Cocktail Recipes for your COVID-19 Blues

By: H. Wruble - May 2020

If you do not know how to mix drinks, you must learn at least one, and that is the Bourbon Old Fashioned. It is extremely simple to do and literally one of the sweetest, most sophisticated mixed drinks, at least in my humble opinion. Before you do this, please note that with the Old Fashioned, unlike any other mixed drink, the Bourbon is the most important, if you wouldn’t sip the Bourbon, you wouldn’t use it as the base in the Old Fashioned. 

Let me explain this concept. When you mix drinks, the base of the drink (Bourbon, Rum, Vodka, Gin etc.) gets overwhelmed by the other ingredients. So if you are mixing a Cuba Libre (Rum & Coke) using a Ron Zacapa 23, the sweet taste of the Ron Zacapa rum would be lost by the mixing of the coke, so rather than use the expensive sophisticated Ron Zacapa Rum, you would use a cheaper rum. The same with other mixed drinks, BUT not with the Old Fashioned. 

All of the drinks recipes I present to you below will be simple and easy to learn, but the Old Fashioned will be the most vivid and sophisticated drink. 

As with all of the drinks below, except for the Cuba Libre and the Zesty, the sweetener may be the most difficult decision you will have to make. Will you use the muddled sugar approach or will you use the simple syrup approach? The weight and texture of the muddled sugar adds a different dimension to your drink, but also is difficult to get perfect, even though it is a simple concoction. 

How to create the Muddled Sugar:

Ingredients:

? teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon water

Very simple right? Not really, you have to ensure that sugar is dissolved into the water, making sure that there aren’t any sugar grains left, if mixed correctly, it creates a different level of the drink, if not mixed corrected and dissolved perfectly, you lose some of the taste you would typically expect in your drink.

With that said and to keep these drinks simple, I will use ? oz of simple syrup for the drink mixture rather than the muddle sugar. 

Please note, the ratio I use for each of my drinks is ? oz simple syrup to 2 oz of the spirit called for in the recipe. In most bars you will hear the ratio 2/1/1  which means they use 2 parts of the base and than 1 part sweet and 1 part sour, which basically breaks down to 2 oz of the spirit, ? oz simple syrup and ? oz sour, but I am trying to make these drinks simple and quick for you to make. If the drink ends up being too strong for you or not sweet enough, then bump up the simple syrup to ? or 1 oz rather than the ? oz I have in the recipe. 

The next question to the equation is do you stir in the ingredients or do you shake the ingredients? Remember the James Bond quote, shaken not stirred. 

It is one of those questions debated between mixologists around the world. The agreed upon rule is that you shake your cocktail when the recipe includes fruit, cream liqueurs, simple syrup, sour mix, egg, or dairy and stir the cocktail when using gin or whiskey.  

Shaking is used to ensure that every ingredient within the cocktail mixture is completely integrated into the finished product. It should be noted that by shaking, the cocktail mixture will also break down the ice that you are shaking in your drink, thus adding a greater amount of water to the drink than usually called for, this may dilute the alcohol but it may also balance out the drink. 

Stirring is a more gentle approach and the theory is that shaking will bruise the spirit. Again that is debatable, however a gin and tonic and rum and coke are typically stirred (these aren’t considered cocktails but mixed drinks) as is the Martini. When you hear a guy in the bar ask for a martini shaken not stirred, they really don’t know what they are talking about and are mimicking Mr. Bond. 

Interestingly the Old Fashioned, is stirred as well, even though you are using the simple syrup concoction as part of the drink. 

I am different from others as I believe in shaking most of my drinks as it fully integrates all of the ingredients into a more well balanced finished product, I also find that when I shake a drink that calls for mixing it comes out much better and the customer enjoys it more than when I mix the drink. I suggest that you take it upon yourself and try it out, if the cocktail calls to stir, try it that way and then the next time try shaking it and figure out what works better for you. 

Highball vs Rock Glasses? What are you talking about? A highball glass is a tall skinny glass that you would typically use for drinks made with lots of ice and a larger portion of non-alcoholic  mixers such as Screwdriver (orange juice and vodka mixed drink) or a Cuba Libre (Rum and Coke mixed drink). A rock glass is a drink containing more of the spirit than any other mixers and is typically strained. If you use a highball when the drink calls for a rocks glass you will dilute the cocktail due to the excess ice cubes in the glass.  

One other item to note, the only bitters I know to be certified kosher by the OU are bitters created by angostura, recognizable by the distinctive newspaper type wrapper around the bitters bottles (it has a large OU on the bottle). I have heard that the Bitterman bitters are kosher but have not tried them, yet. 

I should credit mixologists and bartenders around the world who have passed some of these recipes down from generation to generation, such as The Old Fashioned, Cuba Libre and the Mojito. The Zesty was inspired by Chris at Casa De Montecristo in Boca. The Green Bourbon and the Mango Rum was cooked up in my basement during the recent Coronavirus Shutdown. 

Old Fashioned 

Ingredients:

? oz simple syrup

3 to 4 dashes of angostura bitters

2 oz bourbon

Garnish- Orange Peel

Add simple syrup and bitters into a rock glass and stir for 10 seconds

Fill the rock glass with ice, If you can use one large ice cube that would be ideal, add bourbon and gently stir.

Squeeze the orange peel into the glass and drop it in, you can also rub it on the rim of the glass prior to dropping the peel into the drink.

Alternative: The above is the tried and true way to create an old fashioned, I would like to add a twist to this and create a different shaken version, which I find to be slightly better. (Rather than add 2 oz of bourbon, add 2 ? oz of bourbon as the ice during the shaking process will slightly dilute the drink. 

Take a shaker, add ice cubes, then add the simple syrup, bitters, bourbon, squeeze the orange peel into the shaker. Shake for around 20 seconds, the shaker will become ice cold to the touch and then you will know it has been shaken to perfection. 

Take a rock glass and add your ice cubes or the one big ice cube, strain the shaker out over the rock glass, take another orange peel squeeze the peel over the drink and drop the peel in, again you can rub the orange peel around the rim of the glass before dropping it in.   

If you have various types of bitters, you may want to try adding those rather than the angostura bitters or you may want to add them in addition to the angostura bitters. As an example I have some orange bitters and blood orange bitters.  I would use 2 dashes of angostura bitters and then 2 dashes of the blood orange bitters which makes your old fashion stand out more than a typical bar made old fashioned. 

Cuba Libre (Rum and Coke)

Although not considered a cocktail, this mixed drink is simple and sweet and extremely easy to create.

Ingredients:

1 oz Rum

3 oz Coke

2 lime wedge

Using a highball glass filled with ice cubes, add the rum and then the coke, squeeze the lime wedge, stir the drink then drop in a new lime wedge. Enjoy!

Green Bourbon

This drink will have a cloudy milky complexion due to the avocado, it has a savory, rather than a sweet taste to it, but strangely is extremely satisfying. 

Ingredients:

? an avocado

? oz simple syrup

2 oz bourbon

2 lime wedge

Take your shaker and muddle the avocado. Add the simple syrup, bourbon and squeeze the lime into the mixture. Add Ice and shake for 20 seconds. 

Important Note: You will need two strainers, for this next step. 

Fill your rock glass with ice and strain your drink over the strainer, you want to prevent any pieces of the avocado from going into the rock glass. Add the lime wedge to garnish.

Mango Rum / Mango Bourbon 

I tend to lean towards the whiskies when I create drinks, however I have found that mixing it up a bit adds different dimensions to my cocktails that stand out when I go outside the whisky world. My mother has a mango tree and she has so many mangos she doesn’t know what to do with, but I do, why eat a mango when you can drink one too.

Ingredients:

? of the mango

? oz simple syrup

3 to 4 dashes of bitters

2 oz Rum (or bourbon)

3 Lime wedges

This is an amazingly sweet drink, so I recommend you double your ingredients so you have two drinks rather than one, it does tend to go down quickly on a hot summer day or a beautiful spring evening. 

Drop the mango pieces into the bottom of your shaker and muddle it, make sure it is as close to liquid form as possible, it will help when you strain your drink into your rock glass.

Add the simple syrup, rum (or Bourbon) and bitters, squeeze two lime wedges into the mixture and drop them right in with the concoction. Add ice and shake for 20 seconds. Because this drink has pieces of mango pour all of the drink into one side of the shaker set, attach the strainer to the shaker and using another strainer, strain the drink into the other shaker. This will help ensure there aren’t large pieces of mango floating around your drink. Attach the strainer to the other shaker that has all of the liquid in it and then strain it into a rocks glass. Garnish with the lime wedge. 

The Zesty  (Cherries, Orange and Rum)

This is a very zesty drink with some complex flavors using cherries, an orange slice (not a peel), bitters and my favorite rum, Ron Zacpa. Again it is very simple and extremely delicious, you won’t find this at many bars so you will have to explain it to the mixologist behind the bar. This drink was created with Ron Zacapa in mind, it won’t have the complex taste if you use a cheaper rum such as Bacardi or Captain Morgan.

Ingredients:

5 to 6 maraschino cherries (you can substitute Filthy Black Cherries or Ole Smoky Tennessee Moonshine Cherries)

3 to 4 dashes of bitters 

2 oz of Ron Zacapa Rum 

1 slice of orange (again not the peel)

1 orange peel 

Take 3 to 4 cherries and drop them into your shaker, take the orange slice and drop that in there as well. Muddle them up, add the rum and the bitters. Add ice to the shaker and shake it up for around 20 seconds, strain into a rock glass (again use one large piece of ice or three normal size ice cubes) garnish with a cherry and the orange peel, (before dropping the orange peel in your drink, you can run iit around the rim).

Mojito 

Everyone has had one, everyone has a slightly different recipe. It's easy, simple and tasty and great on a Sunday afternoon. 

Ingredients:

6 mint leaves

? lime (split into 4 slices)

1 lime wedge to garnish

? oz simple syrup

2 oz white rum

Mint spring to garnish

Club soda

Drop the 6 mint leaves, the simple syrup and the lime slices into the shaker, and muddle, ensure the mint leaves and the lime slices are mashed completely. Add the 2 oz of white rum and then add ice to the shaker. Shake the mixture for around 20 seconds and strain into a highball glass filled with ice cubes, top the glass off with the club soda and then add the lime wedge and the mint spring to garnish.