Cocktails, the libationary art!

Ok - first of all, I didn't make this as written because it calls for 5.5oz of bourbon, which would put me under the table, and I'm out of good orange liqueur. So:

First pour a little absinthe in coupe and toss it in the freezer.

2oz bourbon

1/2 oz orange Curacao

Scant 1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake with ice. Retrieve glass from freezer and twirl it right side up then upside down to coat it with the absinthe. Pour drink in glass.

It tastes like Christmas. Bourbon mostly, even with less than half what's in the recipe. Hint of orange, hint of licorice/anise. This is a successful licorice orange cocktail. Would be much better with Cointreau, even though there's not much in here.

Here’s Maggie Smith, from Death & Co. As written, I found it a little sweet, so I made a variant after with dark rum, no honey syrup, and added aquafaba, that I found to be, personally, more palatable.

• 1 ounce pisco
• 1 ounce white rum
• ½ ounce orange liqueur
• ¾ ounce lime juice
• ¼ ounce orgeat
• 1 teaspoon honey syrup

Not a looker but it's nice.

2oz bourbon

1.5oz orange liqueur, 1oz vanilla liqueur

0.5oz lemon juice

One egg white.

Dry shake, then shake with ice.

Girlfriend asked for a cocktail with no specific preference and we had leftover lillet blanc in the fridge so I wanted to see what I could do with it. I can see why this is called corpse reviver because it hits strong despite it seeming like a cute pink drink.

Recipe found online, not sure how accurate it is but it's what I used:

• 1 part lillet blanc
• 1 part cointreau
• 1 part gin
• 1 part lemon juice

I thought this was interesting, a whiskey sour is how I evaluate a bar, my reference drink. Never thought of it as difficult, maybe I'm not picky enough because different doesn't equal bad, but I do rate a bar higher if there is egg white, it's not too sweet, and an amaretto cherry.

Margarita they can only be overthinking, I don't think it's difficult, but it's bad so often I always think there must just be budget constraints. I don't even order this as a margarita if there is visible margarita mix - I ask for tequila and orange liqueur with lime, shaken.

Very sweet, too sweet but the flavors work.

2oz good tequila (Gonzalez Reposado)

1oz Nixta

1oz honeydew syrup*

1oz lemon

Shaken together. Pour over ice, Tajin rim.

Thoughts- I'm not sure this needs fixing, it's good just too sweet for my palate. The tajin rim helps. The caramel corn and melon together, yum.

*There was leftover melon. Blendered it with equal weight in sugar. It's really good but hyper sweet.

Show off your collection, or organizational skills, or decorating prowess! This is my wall o' booze. I am lucky to have a little nook off the kitchen, and a glass cabinet from my grandmother.

What are you drinking? I had a whiskey sour with Jameson at a bar, as part of our "world's slowest bar crawl" we've been doing, trying all the bars at a local shopping and dining center. Pretty good. The place had a very good playlist though, when we walked in they were playing Joy Division, then Vampire Weekend, then Boz Scaggs! It was all over the place but good.

2 oz bourbon

1 oz heirloom pineapple amaro

1/2 oz roasted pineapple syrup

1 oz fresh lemon

Shake shake shake!

Congratulations to our August winner, u/[email protected], and welcome to September!

This month's challenge is to create a cocktail highlighting a savory ingredient. Salt, brine, pickles, something savory is the only ingredient rule. Entries should be original creations or variations.

This one is from PDT’s cocktail book. Of the “all-alcohol” drinks I’ve made, this has ended up being one of the more approachable ones. It has an aggressive nose from the Fernet, but a lot of the taste’s edge is tempered by the Grand Marnier. It’s still a heavy hitter, but I liked it a lot!

• 2 oz Linie Aquavit
• ¾ oz Grand Marnier
• ½ oz Nonino Quintessentia Amaro
• Fernet Branca rinse

Stir with ice and strain into a Fernet Branca-rinsed glass.

This was a delightful article and the drink sounds great.

I want to see the winning entry!

My husband's work friend gave him 2 ripe homegrown ripe guava this week, so Guava margaritas. This is:

2 oz Tequila Ocho claro.

1 oz lime

1/2 oz orange liqueur (passion fruit would be better but I'm out)

About 1/4 cup guava flesh muddled with quite a bit of sugar, maybe 1.5 TBSP? Guava has lovely flavor but is not very sweet.

Shake all together and double strain over ice, splash of Topo Chico.

It's really good!

Has anyone here tried aloe liqueur? The rest of this I have, but aloe juice is so yucky, like the idea of mezcal and raspberry.

I was feeling tropical

• 2 ounces white rum (Bacardi)

• 1/2 ounce maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)

• 3/4 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed

• 1/2 ounce grapefruit juice, freshly squeezed

• Garnish: lime wheel

Light shake then strained into a coup glass

Salud

The 1600 cocktail. The website hosting the recipe seems to be offline but it's from East Imperial Tonic Water.

50ml / 1 ¾ oz Premium Aged Rum.

5ml / ⅙ oz Orgeat.

15ml / ½ oz Cold Brew Coffee.

150ml / 5 oz East Imperial Grapefruit Tonic.

Fresh Orange Slice.

Stirred everything but the soda (I used a spoonful of tonic syrup and 150ml of Fever Tree grapefruit soda) and no I can't measure 5ml of orgeat, just poured as little as I could.

It's a lot better than it sounds, honestly. The coffee makes it. And hello to the 1,600 of you!

This is a weird one. I was feeling experimental today, made one drink that went straight down the drain (fresh OJ & lemon, vodka, absinthe, St. Germaine, don't ask) but this I am enjoying, tart, smoky, bitter. Sort of a margarita variation.

1.5oz blanco tequila

.5 each of

Tawny port

Mezcal

Aperol

Lemon juice

Shaken with not too much ice, served over big ice. I think next time no lemon (port tart enough), stir not shake and crushed ice, but the flavors are working.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture, the cat says hi!

And does anyone have a good absinthe orange flavor cocktail? I don't think the fresh juice works with it.

• 1 ½ oz mezcal Cupreata
• ¾ oz sloe gin
• ¾ oz Cynar

Stir with ice and strain into a Nick & Nora glass.

On the tin, it seems like this would be way too much, between the aggressive smokiness of the mezcal and the herbal bitterness of the Cynar, but the fruit in the slow gin is enough to balance all that out. It’s still pretty spirit-forward, but super palatable.

I'm having a margarita with Gonzales Reposado. Yum.

• 1 whole yellow peach
• Limoncello
• quarter of a lime worth of juice
• ice

I really just eyeballed the amounts here, but the nice thing is that it's pretty easy to make a tasty cocktail with these ingredients!

Not July anymore, I'm having a drink before dinner, just thrown together with what looked good.

3 big sweet blackberries

2oz bourbon

1 oz orange liqueur

1/2 oz vanilla liqueur

1/2 oz lemon juice

Muddled then shook with ice.

Honestly could be a little sweeter. Blackberries are never as sweet as they seem. It's a one and done but if trying again, would muddle the fruit with sugar and then halve the orange liqueur, to get a more vanilla flavor. I was afraid of overdoing it.

For August, create a cocktail with Aperol.

Rules as usual - post entire recipe and a review, entries must be novel creations or variations; most upvoted wins.