#148 Cocktail: Greyhound

     Basically it is a Screwdriver made with grapefruit juice.
      The earliest known mention of a cocktail of this description is in bartender and author Harry Craddock's Savoy Cocktail Book of 1930. Craddock describes his recipe as "...a variation of the Grapefruit Cocktail...", suggesting that such cocktails were already in common use before his book was written. His recipe consists of nothing but gin, grapefruit juice and ice.
      A recipe for a similar cocktail with the name "Greyhound" appears in Harper's magazine in 1945 (volume 191, page 461) thus: "The cocktails were made of vodka, sugar, and canned grapefruit juice -- a greyhound. This cocktail was served at Greyhound's popular restaurant chain that was located at bus terminals, called 'Post House'."
       It should be noted that before 1945, vodka was an uncommon spirit and that most drinks we think of today as "classic cocktails" and which call for vodka, originally would have contained gin. As vodka's popularity grew after the War and gin's popularity waned, many of the popular cocktails persisted, albeit with vodka substituted for gin. The most conspicuous of these is the Martini which, before 1945, would invariably have been made with gin.    (Wikipedia)

2 ounces Vodka or Gin

3 ounces fresh grapefruit juice

#147 Cocktail: Godson

   The "God-" cocktails is a series of drinks which combines a basic liquor (scotch, vodka) with amaretto and sometimes, cream is added to the combination.
    I chose to make this, from the whole series of 4 cocktails, because in my opinion, this one is the most tasty of them all. When you take a sip from the drink, you feel the hardness of the scotch, but after that, you remain with the sweetness and the nice flavor of almonds  from the amaretto.
    It's a brilliant cocktail and it really surprised me by being so tasty and full of flavor

2 ounces Scotch

1 ounce Amaretto

1 ounce Cream

#146 Cocktail: Gimlet

   Again another easy to make and refreshing for the summer days, cocktail. With only 2 ingredients in it's composition, the Gimlet is not just simple but also really tasty.
   The Gimlet’s history was first recorded in print when Harry MacElhone included the recipe in his ‘ABC’s of Mixing Cocktails’ (1922) as one half Coates Plymouth gin and one half Rose’s Lime Cordial with the instructions to “Stir and serve in the same glass. Can be iced” and a short note saying it was a popular drink in the Navy. But 1922 wasn’t the gimlet’s first mention in print. In his memoirs, Admiral Albert Gleaves of the United States Navy mentioned that while on a visit to Tientsin, China in September of 1920, ‘I was served a new drink called a gimlet – a mild affair of gin, lime juice and water.’  (http://www.creative-culinary.com)
    Another theory is that the drink was named after British Royal Navy Surgeon Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Gimlette KCB (1857-1943), who allegedly introduced this drink as a means of inducing his messmates to take lime juice as an anti-scurvy medication. (Limes and other citrus fruit have been used by the Royal Navy for the prevention of scurvy since the mid-18th century.) However, neither his obituary notice in The Times (6 October 1943) nor his entry in Who Was Who 1941–1950 mention this association.

2 1/2 ounces Gin

3/4 once Rose's Cordial

#145 Cocktail: Gin Rickey

  Man, spending summer at the country house. So many fresh fruits and so many places to use in the cocktail photography
  Let's continue the list of gin based summer drink with another classic.
  In 1883, Colonel Joe Rickey was purported to have invented the "Joe Rickey," after a bartender at Shoomaker's in Washington, D.C. added a lime to his "mornin's morning," a daily dose of Bourbon with lump ice andApollinaris sparkling mineral water. Some stories place the exact day as a Monday after Col. Joe Rickey celebrated his wager with a Philadelphian on the successful ascension of John G. Carlisle to Speaker of the House. Col. Joe Rickey was known as a "gentleman gambler" and placed many bets on the outcome of various political contests.

   By the 1890s the Gin Rickey had supplanted the early Bourbon version now known as the "Joe Rickey." George Rothwell Brown ascribes the creation of the Gin Rickey to the Chicago exposition of 1893 where the jinrikusha, or rickshaw, was introduced from Japan. It became a joke among travelers

2 ounces Gin

3/4 ounce fresh lime juice

3 ounces club water

#144 Cocktail: Gin and Tonic

    I will continue the list of summer cocktails with, in my opinion, one of the most simple and well known cocktail ever made. Who in this world didn't hear about gin and tonic?
     The cocktail was introduced by the army of the British East India Company in India. In India and other tropical regions, malaria was a persistent problem. In the 1700s it was discovered that quinine could be used to prevent and treat the disease, although the bitter taste was unpleasant. British officers in India in the early 19th century took to adding a mixture of water, sugar, lime and gin to the quinine in order to make the drink more palatable. Soldiers in India were already given a gin ration, and the sweet concoction made sense. Since it is no longer used as an antimalarial, tonic water today contains much less quinine, is usually sweetened, and is consequently much less bitter.

       

2 ounces Gin

3 ounces Tonic Water

#143 Cocktail: Gin Buck

        The gin buck, an utterly forgotten favorite from the 1920s, '30s and '40s. Nobody knows where it came from. Nobody knows what happened to it.
        Buck, and also mule, are slightly antiquated names for a family of historic mixed drinks that involve ginger ale or ginger beer, citrus juice, and any of a number of base liquors.
        Gin buck, also known as a London buck or a Ginger Rogers (after the actress of the same name), it's an easy and tasty drink to make. You just have to squeeze a lime wedge in the glass, drop it in there, put the ice on top, add the ingredients, stir briefly and.....done. Congrats!! You made a tasty summer cocktail.

2 ounces Gin

3 ounces Ginger Ale

1 lime wedge

     

#142 Cocktail: Golden Cadillac

    A nice sweet creamy cocktail which is classified as an after dinner drink, a digestif more than an aperitif like most cocktails.
     In El Dorado, California exists a bar known as Poor Red’s. Sometime in 1951 or 52, a woman and her new fiancé came into Poor Red’s. To celebrate their engagement they decided their very own cocktail should be created in their honor. The couple and long-time bartender Frank Klein decided it should be created to match their newly purchased golden Cadillac. Several recipes were tried, butt he final concoction is still known worldwide as the Golden Cadillac: a cocktail whose success has been credited to the unmatched quality of Bols Crème de Cacao, the clean mountain water that makes up the ice, decades old metal blenders, the perfect measure of half and half, and of course – the unique flavors and golden color of Galliano L’Autentico.     Since this was written the bar has narrowed its creation date to 1952.
     Galliano recently gave Poor Red's a Golden Cadillac to display indefinitely outside the bar.

(Source: www.alcademics.com)

2 ounces creme de cacao

3/4 ounces Galliano

1 ounce cream

#141 Cocktail: Grasshopper

     Did you ever had a liquid mint chocolate? Well, this is it. This cocktail is freakin' brilliant!!
     The name of the drink derives from its green color, which comes from crème de menthe. The drink reputedly originated at Tujague's, a landmark bar in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, and was invented by its owner, Philip Guichet. As the story goes, it was submitted as an entry to a New York cocktail contest which was held, amazingly enough, in 1928 just before Prohibition was repealed. It is reported to have won second place. (Source: Roy F. Guste, Jr. "The Restaurants of New Orleans") Some other sources refer to the contest happening in 1919 however, just prior to Prohibition. However since one of the reported judges was Walter Winchell, who's career didn't really start until 1920, it is more likely that the contest happened during Prohibition.

1 1/2 ounce creme de menthe

1 1/2 ounce white creme de cacao

1 ounce cream

     

#140 Cocktail: Frozen Margarita

    And the last cocktail from the "Frozen" series is the famous Margarita.....well, the frozen one.
I won't tell the history of this cocktail, cause I want to keep it for the REAL Margarita cocktail. There is a liiiiitle waiting time till then.
     I can say that the cocktail has the same taste as the original, the only difference (like the Daiquiri) is the texture. As you imagine, this one is thicker, cause of the "frozen" effect :)
      In my opinion, this version of the Margarita, is better on a hot summer day than the original one.

3 ounces Tequila

2 ounces Triple sec

1 ounce fresh lime juice

#139 Cocktail: Frozen Banana Daiquiri

   We will continue this summer pina colada style of drinks with this tasty drink that (you guessed it ) it's a twist on the classic Daiquiri.
    It is not hard to make this drink if you have a blender. Just add to the classic recipe of the Daiquiri a whole banana, some ice cubes (to fill a collins glass....like 4-5) and there you go.....you have a nice summer drink based on a nice classic drink. Cheers

2 ounces Light Rum

1 ripped banana sliced

1 ounce fresh lime juice

#138 Cocktail: Frozen Pina Colada

    The name piña colada literally means "strained pineapple", a reference to the freshly pressed and strained pineapple juice used in the drink's preparation.
     Two Puerto Rican bartenders contest the ownership of their national drink. Ramón 'Monchito' Marrero Pérez claims to have first made it at the Caribe Hilton Hotel's Beachcomber Bar in San Juan in 1954, using the then newly-available coco lópez cream of coconut. Coco lópez was developed in Puerto Rico in 1948 by Don Ramón López-Irizarry, hence the Puerto Rican connection and the 1952 account of the drink's creation. Some say the drink did not acquire its name until the 1960s.
      The Caribe Hilton Hotel sits on a 17-acre peninsula outside San Juan and was the first luxury hotel to open in the region, becoming a popular destination for the rich and famous who helped spread word of the drink.
      Ramón Portas Mingot also says he created it in 1963 at the Barrachina Restaurant, 104 Fortaleza Street, Old San Juan. The restaurant stands by his claim to this day

National Piña Colada Day is celebrated on the islands on 10 July......Damn, I was so close!!!

2 ounces Dark Rum

1/2 cup pineapple cubes

1 1/2 ounce coconut cream