10 Cocktails Every Home Bartender Should Master
OLD FASHIONED
The old fashioned is a cocktail made by muddling sugar with bitters, adding whiskey or, less commonly, brandy, and garnishing with a twist of citrus rind. It is traditionally served in an old fashioned glass, which predated the cocktail.
Main alcohol: Whisky
Ingredients: 1 1/2 oz Bourbon or Rye whiskey, 2 dashes Angostura bitters, 1 Sugar cube, Few dashes plain water
Preparation: Place sugar cube in old fashioned glass and saturate with bitters, add a dash of plain water. Muddle until dissolved. Fill the glass with ice cubes and add whiskey. Garnish with orange slice, and a cocktail cherry.
Served: On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish: Orange slice, Cocktail cherry
Drinkware: Old Fashioned glass
MARTINI
The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet", and E. B.
Main alcohol: Gin
Ingredients: 1/2 oz (1 part) Dry vermouth, 3 oz (6 parts) Gin
Preparation: Straight: Pour all ingredients into mixing glass with ice cubes. Stir well. Strain in chilled martini cocktail glass. Squeeze oil from lemon peel onto the drink, or garnish with olive.
Served: Straight (or on the rocks)
Standard garnish: Olive, Lemon twist
Drinkware: Cocktail glass
MANHATTAN
A Manhattan is a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey, and Tennessee whiskey.
Main alcohol: Whisky
Ingredients: Maraschino cherry (Garnish), Dash Angostura bitters, 2 oz Rye or Canadian whisky, 3/4 oz Sweet red vermouth
Preparation: Stirred over ice, strained into a chilled glass, garnished, and served straight up.
Served: Straight up; without ice
Standard garnish: Cherry
Drinkware: Cocktail glass
MARGARITA
A margarita is a cocktail consisting of tequila, orange liqueur, and lime juice often served with salt on the rim of the glass. The drink is served shaken with ice, blended with ice, or without ice.
Main alcohol: Tequila
Ingredients: 2 oz Tequila, 1 oz Lime juice, 1 oz Cointreau
Preparation: Rub the rim of the glass with the lime slice to make the salt stick to it. Shake the other ingredients with ice, then carefully pour into the glass (taking care not to dislodge any salt). Garnish and serve over ice.
Served: On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish: Lime slice, Salt on the rim
Drinkware: Margarita glass
BLOODY MARY
A Bloody Mary is a cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and other spices and flavorings including Worcestershire sauce, hot sauces, garlic, herbs, horseradish, celery, olives, salt, black pepper, lemon juice, lime juice or celery salt.
Main alcohol: Vodka
Ingredients: Worcestershire Sauce, Pepper, MORE
Preparation: Add dashes of Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco, salt and pepper into highball glass, then pour all ingredients into highball with ice cubes. Stir gently. Garnish with celery stalk and lemon wedge (optional).
Served: On the rocks; poured over ice.
Standard garnish: Celery stalk or dill pickle spear
Drinkware: Highball glass
NEGRONI
The Negroni is a popular Italian cocktail, made of one part gin, one part vermouth rosso, and one part Campari, garnished with orange peel. It is considered an apéritif. A properly made Negroni is stirred, not shaken, and built over ice in an old fashioned or ‘rocks’ glass and garnished with a slice of orange.
Main alcohol: Campari, Vermouth, Gin
Ingredients: 1 oz (1 part) Gin, 1 oz (1 part) Campari, 1 oz (1 part) Sweet red Vermouth
Preparation: Stir into glass over ice, garnish and serve.
Served: On the rocks
Standard garnish: Orange peel
Drinkware: Old Fashioned glass
IRISH COFFEE
Irish coffee is a cocktail consisting of hot coffee, Irish whiskey, and sugar, stirred, and topped with cream. The coffee is drunk through the cream.
Main alcohol: Irish whiskey
Ingredients: 2 2/3 oz (4 parts) Hot coffee, 1 1/3 oz (2 parts) Irish whiskey, 1 tsp. Brown sugar, 1 oz (1½ parts) Fresh cream
Preparation: Heat the coffee, whiskey and sugar; do not boil. Pour into glass and top with cream; serve hot.
Served: Hot
Drinkware: Irish coffee mug
WHISKEY SOUR
The whiskey sour is a mixed drink containing whiskey, lemon juice, sugar, and optionally, a dash of egg white. With the egg white, it is sometimes called a Boston Sour. With a few bar spoons of full-bodied red wine floated on top, it is often referred to as a New York Sour.
Ingredients: 1 oz (2 parts) Fresh lemon juice, MORE
Preparation: Shake with ice. Strain into ice-filled old-fashioned glass to serve "on the rocks."
Served: Shaken; on the rocks
Standard garnish: Maraschino cherry, Lemon rind, Sugared glass, Orange slice
Drinkware: Old fashioned glass, Cobbler
COSMOPOLITAN
A cosmopolitan, or informally a cosmo, is a cocktail made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice, and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice.
Main alcohol: Vodka
Ingredients: 1/2 oz Fresh lime juice, 1 oz Cranberry juice, 1/2 oz Cointreau, 1 1/2 oz Vodka Citron
Preparation: Add all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and double strain into large cocktail glass. Garnish with lime wheel.
Served: Straight up; without ice
Standard garnish: Lime wedge, Lemon slice
Drinkware: Cocktail glass
TOM COLLINS
The Tom Collins is a Collins cocktail made from gin, lemon juice, sugar, and carbonated water. First memorialized in writing in 1876 by Jerry Thomas, "the father of American bartender", this "gin and sparkling lemonade" drink is typically served in a Collins glass over ice.
Main alcohol: Gin
Ingredients: 1 oz (2 parts) Freshly squeezed lemon juice, MORE
Preparation: Mix the gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup in a tall glass with ice, top up with soda water, garnish and serve.
Served: On the rocks; poured over ice
Standard garnish: Lemon slice, Maraschino cherry
Drinkware: Collins glass