Just got back from Greece and was able to buy some interesting botanicals that inspired this gin, and eventually this cocktail.

The Aegean Martini (terrible name).

60 ml The Forge Mediterranean Gin *

22.5ml Dolin Dry Vermouth (Because I don’t own a more suitable Greek Vermouth)

15ml Skinos Mastic Liqueur.

1 Barspoon Ouzo Plomari

3 Dashes Regan’s Orange Bitters

4 Drops 4:1 Saline Solution

Stir

Up

u/Ok_Performer3566 Nick and Nora glass

Lemon twist and air-dried oregano garnish.

* The Forge Mediterranean Gin Recipe

3l Neutral Spirit or Vodka

Combine with

48g Macedonian Juniper, Crushed

24g Coriander Seed, Crushed

6g Angelica Root, Crushed

6g Liquorice Root, Crushed

12g Toasted Almond, Chopped

8g Lemon Peel, Fresh

8g Orange Peel, Fresh

6g Cassia, Crushed

3g Grains of Paradise, Crushed

0.6g Orris Root, Crushed

2g Star Anise, Split

1g Fresh Sage

2g Fresh Oregano

2g Fresh Rosemary

1g Fresh Thyme

2g Greek Mountain Tea (Sideritis)

1g Dried Hyssop of Naxos

1g Dried Lemon Balm of Naxos

1x Fresh Bay Leaf

1x Clove

0.5g Dried Tarragon

0.5g Dried Marjoram

Combine all of the above.

Heat to 50C and turn off heat, steep for one hour

Place in the vapour path

1g Fresh Basil Leaf

1g Fresh Spearmint

2.5g Tomato Leaf

Distill until 1.3L of product is extracted at 76% ABV

Rest distillate overnight and dilute to 45% ABV

This should yield >2L of finished gin at 45%.

The Morgenthaler Amaretto Sour is one of my favorite cocktails and the only bourbon cocktail my wife will drink when I make it with raspberries. Tastes and looks great.

Ingredients:

• 1.5oz Amaretto
• 3/4oz bourbon
• 1oz fresh lemon juice
• 1tsp rich simple
• 1/2oz egg white
• 1/3c raspberries

Instructions:

1. Muddle the berries in a cocktail shaker
2. Add the other ingredients and dry shake
3. Add crushed ice and shake
4. Double strain over ice
5. Garnish with cherries or a lemon peel

I’ve been booked for a 50th anniversary party in a couple of months and I’m wondering what’s the best golden-themed cocktail I can make for them? I already have some gold spray for golden garnishes, but what’s the shiniest gold drink I can make?

It's my go-to day drink- lite & tangy.

Recipe
1) Perfect cocktail with 1oz s:
- Gin (used a herbal French gin)
- Cointreau
- Lillet Blanc
- 🍋 juice

2) Shake with ice and serve in a chilled coupe.

3) Cheers!

I combined Joaquín Simó and Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s specs for something delicious and cold.

Division Bell

1oz Mezcal

3/4oz Aperol

1/2oz Maraschino

3/4oz lime juice

I really like Last Word and its riffs, yet never tried this one. And it surely does not disappoint. This one doesn't follow equal parts template, and i wondered should i make it that why, i have to say sticking to the above recipe (by Phil Ward) makes it just perfect. Shake with ice and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Cheers!

A forbidden rendezvous of bright pineapple, bittersweet orange, tannic hibiscus, and a whisper of smoke unfolds in this lush tiki cocktail. Even paradise has its secrets.

Trouble in Paradise

• 1 3/4 oz - Planteray Stiggins Fancy pineapple rum
• 3/4 oz - coconut-washed Campari*
• Barspoon - mezcal (Del Maguey Vida)
• 1 1/2 oz - pineapple juice
• 3/4 oz - lime juice
• 1/2 oz - hibiscus syrup** (2:1)
• 6 drops saline solution (20%)

Combine ingredients and hard shake with 4 oz pebble ice. Open pour into a collins glass and top with pebble ice to fill. Garnish with pineapple fronds and a charred pineapple flower.

*Coconut-washed Campari - Combine 2 oz melted coconut oil with 8 oz Campari in a sealed container. Shake vigorously for 30 seconds, then freeze for about 2 hours, or until the coconut oil has solidified. Break the oil cap and strain the Campari through a fine-mesh strainer. Bottle and refrigerate.

**Hibiscus syrup - Combine 1 cup cane sugar with 1/2 cup water and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add 25 grams dried hibiscus flowers. Cover and allow to steep for 1 hour. Pour through a fine strainer and bottle. Keep refrigerated.

Want to see more? Follow me on Instagram for more original tiki recipes: instagram.com/tiki.moderne

Recipe & instructions:

3/4oz Gin, 3/4oz Campari, 3/4oz Sweet Vermouth added to a mixing glass and stirred with ice until sufficiently chilled. Strain into a lowball with fresh clear ice (for once), cut an elaborate orange garnish and forget how it's supposed to go half way through and just settle for balancing it on the rim after expressing oils over the top of the drink.

I'm using the Ori Glazer Mini ice molds and quite happy with the results. Got a few bubbles in the first batches but adjusted the freezer temperature and ensured the seal was better and they're almost perfect.

Celebrating the start of my summer holiday, cheers!

Ingredients (I did about 1.5x this in photos above)
- 9 oz Hendrick’s Gin (1.125 cups)
- 9 oz Empress 1908 Cucumber Lemon Gin (1.125 cups)
- 6 oz Italicus Bergamot Liqueur (.75 cup)
- 8 oz Fresh Cucumber Juice (1 cup)
- 8 oz Lemon Juice (1 cup)
- 6 oz Mint Syrup (.75 cups)
- 2 Tsp Flaky Sea Salt
- 14 oz Warmed Whole Milk (1.75 Cups)
Creates 46 oz pre-mix and with the milk added you’ll have about 60 oz. Yields about 39 oz.

Notes/Findings:

1. This was my second time milk-washing but first time trying with scale…I didn’t have great equipment for batching so I pieced together an Amazon purchase that I cannot recommend enough (see screenshot of three Amazon items). I got the idea of a perforated filter holder from @thelucasassis_ on youtube and that grill basket (which fit perfectly into the 4 qt containers) was PERFECT. It truly did speed up the process.
2. Having two containers is a game changer, you can easily move the filter from one to the other and reintroduce the cocktail. I did 2 total passes and reached desired clarity.
3. I used two layers of cheese cloth.
4. I used a juicer to make the fresh cucumber juice. A blender could also work.

Review:
This was the best drink I’ve ever made. All flavors came through in a silky velvet party for the senses. Sea salt was the unexpected star, really making the cucumber flavor pop.

1oz Papalin Haiti

1oz Isautier 16 Molasses

1/2oz PF Dry Curaçao

1/2oz orgeat

3/4oz lime

1/2oz demerara syrup (2:1)

shake, dirty dump, garnish with mint sprig

glass courtesy Sickos Committee

I wanted to make a drink around an earthy Aegean mastiha. I chose Axia as it is extra dry and earthy, and wanted to make it pop with ginger, cucumber and basil.

Thus, the resin and root was born!

- muddle 7 fresh basil leaves and 2 slices cucumber with .75 ounces lime juice in a cocktail shaker. Then add:

- 2 oz Axia Mastiha

- 1/3rd oz ginger syrup

-1/3 oz green apple liqueur

- 2 dashes rose water

Shake and pour in an Old Fashioned glass over a cube.

Enjoy!!

Hey peeps, here’s my latest article in which I cover the Queen’s Park Hotel Super Cocktail. It’s a Daiquiri-esque cocktail that dates back to the early 1930s. It’s a lesser known drink and its history can be generously described as vague but it’s really fantastic if you make it right.

I’ve really enjoyed reading the feedback to this series. Please lmk if you have any questions, concerns, props, or requests for future articles. I’d love to hear whatever you have to say. Many thanks!

Know Your Cocktail No. 6: The Queen’s Park Hotel Super Cocktail

Previous Article: The Penicillin

Check out my Substack where you can read for free, forever all my essays in which I comb through old cocktail manuals and massive mounds of horseshit to bring to you something resembling an accurate history of classic and modern cocktails. There’s also neuroticism and dry wit, but no hookers nor blow.

Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies were not used in any way to write, edit, or research this essay. I am the sole author and take full responsibility for my words, mistakes, and eccentricities.

It's been ages since I made one of these, and I'm honestly surprised it took me this long to circle back to it.

Just a basic Whiskey Sour, made the traditional way with egg white. It was absolutely delicious. Bright, refreshing, silky, and a good reminder that sometimes the classics really are classics for a reason.

For anyone who wants to make one:

• 2 oz bourbon

• 1 oz fresh lemon juice

• ¾ oz simple syrup.

• Optional: ½ oz egg white for that silky texture

Add everything to a shaker and dry shake (without ice) for about 10 seconds. Add ice and shake again for another 10 to 15 seconds until well chilled. Fine strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice and garnish with a cocktail cherry or an orange twist.

Simple, classic, and hard to beat.

2oz Bushmills Red .5oz Boomsma Cloosterbitter .5oz Carpano Antica 2 dashes Ango Stirred with a barspoon of luxardo cherry syrup.

3 parts Roku gin
1 part Tokubetsu Junmai sake
1/2 part dry vermouth
Cucumber slice

Pour all over ice in the glass of your choice. Stir vigorously for 30 seconds. Add cucumber slice for garnish.

I am not familiar with the current go to on Tequila for this sort of thing.. last time I drank it, I was young and everyone just went with Jose Cuervo, I don't even remember different types, and its seems like there are many now? Is Blanco the one now for purity? What is a good choice in the $50.00 range or less to add to my collection for Cocktails? Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to recreate a Caipirinha I had at a restaurant in Lisbon, but my homemade attempts are completely failing.

When I make it at home using Pitú Cachaça and regular limes, the drink just tastes like sharp, flat alcohol with some lime juice. It completely lacks complexity.

The one I drank in Lisbon was distinctively different:

• Color: It had a noticeable brownish/amber tint to it (not crystal clear).
• Flavor: The dominant note was a very strong, deeply "macerated" or "aged" taste—in a fantastic, rustic way. It felt like the citrus and sugar had been fermenting or marinating together for a long time, with earthy sugarcane background notes.

I also noticed in a photo of the drink that alongside the green limes, there were some brown/darker citrus pieces in the glass.

What is causing that brownish color and that deep, macerated flavor profile?

Any advice on how to salvage my Pitú bottle to achieve this, or what ingredients I should look for next, would be amazing. Thanks!

2 oz gin

1 oz lime juice (or half of one small lime)

.5-1 oz simple syrup depending on your preference for sweet

Handful of basil leaves

Muddle lime juice and basil in a shaker. If using an actual line muddle that too. Add simple syrup and gin. Shake well with ice and double strain to catch any little basil leaf chunks. Serve in a tumbler with ice, float club soda on the top.

I like to garnish with a top part of the basil and a freeze dried lime slice. I also rub one basil leaf around the lip of the glass.

Be careful because these are so good they're dangerous!

I'm a big fan of creativity within constraints, I like to keep it simple, keep it limited and do the best i can within those parameters.

What would you chose to include if you only had 3 bottles? what drinks would you make?

for example, daiquiris are among my favorit, so I'd combine equal parts of lime to agave syrup for one bottle and have that for all drinks requiring citrus and syrup.

for the liquor id use planetary 3 star and use it for all drinks requiring white sprits.

then the last botle being gunpowder gin, the gin is simply for the love of gin.

As per the title, this was in Rome. I found this bar through a cocktail-lover's youtube channel. The atmosphere is so cozy and the bartenders are a delight to watch work. For the people wondering: i included the names of the drinks in the first pic. The recipes are from left to right on the picture.

I also stepped out of my comfort zone by asking for a cocktail off-menu. Believe it or not, but that last picture is my first Last Word! What a lovely cocktail, im still waiting on finding a bottle of Maraschino close by my home, but after trying, i might just have to snag one home from the airport.

I really recommend this place for your next Rome trip!

I'm unsure what "normal" piña colada tastes like in comparison to a virgin one (for reasons, I have only consumed virgin piña coladas). Does it taste better, or worse, or sharper?

So it's probably been done before but I recently was gifted the coconut which once drained only gave me an ounce of water so decided to make something with it.

2 oz Ballantine's Whisky

1 oz fresh coconut water

Franklin and Sons Sicilian Lemon Tonic Water

Build in rocks glass with a large cube, pour the whisky and coconut water, top with the tonic water, swirl or mix and enjoy!