MOJITO: Muddle four lime slices, two teaspoons granulated sugar, eight fresh mint leaves, and a dash of lime juice in a highball glass. Add ice and 1-1/2 ounces light rum. Fill with club soda and top with a dash of lime juice.
Originating in Cuba in the 16th century, the Mojito is possibly the world’s first cocktail, Lime, mint, and sugar were used to cover the harsh taste of aguardiente, a primitive form of rum. The name probably comes from a Cuban sauce called mojo made from garlic, olive oil, and citrus juice, which led to the cocktail with “a little mojo” or, in Spanish, “Mojito.”
WHISKEY SOUR: Shake 1-1/2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey, 1 ounce lemon juice, and 1/2 ounce simple syrup with ice, strain into a sour glass, and garnish with a cherry. Shaking in a dash of egg white turns the drink frothy (and makes it a Boston Sour) but flattens the taste.
Sour cocktails evolved from the practice of adding lime juice to rum to prevent scurvy among sailors in the British Navy in the 1700s, which also kept the fruit from spoiling on long voyages. First appearing in Jerry Thomas’ A Bartender’s Guide in 1862, the whiskey sour is a simple and pleasant drink and the foundation of hundreds of similar cocktails.
SIDECAR: Shake 2-1/4 ounces brandy or cognac, 1-1/2 ounce Cointreau, and 3/4 ounce lemon juice with ice, strain into a sugar-rimmed cocktail glass, and garnish with a lemon twist.
Created during WWI, this cocktail was named for the motorcycle sidecar in which an American Army captain was driven to and from Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. The captain asked for a pre-dinner cocktail to ease the chill he had caught outside. The French bartender knew brandy was best to take off the chill but it was traditionally an after-dinner drink. So as not to break tradition, he added Cointreau and lemon juice and the sweet yet tangy cocktail still popular today came to be.
RUSTY NAIL: Stir 2-1/2 ounces Scotch and 1/2 ounce Drambuie together and pour over ice in a lowball glass. Use more or less Drambuie based on the taste and character of the Scotch.
The Rusty Nail is a combination of high-class ingredients (Scotch and Scotch-based liqueur), smooth taste (the liqueur and ice soften the liquor’s edge), and easy construction (if it’s too sweet, add more Scotch), resulting in a mellow cocktail with a lovely rust color. It was touted by Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine in the 1960s as the swinger’s drink and was as much a part of a suburban recreation room as coffee in a church basement.
BELLINI: Pour 2 ounces of peach nectar or puree into a chilled champagne flute, then stir while slowly adding 3-1/2 ounces champagne.
Name for the 15th century Italian painter Jacapo Bellini, this cocktail was created in 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani at Harry’s Bar in Venice during peach season. Perhaps the most sophisticated italian cocktail, it reproduces the generally warm peach glow of Bellini’s paintings.
WHITE LADY: Shake 1-1/2 ounces gin, 1 ounce Cointreau, 1/2 ounce lemon juice, and 1/2 egg white with ice and strain into a sour glass.
This cocktail first appeared in Harry Craddock’s Savoy Cocktail Book published in 1930 when he worked at the American Bar in London. However, Harry MacElhone is also often credited with creating the drink as early as 1919, although with creme de menthe instead of gin. He later perfected it at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris in the late 1920s or early 1930s.
OLD FASHIONED: Muddle 1 sugar cube, 6 drops Angostura bitters, and a dash of water in a lowball glass, add ice and 3 ounces of bourbon or rye whiskey. Stir and garnish with a lemon twist or a maraschino cherry and an orange slice if preferred.
The first use of the name “Old Fashioned” for a bourbon whiskey cocktail is said to have been at the Pendennis Club, a gentlemen’s club founded in 1881 in Louisville, Kentucky. The story says a bartender there invented it in honor of Colonel James E. Pepper, a prominent bourbon distiller, who brought it to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel bar in New York City. There are a variety of earlier versions.
CUBA LIBRE: Pour 2 ounces light rum, 1 ounce lime juice, and 3 ounces cola over ice in a lowball glass, garnish with a slice of lime.
Columbus claimed Cuba for Spain in 1492. After unsuccessful rebellions all during the 19th century, Cubans launched all-out revolt in 1895 with the battle cry “Viva Cuba libre.” The US battleship Maine, sent to evacuate American citizens, exploded in Havana’s harbor in 1898. This ignited the Spanish-American War and resulted in Spain’s withdrawal that same year. America’s military and business interests had significant influence on Cuba and thousands of cases of Coca-Cola followed. On a tropical island with an abundance of rum, the inevitable cocktail marking Cuba’s liberation came to be.
PISCO SOUR: Shake 3 ounces Pisco brandy, 1 ounce lime juice, 1 ounce simple syrup, and 1 egg white with ice and strain into a lowball glass. Garnish with several drops of Angostura bitters and a lime slice.
Pisco is a regional South American brandy and the Pisco Sour is the favored cocktail of Peru and Chile. In Peru, American expatriate Victor Morris of the Morris Bar in Lima is credited with creating this cocktail in 1920 as a variation on the whiskey sour. In Chile, legend tells of Elliot Stubb, an English steward of a sailing ship who mixed regional liquor with limes and created the first Pisco Sour in 1872. Both countries celebrate Pisco Sour Days, Peru in February and Chile in May.
LONG ISLAND ICED TEA: To a tall Collins glass of ice add 1 ounce each vodka, gin, rum, tequila, triple sec, and lemon juice. Add 3/4 ounce simple syrup, stir and top with cola.
If you set a thousand monkeys at a thousand typewriters one of them will eventually write Hamlet, or so the theory goes. This recipe, claimed to have been created by Robert Bott, bartender at the Oak Beach Inn in Babylon, Long Island, likely came about through a similar process of tossing stuff together to see what worked. This seemingly bizarre combination mostly tastes like lemonade.
DAIQUIRI: Shake 2 ounces light rum, 1 ounce fresh lime juice, 1/2 ounce simple syrup, pour over ice into a lowball glass, and garnish with a lime slice.
Named after the southeastern Cuba town of Daiquiri, the American engineer, Jennings Cox, invented this cocktail around 1900. He was preparing to host visiting American friends and discovered he was out of gin. He used his supply of rum, limes, and sugar to create a now-classic cocktail.
STINGER: Shake 3 ounces cognac and 1/2 ounce white creme de menthe and pour into a large brandy glass filled with crushed ice.
Created during Prohibition, ingredients of the Stinger were originally proportioned to cover the harsh taste of cheap speakeasy alcohol. Instead of equal measures of each ingredient used then, the drink now has only a small amount of creme de menthe so it doesn’t overwhelm the cognac’s taste.