Cocktail Recipes
THE LEVÉE
the levee
INGREDIENTS
1.5oz January Genepy
.75oz Paranubes Rum
1oz pineapple juice
.5oz lime juice
.25oz honey syrup
METHOD
Pour all ingredients into a shaker tin, add a small amount of crushed or pebble ice, and whip shake. Strain into a glass filled with fresh pebble ice.
This is a take on a Swamp Water, maligned and celebrated 70s-era New Orleans cocktail that is made with Green Chartreuse and Pineapple juice, and that’s it. We’re using Paranubes, a beautiful white rum from Oaxaca. If you can’t find it, do try for something with a little esterey funk on it, maybe a white Jamaican rum, but maybe not a full agricole.
The reason you whip shake is to make the drink a little cold without over-diluting it, and in order to not immediately melt the crushed ice in the glass.
GARNISH
Fun spray of mint, pineapple leaves, lime wheel, and a pineapple wedge
GLASS
HOWARD HUGHES
howardhughes
INGREDIENTS
1.5oz January Gin
.5oz January Genepy
.25oz Ferrand Dry Curaçao
.5oz lemon juice
METHOD
Pour all ingredients into a shaker tin, add ice, and shake vigorously. Double strain into a Nick and Nora glass.
Here we have a simple sour. Every cocktail is a variation, and this one is sort of an Aviation, swapping out the Crème de Violet and Maraschino liqueur for Genepy and Dry Curaçao. It’s herbal and sharp will be gone before you know it. Harry Craddock was once asked the proper way to drink a cocktail. “Fast,” he said, “while it’s still laughing at you.”
GARNISH
A maraschino cherry.
GLASS
MARTINI
martini
INGREDIENTS
2oz January Gin
2 dash Regan’s No 6 Orange bitters
METHOD
Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass, add ice and stir until dilute. Strain into a chilled coupe.
Yes, a Martini. And why not? It is one of the greatest cocktails ever, and the simpler made, the better. Our Gin shows particularly well in a wet Martini, and we cleave pretty closely to the classic 2:1 proportions.
We’re using our good friend Cory Fitzsimmon’s Method vermouth, but your Martini will taste equally good with your favorite dry vermouth.
GARNISH
Lemon twist, placed in the drink, not on the rim of the glass.
GLASS
ONLY CHURCH
onlychurch
INGREDIENTS
1.5oz Four Roses Bourbon
.5oz January Amaro
.125oz rich demerara syrup
2 dash Angostura bitters
METHOD
Add all ingredients into a mixing glass. Add ice and stir, but not too long! Strain into an old fashioned glass over a large ice cube.
With Old Fashioneds, and this is one, you don’t want to over-dilute, rather you want it to evolve as you’re drinking it. You may also build this directly into an old fashioned glass then add ice and give a few stirs. Especially if you don’t have any large cubes at home. For reference, .125 ounces, or 1/8oz is pretty much what can fit into a barspoon.
GARNISH
Orange twist in the glass.
GLASS
LOREM IPSUM
loremipsum
INGREDIENTS
METHOD
Build into a Collins glass. If you’d like you can impress your friends and family by pouring the seltzer down the stem of your barspoon.
This orange blossom grapefruit tonic is really lovely, especially for spring. But once you have the method down for the syrup, switch up any of the botanicals you’d like, except, of course, the cinchona bark.
GARNISH
Grapefruit slice in the glass.
GLASS
RAOUL DUKE
raoulduke
INGREDIENTS
.25oz lime juice
2 dash Angostura bitters
METHOD
Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass. Add ice and stir until dilute. Strain into a chilled Nick and Nora.
Yes a mixing glass! This drink is a variation of a Derby cocktail. There are actually multiple Derby cocktails, but this is a based on the one that has lime juice and you stir. When you shake a drink with juice in it the drink gets nice and frothy. Stirring will lend a silken texture to the drink that sort of almost softens the lime juice.
GARNISH
A peach fan.
GLASS
PICK UP
pickup
INGREDIENTS
1.25oz January Gin
1oz Cocchi Americano
.5oz January Genepy
.25oz Suze
METHOD
Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass. Add ice and stir until dilute, but not as long as you’d stir a Martini. Strain into an old fashioned glass over a big ice cube, or regular ice.
This is sort of a White Negroni, but with a green cast. It was made by Jeremy Hois, manager of Amor y Amargo in NYC’s East Village. Both Suze and Cocchi Americano are nice and bitter, the Genepy adds a little heft to the palate and an ethereal herbal quality.
GARNISH
GLASS
A lemon twist.
PETROLERO
petrolero
INGREDIENTS
1.5oz Fortaleza Reposado Tequila
.5oz January Amaro
1.5oz cold brew coffee concentrate
.5oz rich demerara syrup
METHOD
Pour all ingredients into a mixing tin. Add one or two big ice cubes and shake vigorously. Double strain into a chilled coupe.
You really want to shake coffee drinks pretty hard. The effect you want is a thick, creamy head. Shaking with big rocks helps beat the drink up and minimize dilution, which is helpful as you’re already adding a good measure of coffee to the drink.
We’re using a reposado tequila for this one. You don’t have to use Fortaleza (though it is delicious) but do use a tequila with a little age on it. Softens the edges.
GARNISH
A dried chili
GLASS
TREMBLING WINGS
tremblingwings
INGREDIENTS
2oz Rittenhouse Rye
.5oz January Amaro
2 dash Regan’s No 6 Orange bitters
METHOD
Pour all ingredients into a mixing glass. Add ice and stir until dilute. Strain into a chilled coupe.
This a variation of a variation of a Manhattan. Sort of a Black Manhattan. Like most stirred drinks with vermouth in them, this drink would show well having spent a little time in a barrel, if you happen to have one of those small ones at home.
GARNISH
GLASS
Orange twist or a maraschino cherry.