, back in 2017. 
 
It's another robust classic from the late 19th-early 20th centuries – the days of two-fisted drinking. Created in 1894 at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, the Rob Roy was named in honor of the premiere of Rob Roy, an operetta based on the exploits of Scottish outlaw/folk hero Rob Roy MacGregor.
 
Not that any of this makes much difference. It’s really all about the flavor. This is a cocktail you may never have heard of, but your grandfather probably liked – a lot. It’s time you did, too.

Essentially, a Rob Roy is a Manhattan made with scotch instead of rye. It’s much less sweet, and at first sip, can be a little challenging. But after the second sip, or the third, things smooth out and the sipping is swell. So stick with it.

Perfect for freezing weather! Mix up a pitcher of these, go out on the moor, and howl at the moon. Or something like that …

Rob Roy

• Two parts scotch - a medium bodied-blend like Johnnie Walker is probably best, but by all means, experiment with others. 

• One part sweet vermouth

• A dash of Angostura bitters

 Combine the ingredients, shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. For those who wish to garnish, a brandied cherry is ideal.

Champs Élysées

Just in time for the holiday season, comes this classic from the 1920s – what I like to call the Golden Age of Drinking. Cognac-based, it’s stout enough to confront the cold weather. Yet it’s a totally refreshing sip for the weary drinker after a long day of work, or Christmas shopping, or dealing with visiting relatives – or all three. 
 
It’s a variation on the classic Sidecar (my all-time favorite) but the substitution of Chartreuse and simple syrup for the triple sec in a Sidecar, and the inclusion of herbaceous Angostura bitters, gives it a delicious twist. Tart-sweet. Spicy. Provocative. Fun!
 
I included this among my cocktail offerings at Thanksgiving dinner this year and everyone was thankful. Try a couple and you will be, too.

Champs Élysées

• 1½ oz. cognac (I’ve used cheap brandy and it works just fine)

• ¾ oz. lemon juice

• ½ oz. simple syrup

• ¼ oz green Chartreuse

• 2 dashed Angostura bitters

Combine the ingredients in a shaker and shake for 10 to 12 seconds (I count them) to get it frosty cold. Serve straight up. 

Spook Night

Just in time for Halloween, here’s my own take on a new-ish holiday season concoction called To All a Good Night. It begins with a weird-sounding (scary, perhaps?) combo of bourbon and reposado tequila as the base, sweetened with Cherry Heering (a very sweet cherry liqueur from Denmark). 
 
Last week, my good buddy and fellow cocktail hound, Brian, alerted me to this one. It sounded interesting and we both tried it, but we found it a little too sweet for our taste.
 
So, I adjusted the proportions. More tequila, less Cherry Heering  – et voila! – the Spook Night. Drier and a tad stiffer. Dark, spicy, boozy, and perfect for fall weather. Delicious!
 
And, for another interesting twist, try replacing the tequila with mezcal. The rich, smokey flavor of the mezcal makes it even drier. Breathtaking! Proceed with caution!
 
A couple of these and you’ll be afraid of absolutely nothing!

Spook Night

• 1.5 oz bourbon

• 1 oz reposado tequila (for added thrills try mezcal instead)

• .5 oz Cherry Heering

• Dash of orange bitters

Put all the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice and stir to get cold. Serve on the rocks – or on one big rock, like I do.

Millionaire

As we finally swing into real non-summer weather, we naturally swing into brown. As in brown spirits. Or at least I do. And here’s a real brown-ish beauty.
 
As with so many cocktails from the first years of the past century, the provenance on the Millionaire is obscure, and in this case, there are lots of different versions and recipes. No matter. This version is really wonderful, and that’s about as far as we need to go for today, right?
 
Spicy, and wonderfully sweet-sour, the flavor is kicked into high gear by the addition of a touch of absinth. And the addition of egg white makes it smooth and silky – just like you’d expect the life of a millionaire to be. I don’t usually bother with adding egg white, and you could certainly leave it out. But try it this way first. I know you’ll love it.
 
Tastes like a million bucks!

Millionaire

• 2 ounces bourbon

• 3/4 ounce Grand Marnier

• 1/4 ounce absinthe or pastis

• 1/2 ounce grenadine (the good stuff, NOT Rose's)

• 1/2 ounce egg white

• 1/2 ounce lemon juice, freshly squeezed

• Garnish: nutmeg, freshly grated

Add the ingredients to a shaker and shake without ice to get them mixed and the egg white foamy. Then add ice and shake to get it cold. Serve straight up.

Mexican Firing Squad

I don’t know about you, but as summer finally begins grinding to an end, I’m thinking ahead to cocktails for fall and the transition to somewhat more reasonable weather. 
 
I still want something refreshing, of course, but after months of gin and citrus, who isn’t ready for something with a little more guts? If that’s you, I’ve got just the thing right here.
 
This concoction dates back to at least the 1930s and (according to those who know) was first set forth in the 1939 book Gentleman’s Companion by a globe-trotting historian and barfly named Charles Baker. As always, the history isn’t as important as the present – and this is a great sip for right now.
 
Tequila-based, with lime and grenadine and a healthy shot of Angostura bitters, it’s rich and rounded and has a lovely deep rose color. And there’s flavor in abundance! 
 
Think of it as a Margarita that talks back. You’ll love it!

Mexican Firing Squad

• 2 ounces blanco tequila

• 3/4 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed of course

• 3/4 ounce grenadine 

• 4 dashes Angostura bitters

Get the mixture absolutely freezing cold and serve on ice in a rocks glass.

Army & Navy

As we drag ourselves through this very hot summer, bright, citrusy, and refreshing continue to be the ticket to a pleasant cocktail hour. And the old-time classics never seem to disappoint in this regard.

This one is another old-timer, dating to the early decades of the last century. Its typically vague origin story may, or may not, refer to tailgaters at the annual Army-Navy football game and/or the bar at the officers-only Army and Navy Club in D.C. No matter, it’s here now and it’s delicious.
 
Made with two of my favorites, gin and lemon, it gets its special character from orgeat, an intense almond-flavored syrup that’s essential to many Tiki drinks like the Mai Tai. Orgeat supplies the sweetness to go against the sour lemon and bitter gin. Throw in Angosutra bitters for a little color and earthy flavor – and voila! – the final mixture is magic. 
 
Shake up a few of these and savor the moment!

Army & Navy

• 2 ounces gin

• 1 ounce lemon juice

• .75 ounce orgeat* 

• Dash Angostura bitters

*Orgeat, pronounced with a soft g, is thick, almond-intense, and very sweet. It’s perfect for all sorts of Tiki drinks and should be on your shelf. Or more accurately, in your fridge once it’s been opened. Your better liquor merchant will have a bottle on his shelf.

Crop Top

As we slog through the current heat wave, light and refreshing remains the best concept for cocktail hour - and absolutely nothing does that better than the combination of gin and citrus. So, from the pages of the Cocktail Codex* (a gift from my cocktail comrade, Brian) we offer the Crop Top. 
 
Gin and two citrus flavors – lemon and grapefruit – combine with amaro, to make a zingy, spicy sipper with a gorgeous golden color. It’s an unexpected combination of ingredients, but really effective. Spicy, light, and very refreshing.

BTW, I usually don’t bother to recommend using a specific brand of liquor, but sometimes there’s an exception. There are dozens of amaros on the shelf at a respectable liquor store, and they vary widely in flavor and heaviness. This recipe calls for Amaro Montenegro, lighter and spicier than some of the others. I’d stick with this recommendation for the Crop Top.
 
Shake up a Crop Top or two at 5:00 pm and wave goodbye to the heat wave. At least for the night ahead.
 
Crop Top

Equal parts:

• Gin

• Amaro Montenegro

• Pamplemousse (grapefruit) liqueur (I’m using Combier Liqueur de Pamplemousse because that’s what Midtown Corkdorks, my favorite merchant, stocks.)

• Lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. A lemon peel makes a nice garnish.

*There are literally thousands of cocktail books out there, and I have at least 100 of them on the shelf, but Cocktail Codex is an especially good one. It goes into the fundamentals and variations on classic themes in a clear and fascinating way. It’s not only well-written, but also gorgeous to look at. Maybe the best book to have if you only have one.

Garden of Eden

Now that summer is really here, bright and refreshing is what the doctor ordered, and this one fills that prescription. 
 
Starting with gin – of course – adding healthy shot of St. Germaine elderflower liqueur and finishing with not one, but three, citrus flavors: grapefruit, lemon, and orange. Gin, sour, and sweet – all in the right proportion. Paradisical! 
 
This one started with a recipe I saw on Liquor.com (an excellent source for info on all things drinkable) that included the ingredients above, and added simple syrup (which made it too sweet) and topped-off with champagne (which muddled the flavors). A hot mess. 
 
So, I simplified. With cocktails, as in most of life, clarity and simplicity is usually best. 
 
Shake up a few of these on a hot day and you’ll be back in the garden. A few more, and you may need a fig leaf. I’ll leave that choice up to you …
                                          
Garden of Eden

• 2 oz gin

• .75 oz St. Germaine

• .5 oz grapefruit juice

• .5 oz lemon juice

• Healthy shot of orange bitters

Mix it up, shake it up, and serve it straight up. A bit of lemon or grapefruit peel makes a nice garnish.

Birthday Gimlet

As we – finally! – swing into spring, as usual my thoughts turn to gin, citrus, and sparking refreshment. The Birthday Gimlet is just the ticket!
 
Originating recently at the Electra Cocktail Lounge in Las Vegas, this is a simple variation on the classic Gimlet, which is a classic version of the basic sour – two parts base spirit, one part sweet, one part sour. 
 
This concoction starts with a Gimlet and simply adds a hint of grapefruit and layer of sparkling wine on top. For those who find a classic Gimlet a bit sweet, this will be a revelation. Drier – and with the bubbles – much more festive.
 
The Electra Lounge also recommends garnishing with an edible flower – but really, I think that’s a bridge too far. Who wants to find, buy, and/or eat a flower? Just mix it and drink it and admire the flowers blooming in the yard this time of year.
 
You won’t be disappointed.
 
Birthday Gimlet

• 1.5 oz gin

• .75 oz lime juice (always only fresh!)

• .75 oz simple syrup

• Grapefruit peel

• 1 oz sparkling wine – dry champagne, prosecco, cava – whatever you have in the fridge

Put the first three ingredients along with a healthy bit of grapefruit peel in a shaker with ice and shake to chill. Strain into a cocktail glass and top with the bubbly.

Remember the Maine

As we move through the waning days of winter (or at least we hope they are) one more deep, dark cocktail from the classic canon seems appropriate. This one has a fuzzy history involving a 1933 uprising in Cuba, though its name refers to the sinking of the American battleship Maine in Havana harbor in 1898, which touched of the Spanish-American War that same year. 
 
Whatever.
 
What really matters here is flavor. And we’ve got that – in buckets! A Remember the Main is really a mashup of a Sazerac and a Manhattan. Rye and anise dominate, but there are other flavors coming at you from all directions – in a most delightful way. 
 
Rich, spicy, potent, and delicious.  My kind of winter cocktail!
 
 Mix up one of these delights and you'll think spring is just around the corner!

Remember the Maine

• 2 oz rye whiskey

• ¾ oz sweet vermouth

• 2 teaspoons cherry heering liqueur

• ½  teaspoon Pernod (any anise-flavored liqueur will do)

Because there are no cloudy ingredients here, I prefer to stir rather than shake. Get it good and cold and serve it straight up. And a brandied cherry wouldn’t hurt.

Bijou

As I continue to ransack the classic cocktail vault, I came across this number dating from the teens of the last century, and it’s a real pip! 
 
Those of you who keep up with my monthly cocktail education efforts know I usually look to heavier, whisky- or brandy-based cocktails for winter. But now and then a gin-based recipe catches my eye. Et voilà! Here’s the Bijou.
 
Quite similar to another classic, the Negroni, but the Campari is replaced by green Chartreuse and the proportions are adjusted. It turns out much spicier and not as sweet. Tangy. Complex. And heavy enough to warm you up on a cold evening.
 
Sip one of these by the fire and a day full of unexpected trials will simply melt away. (Also works just fine if you don’t have a fireplace.)
 
Bijou

• 1.5 ounces gin

• 1 ounce sweet vermouth

• .75 ounce green Chartreuse

• 2 dashes orange bitters

Mix all the ingredients and stir with ice to get freezing cold. The Bijou is usually shown served straight up, but I poured mine in a rocks glass with one big cube. Either way it's wonderful!

Love and Murder

On the surface this one just shouldn’t work.
 
First there’s the name. Sounds a bit harsh, doesn't it? Especially during the “peace on earth” season.

And then there are the ingredients. Campari and Chartreuse together? In the same glass? And with a pinch of salt? Wow!
 
Well, I’m here to tell ya – it does work! Beyond just working. This cocktail is spectacular!
 
Created in recent years at a bar called Porchlight in New York, creator Nick Bennett, says he wanted something that tasted like a classic. And this one does. The bitter Campari and the intense anise Chartreuse don’t fight with each other. In fact, they dance cheek to cheek. Rich, layered, spicy – just right for this season – and easy on the eye. 
 
And that touch of salt, which you might think optional, really snaps the flavors into focus. Trust me. I’ve tried it both ways.
 
As for the name, well, in a season when we tend to gather with family, what could be more appropriate?
 
Love and Murder

• 1 ounce Campari

• 1 ounce green Chartreuse

• 1 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed

• 3/4 ounce simple syrup  

• 4 drops saline solution (5:1 water to kosher salt. I made up an ounce or so and put it in a dropper bottle. It will keep forever.)

Combine everything in a shaker with ice and get it good and cold. You can serve it straight up, or with one big cube in a rocks glass.

Dorchester

Here’s a surprise – a gin and citrus cocktail that works perfectly for fall and winter. I usually lean toward the darker spirits this time of year, and leave the lighter drinks for warmer weather. But this drink – combining gin with both lime and grapefruit juice – is not the light and spritzy thing the ingredients might suggest. 
 
The Dorchester is rich, rounded, complex, and perfect for pre-Thanksgiving dinner. Plus, there’s a pine-needle tang on the back end that gives just a tiny hint of the holidays ahead in December.
 
Created by San Francisco mix master Erik Adkins, this isn’t a classic, but it has all the earmarks of a recipe that has stood the test of time – and I have no doubt it will. I found the original recipe a touch too sweet, so I dialed back the simple syrup a little – which is how I present it below.

Dorchester

• 1.5 ounces gin

• .5 ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur

• .5 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed 

• .5 ounce grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed

• .25 ounce simple syrup

Re the grapefruit juice: use white, not pink, if at all possible. Its less sweet than pink and gives the right color to the drink.

Combine the ingredients in a shaker and shake for 10 to 12 seconds (I count them) to get it frosty cold. Serve straight up. 

Sinister Force

Great name for a Halloween cocktail, yes?

I owe my friend Brian credit for steering me to this one. It was featured in a snarky, and often hilarious, left-wing political blog he reads regularly called Wonkette. Wonkette has a weekly cocktail feature (doesn’t everyone these days) and this was the drink for last week. The name is a joke on a ridiculous comment made looong ago by Alexander Haig, Chief of Staff under President Nixon, during the Watergate scandal.

That said, few people reading this are old enough to even remember the name Richard Nixon, much less Haig or Watergate, so moving on …

What’s important here is the flavor, and this drink’s got that by the bucketful. Stout and boozy to be sure, but elegant and oh-so-smooth on the tongue. Bourbon, sweet vermouth, chocolate liqueur, and chocolate bitters – a rather sweet combination – are kicked just off center by the bitterness of Campari and Peychauds bitters.

The result is amazingly good. Balanced and delicious. Nothing sinister about it!

Sinister Force

• 2 oz bourbon

• 1 oz sweet vermouth – I used Carpano 

• .25 oz chocolate liqueur (The Wonkette recipe calls for Double Chocolate Vodka and I don’t have any of that – actually never heard of it – so I substituted ordinary De Kuyper Crème de Cacao. And I tried Kahlua another time. Both worked fine.) 

• .25 oz Campari

• 2 dashes chocolate bitters (I didn’t have these on the shelf either, so I went to Midtown and bought some.)

• 1 dash Peychaud’s bitters

Shake this with ice to get it very, very cold and serve straight up or, the way I like this sort of drink, in a rocks glass with one big cube. Or two.

Ward Eight

You know I love the classics, and here’s another one. Going waaaay back to 1898 or thereabouts, it was created to celebrate of the victory of Martin M. Lomasney, a political boss in Boston’s Eighth Ward. Like most of these cocktail origin stories, this may or may not be totally true, but it really doesn’t matter.

What does matter is the flavor and this one’s got flavor – in spades!

It’s a variation on the classic Whiskey Sour, but it’s richer because it’s based on rye, it includes orange juice as well as lemon, and it uses grenadine rather than simple syrup as a sweetener.

Definitely potent, but not as heavy as some drinks based on whiskey. And still refreshing as we move into fall, leaving the light sparklers behind until next spring.

Knock back a couple of these and you may find yourself writing-in Martin M. Lomasney the next time you go to the polls.

Ward Eight

• 2 ounces rye whiskey

• .5 ounce lemon juice

• .5 ounce orange juice – Go ahead, get an orange and squeeze it. You’ll be so glad you did!

• 2 teaspoons grenadine – real grenadine (available in some form from your favorite liquor merchant) not that dreadful Rose’s you might see at the grocery store.

Shake it all up with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Brandied cherries make a nice garnish. 

Mezcal Margarita

Margarita made better ...

One of the perks of my real estate business is the gifts I get from my clients. It’s always such a lovely surprise to get a thank you gift for just doing my job. 
 
One such gift was a bottle of Banhez mezcal, and it has transformed my opinion of agave. Very much for the better.
 
While I certainly wouldn’t turn one down, and I’ve knocked quite a few of them back over the years, the venerable Margarita has never been my cocktail of choice. Something about the flavor of tequila just doesn’t work for me. Or maybe I should say, it doesn’t work as well for me as other spirits.
 
Enter mezcal. Tequila is made only from blue agave plants from the tequila region. Mezcal is made from any old agave plant from anywhere they grow – and I like it much better! Fuller, rounder, more complex than tequila – and with a distinct smoky aftertaste that reminds me of good scotch.
 
And how does it work in a Margarita? Very well indeed! I might even say totally deluxe! The Mescal Margarita has become one of my go-to drinks.
 
So, if you find the taste of the standard Margarita a little thin, or even if you love them but want to branch out, try one of these beauties. You won’t regret it!

Mezcal Margarita

• 2 ounces mezcal

• 1 ounce lime juice

• .75 ounce triple sec (use a clear one like Combier or Cointreau)

• .25 ounce agave nectar (or simple syrup in a pinch)

Get the mixture absolutely freezing cold and serve up or on ice. Salt the rim if you must, but I like it better without.