How To Mix Every Cocktail | Method Mastery | Epicurious

Hi, my name is Jeff, I'm a bartender at Dutch Kills in New York City and today I'm going to show you how to mix

every

cocktail

and by

every

cocktail

we mean not every cocktail because that would be crazy. To focus on classic cocktails, these are the drinks from the 19th and early 20th centuries that are still popular today. These are the basic tools I use when making drinks. I use the Boston shaker because it gives me a little more control. It's easier to open and you get a frothier drink in the end strainers this is a hawthorn strainer this is a julep strainer this is a fine mesh strainer I like to use it to strain finer ice shards to get a really nice shaken cocktail Finally, the bar spoon needs them to stir your drinks.

Additionally, the bar spoon itself is a measurement for small portions. old fashioned, I can't stress this, good ice is extremely important to making a good cocktail, you can have great quality alcohol, beautiful fresh juices and then you put a chunk of smelly ice from your freezer into a drink and it will taste just like your freezer So what I recommend is to buy an ice bag at a grocery store before making drinks to make nicer ice in a silicone mold at home or if you live in a major city there is an ice company in town.

Most places where I'll be happy to provide you with large, dense cubes like this antique one. To make an antique, first we are going to build it in the glass. We start with a white sugar cube. Three to four good touches of bitter, just a little. a drop of soda water to help the bitters and sugar cube dissolve when mixed. Whiskey can be bourbon or rye. The most traditional is bourbon and that's what I'm using for this ice for an old fashioned style. I like to use it on such a large piece. as much ice as possible to fit in the glass, reduce the surface area between the ice and the rest of the drink so that we slow down the melting of the ice and can keep our drink longer and go down with the bar. spoon so we don't splatter everywhere, you really don't want to stir too much the old fashioned way and traditionally this is garnished with rabbit ears, which is a slice of orange and lemon, so I like to squeeze all the essential oils out of that turn and intertwine.

This is the classic of classic cocktails when the word cocktail came about, it was actually defined simply as a liquor with water, sugar and bitters, and those are the main ingredients of the drink. Manhattan. The first thing you will need is a cold pint glass. bitters in one ounce of sweet vermouth to two ounces of rye whiskey, and as always, we add all of our spirits before ice, starting with the least expensive ingredient first. You can use any mixing object to break the ice. I'm using the back of a steel mortar and pestle. in this case, for great control, you can even use a tablespoon of your kitchen and now let's stir, this will actually take a second, you can sing a song in your head, something I like to do, quickly check the flavor and temperature, It's getting colder.

Again, each ingredient should be as cold as possible to keep the drink as cold as possible for as long as possible. This is a luxardo cherry, the type of bright red maraschino cherries you see in many bars, they were based on this really very tasty one. I highly recommend finding them if you can mix drinks. I will use a julep strainer because it fits better in the pine glass. This is Manhattan. Legend has it that it was developed in the famous Manhattan club in the 1870s. It is probably the second most popular cocktail just after the old one.

To this day, whiskey sour to make a whiskey sour we need fresh lemon juice. Probably the quickest and easiest thing you can do to improve the quality of your drinks is to use fresh juice whenever possible. Simple syrup contains equal parts regular white sugar and dissolved water. two ounces of whiskey, so what makes this whiskey sour traditional is the addition of egg white for a foamy layer, so for any drink containing egg white, the first step is a dry shake before shake the drink with ice, this is called dry shake because it doesn't have ice, this is usually when you talk to your customers and then they tell you their problems, so our first step is complete.

You can see that the egg white is already nice and frothy, so now we're going to carefully add our ice to the shaken drink, smoother shakes at this point. I'm cooling the temperature in the shaker and it's creating a better seal between the two cans. Now that I feel like the shaker is cool enough, I can create an airtight seal. the Boston shaker and I actually opted to use a large, cold chicken coop for this. This is the Hawthorne strainer that is best suited for this type of shaker and as a garnish, make a little garnish with our Angostura bitters.

I'm drawing a line through the bitters to make a nice little feather pattern and this is your traditional whiskey sour. I love whiskey sours. I also love making them for people who have never tried them before because people don't always like the idea of ​​egg whites at first and then when you give them one. If you know, it is ethereal, fluffy and not eggy at all. Sazerac starts with a white sugar cube in a chilled glass shaker. We are going to wet this sugar cube with a good amount of peso bitters, which are the only bitters they form. we a traditional sazerac and as we always do when we have to dissolve a sugar cube we add just a drop of sparkling water not much and now we mix don't be afraid to do it because you don't want your sugar to dissolve, take out its aggressiveness two ounces of rye and break the spoon to the bottom, so while this azerax sits on ice we're going to rinse our glass with absinthe.

We like to put absinthe in one of these spray bottles. So, the traditional garnish for sazerac is a lemon wedge. Now some people like to serve the lemon with the drink. Others simply like to squeeze the essential oils out of the lemon and discard the lemon. I don't want to upset anyone, so what do we do? On the bar you put the lemon slice on the inside of the rim that way people have the option of having the slice or not. A sazerac is special because it is one of the first cocktails that used absinthe as an aromatic just for a finishing touch. a little almost seasoning for a drink, dose of whiskey, we're going to start with eagle parts, fresh lemon juice and simple syrup, two ounces of bourbon or rye whiskey works well for this, I'm using bourbon, we're just going to do the which we call a whip on this drink that is simply shaken with a small piece of ice and with this we are just trying to slightly chill the drink basically until the piece of ice dissolves.

Chill the double rocks glass for this we will use crushed ice. and I recommend going to a fast food restaurant or a fish market and begging them to give you their crushed ice because it's the best for this steel straw. I use steel straws because metal straws are good for the environment, but even more so, they are also very good. To drive the cold temperature of the drink, the solution receives two garnishes, a slice of lemon and a luxardo cherry and here you have your classic whiskey, any cocktail consisting of lemon juice, simple syrup and a liqueur, you can also mix fresh fruit in a solution for seasonality who doesn't like boulevardier seasons as always let's start with our least expensive ingredients first we have our campari sweet vermouth which is a must for a boulevardier and bourbon and we give this guy a good stir and I'll take a cold chicken coop, you can also serve a bilivarti with ice, but it's just standard and the traditional garnish and orange twist, this is one of my favorite cocktails, the boulevardier, which is often considered a cousin of the classic negroni, so that both share sweet vermouth and campari as for the three base ingredients with a bowl of variety, it's whiskey instead of presbyterian gin, presbyterian is my favorite in a category of drinks called buck, which is a lemon juice spirit and ginger so moscow mule kentucky mule all dollar examples so to start half an ounce of fresh lemon juice and for maximum ginger flavor we like to use fresh ginger juice the presbyterian is made with rye which We will beat with a small piece of ice just to cool the base mixture. slightly, I like to add the first little bit of sparkling water to the can, that way we get a little bit of carbonation that helps mix the soda into the drink as you pour it and my secret weapon, again, large ice and top with further. sparkling water and I like to top them with a little bit of crystallized ginger candy just to give people a little clue as to what they're about to drink this is a Presbyterian the platonic ideal of a ginger flashing whiskey use half an ounce of grenadine for this grandine is probably my favorite cocktail syrup, it is made from a concentrated fresh pomegranate juice sweetened with sugar and added one ounce of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice and two ounces of rye.

What I love about intermittent is that there aren't as many citrus soft drinks. what people think of when they think of rye whiskey and this is really one of those big hawthorne strainer shaking stones this is the flashing light a shaken rye cocktail probably originated in the mid to late 1940s appears in One of the great cocktail books of all time, the fine art of mixing drinks enhanced whiskey cocktail starts with peshawad bitters and just a tablespoon of absinthe half an ounce of luxardo maraschino this became available in America in the 19th century and became in a very popular sweetener as an alternative to sugar, therefore the whiskey cocktail improved unlike the old one that only used white sugar and this drink contains a lot of rye.

I'm trying to fit some ice to fit in the tapered bottom of the glass and just like the old one, you don't need to stir this drink too much and a nice squeeze of lemon with this guy, this is the whiskey cocktail improved, This whiskey cocktail thinks it's better than other whiskey cocktails and that's right, monte carlo, let's start with the angostura bitters. As many ancient variations do, instead of sugar, the Benedictine liqueur gives it an herbal, lightly sweetened touch. This is a drink that bartenders love to make because it has three ingredients and is very quick and very good.

This is Big Rock rye whiskey. in glass and we will give it a judicious stir so that the herbal qualities of the Benedictine combine very well with a touch of lemon, one of the most popular riffs on a charming old Monte Carlo named after a brave man called Carlo who climbed the mountain. I'm kidding, it's named after the city of Monte Carlo mint julep. First things first, we need a lot of mint for a mint julep, so what I do is use the bottom leaves of a mint sprig and save the top for decoration. I'm going to put about 15 or 16 nice fresh mint leaves in the bottom of the glass so that the ground beef can be sweetened a little bit with a little bit of sugar to start the searing process and bring out those mint oils and then a little bit of simple syrup to provide the rest of the sweetness needed, so I'm using the mixer here.

I also don't want to over mix the drink, but just mash it up enough and while I'm doing this I'm also scattering the mint. around the inside of the glass also two and a half ounces of bourbon, please, I'm going to fill this julep can about two-thirds full with crushed ice, so we're going to shake the drink, which is just to combine slightly. A drink with crushed ice places the crushed ice a little lower in the glass, leaving room for more. Add our straw now, which is much easier than if you do it after all the ice is there and we have the prettiest mint.

I like to lightly tap the mint against my hand to get the aromas coming out of the mint leaves and give it a nice touch of mint? Although I don't know when this tradition started, it is a very nice addition to a min julep to finish. Finish it off with a light splash of Jamaican rum and there's the mint julep, the official cocktail of the Kentucky Derby. Legally speaking, if you say the phrase "I declare," you're supposed to hold a chilled pint glass of julep martini. of mint more than anything else. I want a cold martini.

The standard martini specification is one ounce of vermouth to two ounces of gin. I like to go with a London Dry gin and now we're adding some heavy ice to the top with an ice-chilled chicken coop glass for our very cold martini. crystal clear and very cold julep strainer there are two common garnishes for the martini: they can be olives or a slice of lemon this is a gin martini with a twist obviously one of the most beloved classic drinks of all time and one of those that generate the Most variations, this is the standard Martinez again in a chilled pine glass, start with orange bitters, so traditionally this drink calls for equal parts sweet vermouth andold tom jin and you will notice that it is not clear like most gins, that is because the gin has not been aged in a barrel or malt has been added and also a little crushed ice, there are fights about how to garnish this drink, in this case the fight is with lemon or orange, let's go with lemon, this is the martínez, as is often thought.

Like the martini's predecessor, the biggest difference between the two is that this one is made with sweet vermouth instead of dry vermouth. Augers were traditionally made with rose lime juice, but today we like them with fresh lime juice, three-quarters ounces of simple syrup, and our standard two-ounce gin, this one has a slightly spicier, more citrusy finish. We have our cold chicken coop and a nice big rock to shake. I'll use two strainers, the Hawthorne strainer and a fine mesh strainer to get those last bits of ice and that's a trick one of the oldest, simplest and most refreshing gin cocktails gin rickythree very simple fresh ingredients: just gin, simple syrup and lime juice so a ricky is essentially a gimlet but with added soda served over ice and there's your ricky gin, it's just a simple and refreshing negroni fizzy gin cocktail.

The classic negroni has equal parts Turin sweet vermouth. If possible, London dry gin and Campari, a nice touch of big rocky orange for this guy, which is a negroni, a classic Italian cocktail, one of the most refreshing things you could drink. Surviving Corp number two, it's a drink that's equal parts lemon, triple sec, lilly. white and gin we will give our cold chicken coop a good rinse of absinthe and finish it with a generous touch of lemon. This is the surviving corpse number two a classic refreshing gin drink invented by harry craddock at the savoy hotel in london aviation number one as because it is number one, there is also a number two that does not contain the characteristic ingredient of crème de violet.

Violet cream is a liqueur made from the violet flower, but it is not always available and when it was scarce, the number two was invented echoing the presence of maraschino liqueur in the drink, we are also adding a cherry to the bottom, the weird and wonderful aviation number one, if you ever see cream of violet in someone's bar and wonder what it's used for, is that Tom Collins the one we use? parts eagle lemon and sugar two ounces of our old tom gin and we shake some soda in the can and the classic garnish is a luxardo cherry and a beautiful slice of orange this is a tom collins similar to a ricky gin except It's made with lemon juice instead of lime, we use gin fizz for this, our citrus is a split base of lemon and lime juice and for added complexity we also use a couple drops of orange flour, water, simple syrup, so that what makes a ramos gin fizz special is the meringue.

What is formed from this drink and what makes the meringue fluffier unlike other egg white drinks is the addition of heavy cream, two ounces of our gin and egg white to obtain a foamy surface and gets a particularly hard dry shake because we're really just getting started. that meringue right now I'm going to do this for a while, so let's talk more about the ramos gin fizz. It required so much work that initially it used to be a multi-person operation where one bartender would then pass this drink to another bartender. and then hand the rope to another waiter as they went, very good, this is great, we already have the beginning of our meringue forming down here, now carefully drop our big shaky stone so you can see our nice meringue is starting to form .

We'll put it in the freezer and let it set and come back, it solidified a little bit sitting in the freezer. If you're a good bartender, stick the straw in and it shouldn't move, I guess. I'm a good bartender, take the fizziest seltzer you can and pour it into the straw and that's your bouquet gin fizz, universally accepted as the hardest and most labor-intensive drink to make in the great city of New Orleans. a variation of the solution, so it's a crushed ice drink with lemon, sugar and liqueur and before we add the liqueur so there's not too much liquid in the glass, let's mix some berries in there right now and try it.

To make sure we crush each one, we can now add our two ounces of gin. We're going to give this just a little dry shake to incorporate that gin right into a chilled double rocks glass. That's great, let's fill this out. about two-thirds of the way with crushed ice so we know what we're drinking. This is a bramble. A dangerously easy to drink gin. With citrus and fresh fruit. Twentieth century. This drink is rare and I like it. It has lemon and chocolate. and it is very good, believe me, cocoa cream, if you can spend a few extra dollars for the good things about it, it makes a big difference and a little goes a long way.

You'll have this forever using American coke, which is a flavored fortified wine, yeah, just your classic gin, chocolate, lemon wine cocktail, but for some reason it really works because we use cocoa cream and this fortified wine, this gets less than For the usual two ounces of gin, you only get one and a half and with this drink we also finish it with a lemon wedge, although most bars like to squeeze the oils out of this lemon wedge and then discard it. This is a drink of the 20th century, a lemon and chocolate flavored gin drink invented in 1930, which is in the 20th century on these knees.

I love bee's knees because they're sweetened with honey instead of sugar, and it's actually the drink I make most for my friends when I'm searching their kitchen for ingredients I can use for a cocktail. I use a honey syrup which is really just honey slightly diluted with a little hot water to make it easier to pour and two ounces of gin. These are the bee's knees. One of the things I love about honey cocktails is that they create a very nice foam on the last word. So in this case, we use organic parts, fresh lime juice, maraschino liqueur, gin and green chartreuse, which is a very strong stuff, so this drink is one of those bartender drinks that bartenders really love .

I think the last word is disgusting. Everyone else loves this drink. I am the crazy one and my job is to please what a great order last word good drink and garnish it with a cherry they are delicious for most people last word vodka martini santa martini always asks for the driver's mouth and gin or vodka Modern tastes for Vodka martinis generally mean as dry as possible. I'm going to use just one drop, although it can often be none and because the cocktail is usually around 3 ounces total, with the vodka martini you'll usually get a slightly heavier pour than the usual two ounces, of course, The most popular variation of the vodka martini would be the dirty martini with olive brine added, which is great if you like sea water and give this guy a good stir, this should actually feel pretty good. frozen as with any vodka martini, it can be served with olives or a touch of lemon.

This is a vodka martini. I feel like I'm at a business lunch just looking at it. Moscow mule, like other drinks from the Buck family. I'll have lime juice and our fresh ginger syrup and two ounces of vodka. Normally this is when you would pull out the Moscow mule cup, but I'm not going to use the cup for this because in my opinion it just results in some sort of diluted drink. so I'm going to make this the same way I make all my other tall column drinks and it's all glass with a big chunk of ice so you can enjoy it for a while, add soda and that's a Moscow mule plus yeah bitters float atop a Moscow mule that is now a headless horseman and is delicious eve.

I'm going to use our American cookie. The original recipe called for a product called quina lalay but it's no longer made and this is kind of The closest thing we had to the Vesper vodka engine was James Bond's girlfriend. Spoiler alert. Things didn't end well for Vesper, and unlike martinis, where there's a choice between olives and lemons, there's no debate here. This takes a lemon. This is the famous Vesper invented. by ian fleming the creator of james bond james bond got me into the world of cocktails so this drink has extra meaning to me margarita obviously the margarita is one of the most popular cocktails in the world there are so many different ways to prepare it. it can be shaken, it can be served ice side up, so for me it's just triple sec lime juice and silver tequila, the unaged tequila variety and as for the glassware, I'm going to rim this glass, a big margarita of Rock is probably one of the most popular drinks in the world and is the national drink of Mexico.

I like mine with stones and salt. Pigeon. So this drink is made with tequila and grapefruit soda, but we're going to make ours with fresh grapefruit juice and lime, so this is my version. a drink that is usually made with a packaged drink, liquid sugar, two ounces of tequila, shake, that kind in our crushed ice, add a little bit of soda, can I add a little bit of salt on top to season that drink and Give him a welcome? dose of bitterness a long hint of grapefruit this is an easy drinking paloma grapefruit tequila many of them mexican firing squad special equal parts lime and grenadine and a few healthy pinches of angostura form the flavor base for this and two ounces of tequila This drink has a name that sounds politically incorrect, but it was invented in Mexico, so we will use it with canned soda and a slice of orange along the glass.

This is a special daiquiri from the Mexican firing squad. The daiquiri couldn't be simpler. just three ingredients lemon juice simple syrup two ounces white rum let's double strain this guy for clarity this is a daiquiri or a natural daiquiri just rum lime and sugar it's pretty sacred to bartenders hemingway daiquiri among many variations of daiquiri this is one of the most popular ones that stood the test of time it is sweetened with maraschino liqueur and also has the addition of grapefruit juice this is a Hemingway daiquiri Hemingway was famous for not liking sugar in his drinks that's why this It is named for the lack of sugar dark and stormy we are using our standard speck of lemon juice and fresh ginger syrup bermuda rum this is dark and stormy i really like this drink the dark and stormy is the national drink of bermuda and it's always made with gosling rum if it's not goslings it's not dark and stormy mai tai this is how to make mai tai this is orja it's an almond-scented syrup used in a variety of tiki drinks little good for much here dry curacao which is one of the many different types of orange liqueurs used in classic cocktails, agricultural rum, which is made from fermented cane syrup and has a really nice flavor.

We're just giving this a quick whip to release those aromas. I like to put that mint right next to it. to the straw so that when you put it in your mouth you receive the aroma directly towards you and we finish with a splash of our strong and funky Jamaican rum. This is a mai tai, the sexy granddaddy of all tiki drinks, mojito when making a mojito, we're going to need a lot of fresh mint, we've got a nice chunky demerara sugar cube here and before we add the liquor so it's not too runny In the shaker, we mixed two ounces of silver rum, without really trying. add a lot of foam or anything to the drink right now just to combine it and in a double glass under chilled crushed ice to give it a mental punch.

This is a mojito, the national drink of Cuba, one of the simplest and most delicious drinks there is. just rum, lime, sugar and mint hotel now watch now special probably my favorite rum drink if I had to choose this is kind of a pineapple version of a daiquiri, but instead of using sugar to sweeten we use apricot brandy, yes possible, we use fresh pineapple juice for this last but not least, this includes just a tablespoon of cane syrup, this gives it just a touch of depth and two ounces of aged drum and, to finish, just a pinch of bitters Angostura, a small feather on the top, this is a special national hotel invented. at the hotel nacional in cuba i highly recommend trying this one if you don't have any accompaniment another great simple three ingredient cocktail cointreau lemon juice and cognac for this we are going to go for a dry version of the cocktail, the sugar free version and finish this guy off with a touch of lemon, the sidecar is an undisputed classic, a wonderful cocktail of citrus brandy and spicy French 75.

We'll start with a half ounce of lemon juice and simple syrup. Technically, a French 75 can be made with gin or cognac. but for today's purposes we're going with the cognac version and what makes a 75 french champagne a 75 french champagne, yes a quick tip like holding on to the metal tree when you drink this and last but not least, the lemon twist, this is a french 75 that sounds like a beautiful and elegant name, but it is actually named after a military cannon because it feels like getting hit by one when you drink abrandy Alexander. You only need three things to make an Alexander brandy. brandy cream and cocoa cream. an indulgent brandy alexander decadent but surprisingly balanced just a nice creamy brandy drink right view start with a small amount of our monk made benedictine herbal cure and since the view created is a sort of variation of manhattan it wouldn't be complete without vermouth sweet and sour, rye whiskey and of course cognac, a big chunk of ice, finish with a slice of lemon or an orange, depending on your bartender, since I'm here and you're on the other side of the screen and not can tell anything about what I'm doing. lemon, this is a curry view, another classic New Orleans pink lady, so when we make a pink lady, we'll start by cracking an egg into our large shaker, apart from everything else, we'll mix in fresh lemon juice, that nice tart grenadine and grenadine.

As for the hard stuff, the pink lady gets a split base of gin and apple brandy, aka apple brandy, make our little feather design. This is a pink lady that is too often forgotten, but a true classic Angostura bitters from Monaco has half an ounce each of dry and sweet vermouth and for the tough stuff we have a split base of London dry gin and French cognac all the way up and The Monaco cocktail, of course, was invented in one of the oldest restaurants in the country, a pretty lemon strip. the monaco cocktail the best jack rose in new york to make a jack rose you only need three things fresh lemon juice incredible edible grenadine and our apple brandy the jack rose fyi is the perfect drink for thanksgiving dinner pie simple and refreshing delicious extra drink born in new jersey if you add an absinthe rinse to a jack rose that is a pan american clipper clothing spritz, there are a million ways to make a clothing spritz, but this is the classic two ounce of aperol, three ounces of prosecco brut, your fizziest seltzer and the traditional garnish would be just a slice of orange and a touch of orange to give a little more orange flavor to the drink, then I throw it in and don't tell anyone that made the aperol spritz.

You can do it a million different ways, but this is the classic one. American traditionally built into the glass that it is drunk from, so we will start this on ice showing our Turin vermouth as well as with the negroni and campari garnished with soda and this can be garnished with a slice of orange or a nice touch of orange . It is an Americano, it is the predecessor of the Negroni champagne cocktail. Sprinkle this white sugar cube heavily with Angostura bitters. In Casablanca they drink champagne cocktails constantly. If you had a champagne cocktail every time they had one in Casablanca, you'd be dead.

This is a champagne cocktail that dates back to the mid 19th century bamboo to make a bamboo we need two types of Angostura bitters and a smaller amount of orange bitters and for this we use organic parts dry vermouth and Fino sherry delicious fortified wine I don't know who invented this, but if you have some bamboo like a bamboo shooter, you can call it Bambooter, a delicious low-alcohol cocktail that dates back to the Japanese pisco sour of the late 19th century. We use only a split base of the lemon and lime the reason is simple that in Peru and Chile the citrus fruit that they would actually call lemon has a flavor that is right in the middle of the lemons and limes that we get here, just serve pisco which is technically in the brandy family, but it's actually something unique and an egg white now, traditionally, a pisco sour can be topped with three points of angostura bitters or grated cinnamon.

I like to do both just because I like the flavor each gives. A pisco sour, the national drink of Chile and Peru, both countries claim to have created this drink. I choose not to get involved in that fight for a caipirinha. We're going to mix a fresh lime into the drink with our lime slices. We are going to add to our friend the sugar cube that we use for most of our mixing applications, as well as a simple syrup and before adding the base liquor we will model and two ounces of cachaca cachaca is a fermented sugar cane product and with the caipirinha.

We don't really want to shake the drink too much, we just need to give it about 10 shakes or so. This is a caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil. It uses fresh lime mixed into the drink, which gives it a really nice spicy flavor. The love of classic cocktails is the rich tradition and history behind each of these recipes. Each country has its own spirit that it is proud of, so you can truly have a worldwide experience when trying classic cocktails. Are you trying to mix these cocktails at home or if you just go to a good cocktail bar, I recommend ordering one of these classics, maybe try one you haven't tried before and learn the history of it all, cheers.