#285 Cocktail: Tsar's Champagne

   The recipe was submitted by pioneer spirits writer Herb Silverman who said that he heard of it from a Russian in 1945 and that it was supposedly the favorite drink if the tsars of Russia.
    Even if it sounds that will blow your head off, it's not that bad when you drink it. I might have to see what happens later.

2 ounces chilled vodka

3 1/2 ounce chilled champagne

#284 Cocktail: Toasted Almond

  I know it looks like the White Russian, but it is not. Probably someone (I have no idea who) created it for the ones who do not enjoy White Russian.
   It's quite tasty, but it's a little too sweet for me. It happens when you combine only two liqueurs. Easy way to make it and if you don't like vodka, this one is for you.

 1 1/2 ounce Amaretto

1 1/2 ounce Kahlua 

1 ounce cream  

#283 Cocktail: Tiepolo

    One of the cocktails that enter in the "most easy to make" type of drinks. This is just a strawberry variation of the well known Bellini. If you like sweet cocktails,this is one for you.
      Do know who created the cocktail, but the name might come from the eighteenth-century Italian artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

2 ounces strawberry puree

3 1/2  ounces chilled prosecco

#282 Cocktail: Teresa

    A really unusual drink where the base is not a strong spirit but a softer one. A little to sweet for my taste, but nonetheless a really tasty one.
     It was adapted from a recipe by Rafael Ballesteros of  Spain. Campari, a bitter aperitif of Italy, is often married to fruit juices such as grapefruit juice or orange juice, but Rafael took it a step further and used creme de cassis, finishing by adding lime juice to the mix and creating a complex marvel of a drink

2 ounces Campari

3/4 ounce Creme de Cassis

1 ounce fresh lime juice

#281 Cocktail: White Russian

   The traditional cocktail known as a Black Russian, which first appeared in 1949, becomes a White Russian with the addition of cream. Neither drink is Russian in origin, but both are so named due to vodka being the primary ingredient. It is unclear which drink preceded the other.
   The Oxford English Dictionary refers to the first mention of the word "White Russian" in the sense of a cocktail as appearing in California's Oakland Tribune on November 21, 1965. It was placed in the newspaper as an insert: "White Russian. 1 oz. each Southern, vodka, cream", with "Southern" referring to Coffee Southern, a short-lived brand of coffee liqueur by Southern Comfort.

   Though long regarded as a boring and unsophisticated drink, the White Russian saw a surge in popularity after the 1998 release of the film The Big Lebowski. Throughout the movie, it appears as the beverage of choice for the protagonist, Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski. On a number of occasions he refers to the drink as a "Caucasian".

2 ounces vodka

1 ounce Kahlua 

1 ounce cream

#280 Cocktail: The Third Degree

  The cocktail can be found in the Savoy Cocktail book as a drier alternative to another cocktail called, The Forth Degree. The first one consists in equal parts of gin, vermouth and a dash of absinthe, an the latter one diminishes the amount of vermouth
   

2 1/2 ounces vodka or gin

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

Absinthe or absinthe substitute to taste

#279 Cocktail: Tea Tini

    As you can already see from the name of the cocktail, the drink is a twist on the classic martini. A more manageable one for the people who can't tolerate a strong drink.
    The cocktail is adapted from a recipe from the Peninsula Grill in Charleston, North Carolina

1 3/4 ounce vodka

1 ounce sweet iced tea

1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

#278 Cocktail: Tart Gin Cooler

     Another brilliant cocktail created by Gaz Regan and his wife, Mardee. Such a good and fresh taste for a hot summer day like the ones we have right now in Europe.
    It's a very simple and quick drink to make. It came after a little experimentation with tonic water which when combined with lemon results in bitter lemon, a well known drink in Great Britain. But Gaz replaced the lemon with grapefruit juice and created this wonderful drink

2 ounces gin

2 ounces grapefruit juice

2 ounces tonic water

Peychaud's bitters to taste

#277 Cocktail: Singapore Sling

      The Singapore Sling is a gin-based cocktail from Singapore. This long drink was developed sometime before 1915 by Ngiam Tong Boon, a Hainanese bartender working at the Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, Singapore. It was initially called the gin sling – a sling was originally a North American drink composed of spirit and water, sweetened and flavored.
        By the 1980s, the Singapore Sling was often little more than gin, bottled sweet and sour, and grenadine. With the move towards fresh juices and the re-emergence of quality products like Cherry Heering, the cocktail has begun to resemble its original version.

2 ounces Beefetaer Gin

3/4 ounce Cherry Heering

1/4 ounce Benedictine

1/2 ounce triple sec

2 ounces pineapple juice

3/4 ounce fresh lime juice

Angostura bitters to taste

club soda

#276 Cocktail: Tequila Sunrise

   The original Tequila Sunrise contained tequila, creme de cassis, lime juice and soda water and was served at the Arizona Biltmore Hotel, where it was created by Gene Sulit in the 1930s or 1940s.
   The more popular modern version of the cocktail contains tequila, orange juice, and grenadine and was created by Bobby Lozoff and Billy Rice in the early 1970s while working as young bartenders at the Trident in Sausalito, California north of San Francisco. In 1972, at a private party at the Trident organized by Bill Graham to kick off the Rolling Stones' 1972 tour in America, Mick Jagger had one of the cocktails, liked it, and he and his entourage started drinking them. They later ordered them all across America, even dubbing the tour itself their "cocaine and tequila sunrise tour".
   At the time, the Trident was the largest outlet for tequila in the United States, and in 1973 Jose Cuervo picked up on the new drink as a marketing opportunity and put the recipe for the new drink on the back of their bottles of tequila, and promoted it in other ways. Later that same year the Eagles recorded a song called "Tequila Sunrise" for their Desperado album as the drink was soaring in popularity.

Wikipedia

2 1/2 ounces Tequila

3 ounces fresh orange juice

splash of grenadine

#275 Cocktail: Sea Breeze

   The cocktail was born in the late 1920s, but the recipe was different from the one used today, as gin and grenadine were used in the original Sea Breeze. This was near the end of the Prohibition era. In the 1930s, a Sea Breeze had gin, apricot brandy, grenadine, and lemon juice. Later, a Sea Breeze recipe would contain vodka, dry vermouth, Galliano, and blue Curaçao.
   The cranberry grower's cooperative in the 1930s evolved into Ocean Spray which marketed cranberry juice in the 1950s. Cranberry juice was used as a mixer with alcohol, first with gin and later with vodka. The Harpoon, later called the Cape Codder, was born, and its descendants such as the Greyhound, the Salty Dog, the Bay Breeze, and the Sea Breeze were later created. Starting in the 1960s, the breeze drinks were sporadically in the top ten most popular mixed drinks.
   According to some, the Sea Breeze, along with the Cape Codder and Bay Breeze, did not become very popular until the 1970s. This was because in 1959, the U.S. Department of Health stated that cranberry crops were tainted with toxic herbicides, collapsing the cranberry industry.

Wikipedia

2 ounces vodka

1 1/2 ounce fresh grapefruit juice

1 1/2 ounce cranberry juice

#274 Cocktails: Southside Fizz

   A beautiful cocktail, taste wise. It's a little like the classic Mojito but with gin as the base alcohol. I can say that it works perfect and it's really refreshing
   From what I saw in the recipe, the soda water can be also replaced by the tonic water or add a little Angostura aromatic bitters enrich the taste. I didn't do it, for I wanted to stick to the classic recipe, but you can try

4 lemon wedges

5-6 fresh mint leaves

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 1/2 ounces gin

Soda water 

#273 Cocktail: Stiletto

       Adapted from a recipe by Al Romeo of Anthony's, Huston, Texas.
       The recipe is really interesting for it incorporates the lime in a bourbon cocktail. There are not so many cocktails out there where this combination is used.
       I can tell you that the whole recipe works really well and the drink is really delicious

2 ounces bourbon

1/2 ounce amaretto 

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

#272 Cocktail: Russian Squirrel

     From the "squirrel" class created by Gaz Regan, comes the Russia squirrel which, of course has as base alcohol......vodka
      Even if seems like an innocent drink, do not be fooled, it has 2 ounces of vodka and can do a little damage.

2 ounces vodka

1/2 ounce creme de noyau

1/2 ounce fresh lime juice

#271 Cocktail: Sloe Gin Fizz

     As the title says, it's just a Fizz cocktail where the base alcohol is sloe gin. Very good and refreshing drink for the hot summer days......even if here is still winter\ early spring
      The cocktail doesn't have known history (at least I didn't find one), so just enjoy it without knowing where it came from

2 1/2 ounces sloe gin

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

1/2 ounce simple syrup

#270 Cocktail: Scottish Squirrel

    This cocktail is from the "squirrel" family created by Gaz Regan. The name, is of course from the base alcohol, which here is scotch.
     The scotch goes really well with the nut flavor liqueurs, like Frangelico or Nocello, not only with the creme de Noyau.
     I used here Frangeico, because I do not have Creme de Noyau, that is why the color is not the typical red.

1 1/2 ounce Scotch

3/4 ounce Creme de Noyaux

3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice

#269 Cocktail: Stinger

    The Stinger originated about 1890. The cocktail may have been derived from The Judge, a cocktail made with brandy, crème de menthe, and simple syrup found in William Schmidt's 1892 cocktail book The Flowing Bowl. It was immediately popular in New York City, and quickly became known as a "society" drink (i.e. only for the upper-classes). According to bartender Jere Sullivan in his 1930 volume The Drinks of Yesteryear: A Mixology, the Stinger remained a critical component of the bartender's repertoire until Prohibition.
     The Stinger was not initially seen as a cocktail (i.e. a drink served before dinner), but rather a digestif (after-dinner drink). Writing in the 1910s and 1920s, humorist Don Marquis's "Hermione" (a fictional daffy society do-gooder) refused to refer to the Stinger as a cocktail, indicating its status in upper-class society. Over time, however, the Stinger came to be consumed like a cocktail.
     The Stinger was a popular drink during American Prohibition, for crème de menthe could mask the taste of the inferior-quality brandies then available. The Stinger began to lose favor with Americans in the late 1970s, and was not a well-known cocktail in the early 21st century.  (Wikipedia)

3 ounce Brandy

1/2 ounce white creme de menthe 

#268 Cocktail: Seven&Seven

      This one is a simple combination between a whiskey and 7Up juice. But, there is a catch. It works really good only with Seagram's Seven Crown whiskey. A really good American blended whiskey.
       Easy drink to make and really enjoyable. Not one of my favorites though

2 ounces Seagram's Seven Crown whiskey

3 ounces 7Up juice

#267 Cocktail: Satan's Whiskers

     At a first look, the combination of all these drinks seem not to work thatwell, but I tell you it does, and it is very, very tasty.
      It seems apparent that the Satan’s Whiskers is a variation on a favorite cocktail of the early 20th Century, The Bronx. It is perhaps inevitable that some of the other boroughs of New York clamored for a cocktail of their own after the success of The Manhattan, with The Brooklyn - a very nice mix of Rye, Dry Vermouth, Maraschino and the nearly impossible to source Amer Picon - being far better and far more delicious than the Bronx, which is simply a Perfect Martini (equal parts sweet and dry vermouth), tarted up with some orange juice. While not offensive, the Bronx is lacking, but it was incredibly popular in its day; President Taft once scandalized the nation by having one with his breakfast and it was deemed one of the ten most popular cocktails of 1934 by Burke's Complete Cocktail & Drinking Recipes. On the flip side, Esquire put the Bronx on its list of the 10 Worst Drinks from 1924-1934.

(www.birthmoviesdeath.com)

1/2 ounce gin

1/2 ounce dry vermouth

1/2 ounce sweet vermouth

1/2 ounce fresh orange juice

1/4 ounce Grand Marnier

Orange bitters to taste

#266 Cocktail: Salty Dog

     Well, this is really simple....the cocktail and the origin. The recipe is exactly like the Greyhound, the only difference is the adding of salt. Taaaa-daaaaa! That's all!
      Nonetheless, a really great summer drink.

2 ounces Vodka

3 ounces fresh grapefruit juice

#265 Cocktail: Southside

    Its origins are subject to speculation. It has been proposed that it gets its name from either the South Side district of the city of Chicago, Illinois, or from the Southside Sportsmen's Club on Long Island.
   The drink may have been the preferred beverage of Al Capone, whose gang dominated Chicago's South Side. The gin imported by Capone's rivals on the North Side of Chicago was smooth, and usually consumed with ginger ale. However, the gin consumed by Al Capone's gang had a rougher finish, and required more sweeteners to make it palatable. Thus the South Side was born.

Wikipedia

4 lemon wedges

2 to 3 teaspoon granulated sugar

4 to 5 fresh mint leaves

2 1/2 ounces Gin

#264 Cocktail: Sloe Comfortable Screw

   There is no known history of this drink combination, but the name is really easy to decipher. It comes, obviously from the usage of Sloe gin, Southern Comfort and the orange juice which turns this cocktail in a "Screw"
    Very tasty and summery cocktail, despite the fact that here are 2 degrees Celsius. But that doesn't mean we have to stick on drinking only hot beverages

 3/4 ounce Vodka

3/4 ounce Sloe Gin

3/4 ounce Southern Comfort

3 ounces fresh orange juice

#263 Cocktail: Sex on the Beach

   Well, because it's Valentine's Day, I thought this would be a good idea and a great opportunity to post this "naughty" cocktail.
    There are several stories claiming to describe the origin of the Sex on the Beach. One claims that the cocktail originated in Florida, USA in the spring of 1987 coinciding with the introduction of peach schnapps. A bartender at Confetti's Bar devised the drink and gave it the name in a nod to the many tourists visiting Florida's beaches each spring.
    Happy Valentine's Day!!

1 1/2 ounce vodka

1/2 ounce peach schnapps

1 1/2 ounce fresh orange juice

1 1/2 ounce cranberry juice

#261 & 262 Cocktails: Scotch and Soda/ Scotch and Water

  First of all, I would like to apologize to all the scotch drinkers for this post. I know it is an abomination combining good scotch with water or anything that derives from water.....like ice. But I had these 2 mixes in my book and I wanted to be done with them, that is why I put them in 1 post.
   I would like to tell you that I drank both glasses and that no alcohol was wasted or harmed.

2 ounces scotch 

3 ounces soda water

2 ounces scotch

3 ounces water

#260 Cocktail: Shandy

    Well, this is a beer.....actually a combination of 2 beers. But is damn good!!
     Originally known as a Shandy Graff, this drink has been around since at least the 1880s, when it was usually made with ginger ale rather than lemon lime soda. The old ginger ale version is superior to today's lemon-lime drink. But to make it better than that, make it with Jamaican ginger beer, it's a crisp mouth-puckering treat. However you will make this drink, be sure to pour the soda into the glass first, otherwise it will foam over the top before you finish pouring

8 ounces lemon-lime soda, ginger ale or ginger beer

8 ounces amber ale

#259 Cocktail: Sidecar

    The exact origin of the sidecar is unclear, but it is thought to have been invented around the end of World War I in either London or Paris. The drink was directly named for the motorcycle attachment.
    The Ritz Hotel in Paris claims origin of the drink. The first recipes for the Sidecar appear in 1922, in Harry MacElhone's Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails and Robert Vermeire's Cocktails and How to Mix Them. It is one of six basic drinks listed in David A. Embury's The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks (1948).
   According to Embury, the original sidecar had several ingredients, which were "refined away". Embury also states the drink is simply a daiquiri with brandy as its base rather than rum, and with Cointreau as the sweetening agent rather than sugar syrup. He recommends the same proportions (8:2:1) for both, making a much-less-sweet sidecar. However, Simon Difford, in his book Encyclopedia of Cocktails, notes Harry Craddock's ratio of 2:1:1 in The Savoy Cocktail Book, and then suggests a middle ground between Craddock's recipe and the "French School" equal parts recipe of 3:2:2, calling Embury's daiquiri formula "overly dry" for a sidecar.
   The earliest mention of sugaring the rim on a sidecar glass is 1934, in three books: Burke's Complete Cocktail & Drinking Recipes, Gordon's Cocktail & Food Recipes, and Drinks As They Are Mixed (a revised reprint of Paul E. Lowe's 1904 book).

Wikipedia

2 1/2 ounces cognac

1 ounce triple sec

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

#258 Cocktail: Screwdriver

    One of the most simple cocktails out there and, I think, the one that everyone knows and likes. I had this cocktail since I turned 18 (or maybe before....who knows), in different quantities, even in a beer stein glass. Well that happened in my younger days in a bar situated on a beach in Romania. Oh, how I miss those days!
     Being a really simple cocktail and quite boring looking in the picture, I thought that I will spice it up by adding a blood orange. Only for garnish.

2 ounces vodka

3 ounces fresh orange juice

#257 Cocktail: Scofflaw

   According to Michael B. Quinion, publisher of www.worldwidewords.org, the word "scofflaw" came after the sum of 200 dollars was offered,in 1923, with whoever came up with the best word to describe "a lawless drinker of illegality made or illegally obtain liquor".
   The prize money was donated by a rich Prohibitionist who wanted to "stab awake the conscience" of those who drank alcohol during Prohibition
    The following year was reported in the Chicago Tribune that "Jock", a bartender at Harry's New York Bar in Paris, had created the Scofflaw Cocktail.

2 ounces bourbon or rye whiskey

1 ounce dry vermouth

1/2 ounce fresh lemon juice

1/4 ounce Grenadine

Angostura orange bitters to taste

#256 Cocktail: Seelbach

      "For the last 20 years, if you were in the bar business and knew one thing about the bartender Adam Seger, it was that he was the man behind the Seelbach cocktail.
      The Seelbach is named after the Seelbach Hotel (today the Seelbach Hilton), a storied century-old lodging in downtown Louisville, Ky., that is mentioned briefly in “The Great Gatsby.” Shortly after being put in charge of the hotel’s bar and restaurant operations in 1995, Mr. Seger declared that he had discovered a recipe for a pre-Prohibition cocktail that was once the hotel’s signature drink. He tested it, liked it and put it on the menu.
        After two decades of yarn-spinning, Mr. Seger, 47, who left the hotel in 2001 and recently helped open the Tuck Room in downtown Manhattan, has decided to come clean that he concocted not only the drink but also the story behind it."

The New York Times

        The cocktail is beautifully delicious!!! The adding of the Cointreau gives a really nice orange flavor and the bourbon compliments it with a nice sweeteness. One of the most delicious champagne cocktails I ever had

 3/4 ounce bourbon

1/2 ounce triple sec

7 dashes Angostura bitters

7 dashes Peychaud's bitters

8 ounces Champagne

#255 Cocktail: Sazerac

    Back after a long pause while I moved from Germany to Estonia, fond a new job and settled down.
     So I wanted to start this year with a classic and a very tasty cocktail.....the Sazerac
     Around 1850, Sewell T. Taylor sold his New Orleans bar, The Merchants Exchange Coffee House, to become an importer of spirits, and he began to import a brand of cognac named Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils. Meanwhile, Aaron Bird assumed proprietorship of the Merchants Exchange and changed its name to Sazerac Coffee House.
     Legend has it that Bird began serving the "Sazerac Cocktail", made with Sazerac cognac imported by Taylor, and allegedly with bitters being made by the local apothecary, Antoine Amedie Peychaud. The Sazerac Coffee House subsequently changed hands several times, when around 1870, Thomas Handy became its proprietor. It is around this time that the primary ingredient changed from cognac to rye whiskey, due to the phylloxera epidemic in Europe that devastated the vineyards of France
      At some point before his death in 1889, Handy recorded the recipe for the cocktail, which made its first printed appearance in William T. "Cocktail Bill" Boothby's The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them (1908),although his recipe calls for Selner Bitters, not Peychaud's. After absinthe was banned in the US in 1912, it was replaced by various anise-flavored liqueurs, most notably the locally produced Herbsaint, which first appeared in 1934

3 ounces straight rye whiskey

3/4 ounce simple syrup

Peychaud's bitters to taste

Hersaint to rinse the glass