THE DAIQUIRI EXTENDED FAMILY
Mojito
CLASSIC
While the Mojito is certainly a member of the Daiquiri extended family, using similar proportions of the same ingredients—rum, lime juice, and sweetener—the fact that it’s served over crushed ice makes it a distant cousin, at least in our eyes. Introducing crushed ice into the equation means it’s necessary to think about how the cocktail will evolve after it’s served. The key is to pack the ice into the glass, using a greater volume of ice than the volume of the cocktail. This will keep the cocktail cold and also keep the ice from moving around. Why should it matter if the ice moves around? If it does, dilution will occur more rapidly and the cocktail will quickly become a watery mess.
To avoid this, we take a few precautions when building Mojitos and their variations. First, we use a glass that can hold both a full cocktail and an appropriate amount of ice. Either a Collins glass or a double Old-Fashioned glass that can hold at least 16 ounces will fit the bill. Second, we freeze the glass so it’s extremely cold when the cocktail is poured in. Third, instead of shaking the drink, we use a technique called whipping: shaking the drink with a few pieces of crushed ice—just enough to mix the ingredients without diluting them too much. After all, there’s no need to chill the cocktail as much as one served neat, since it’s served over so much crushed ice, which will also serve the function of diluting the drink. Fourth and finally, after we pour the drink into the glass, we add crushed ice to fill the glass about four-fifths full, then stir or swizzle for a few seconds, and then pack the glass with ice, mounding the ice on top, like a snow cone. The end result should be a glass full of crushed ice, all the way to the bottom, with an even distribution of liquid, and a cone of crushed ice above the wash line.
10 mint leaves
¾ ounce simple syrup (this page)
1 white sugar cube
2 ounces Caña Brava white rum
1 ounce fresh lime juice
Garnish: 1 mint bouquet
In a shaker, gently muddle the mint leaves, simple syrup, and sugar cube until the sugar cube breaks apart. Add the remaining ingredients and whip, shaking with a few pieces of crushed ice, just until incorporated. Dump into a Collins glass and add crushed ice until the glass is about four-fifths full. Swizzle for a few seconds, then pack the glass with ice, mounding it above the rim. Garnish with the mint bouquet, placing it in the center of the ice and serve with a straw.
Jack Frost
DEVON TARBY, 2015
The Jack Frost is a Mojito variation with a split base of tequila, pear brandy, and dry vermouth, accented with a bit of crème de menthe. Although the finished cocktail isn’t overly minty, there is a cooling quality to the liqueur, like inhaling cold air on a snowy winter night—an effect that’s enhanced by the crushed ice.
¾ ounce Cabeza blanco tequila
¾ ounce Clear Creek pear brandy
¾ ounce La Quintinye Vermouth Royal extra dry
1 teaspoon Giffard Menthe-Pastille
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce simple syrup (this page)
Garnish: 1 mint and sage bouquet and confectioners’ sugar
Combine all the ingredients in a shaker and whip, shaking with a few pieces of crushed ice, just until incorporated. Dump into a Collins glass and add crushed ice until the glass is about four-fifths full. Swizzle for a few seconds, then pack the glass with ice, mounding it above the rim. Garnish with the mint and sage bouquet, and finish with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar. Serve with a straw.
Mai Tai
CLASSIC
Crushed ice can help temper the sweetness of rich ingredients. A classic Mai Tai is a complex combination of funky rums, almond-laced orgeat, orange liqueur, and lime juice. The result is a complex cocktail that can easily teeter toward being too sweet. Serving it in a glass packed with crushed ice lightens the flavors just the right amount while still allowing their complexity to come through.
1 ounce Appleton Estate Reserve Blend rum
1 ounce La Favorite Coeur de Canne rhum agricole blanc
¼ ounce Grand Marnier
1 ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce House Orgeat (this page)
¼ ounce simple syrup (this page)
1 dash Angostura bitters
Garnish: 1 mint bouquet
Combine all the ingredients in a shaker and whip, shaking with a few pieces of crushed ice, just until incorporated. Dump into a double Old-Fashioned glass, then pack the glass with crushed ice. Garnish with the mint bouquet.
Touch and Go
ALEX DAY, 2015
Muddling is a great technique for drawing out the flavors from less acidic citrus fruits, such as mandarin oranges, which have intensely aromatic peels and sweet juice. In the Touch and Go, a cross between a tequila-based sour and a Caipirinha that’s balanced even without muddled citrus, we include the mandarin orange to add a layer of vibrant flavor.
½ mandarin orange, cut into 4 pieces
¾ ounce Basil Stem Syrup (this page)
1½ ounces Espolòn blanco tequila
1 teaspoon Del Maguey Vida mezcal
¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
Garnish: 1 basil leaf
In a shaker, gently muddle the orange with the basil syrup. Add the remaining ingredients and shake with ice, then dump into a double Old-Fashioned glass. Garnish with the basil leaf.
Caipirinha
CLASSIC
As discussed earlier in this chapter, citrus skins are loaded with flavorful oils. These can be expressed from twists, but they can also be incorporated via muddling. The Brazilian Caipirinha, which includes almost an entire lime, provides a great opportunity to consider the finer details of muddling citrus. When we cut lime wedges to garnish a drink, we do so in such a way that they’re easy to squeeze into a cocktail, cutting them into wedges from the top to the bottom of the lime. But for muddling, we prefer to cut them into pieces of a size and shape that make it easy to extract both the juice and the oils in the skin with one even pressing. So first we cut the lime in half across the middle, then we place the halves on a cutting board cut side down and slice them into quarters.
The lime is then muddled with sugar, which helps extract flavor from the lime skin. We prefer to use a sugar cube because it cuts into the lime skin to bring out more of its oils. We recommend putting the sugar cube in a small shaker tin, then adding the lime and simple syrup. Muddle each piece of lime by pressing down and twisting slightly to flatten the lime and break down the sugar. Stop muddling as soon as all of the pieces have been crushed.
Although we’re typically militant about never pouring the ice we shake a cocktail with into the serving glass, we make an exception for the Caipirinha, which is traditionally served with not just the ice, but also the muddled lime. This allows the lime to continue to flavor the cocktail—though they can get bitter, we find that it’s a pleasant limy flavor that builds toward the end of the cocktail. The brightly colored citrus also looks beautiful in a glass.
1 lime
¾ ounce simple syrup (this page)
1 sugar cube
2 ounces cachaça
Cut the lime in half crosswise, then cut each half into quarters. Put 6 of the pieces in a shaker, reserving the other 2 for another use. Add the simple syrup and sugar cube and gently muddle the lime, carefully pressing each piece. Add the cachaça and shake with ice, then dump into a double Old-Fashioned glass. No garnish.
Tom Collins
CLASSIC
Another type of drink in the Daiquiri’s extended family is sours that have bubbly ingredients added. This is such a broad category that it has several subfamilies: Collins-style drinks, fizzes, and numerous cocktails that include sparkling wine. We’ll start with the Collins, which is basically a sour served in a tall glass with ice and seltzer.
The biggest challenge in preparing a Collins is avoiding overdilution. We like our Collinses as fizzy as possible, so rather than shaking them to full dilution, as for sours, we short shake them—just long enough to chill the ingredients without adding too much dilution, about five seconds. This leaves more room for the seltzer.
Traditionally, Collins-style drinks are topped with seltzer that isn’t stirred into the drink. We view this as less than ideal. When the drink is sipped through a straw, the experience is often like drinking a sour that gradually dilutes and may not be bubbly at all. Our preferred method is to add a measured portion of seltzer to the empty serving glass, then pour in the contents of the shaker, an action that effectively mixes the cocktail, and then add ice at the very end—no stirring required.
To make the best Collins, use seltzer that’s as cold as possible: keep it refrigerated and sealed before use or, better yet, build a carbonating rig and make your own very cold and highly sparkling seltzer (see this page). Room-temperature seltzer is a waste of time; the bubbles will escape quickly and the seltzer will become flat. Add this to a drink and you’re really just diluting it.
2 ounces cold seltzer
2 ounces Beefeater gin
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
¾ ounce simple syrup (this page)
Garnish: 1 orange half wheel and 1 brandied cherry on a skewer
Pour the seltzer into a Collins glass. Short shake the remaining ingredients with ice for about 5 seconds, then strain into the glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes and garnish with the orange half wheel and cherry.
Grapefruit Collins
SAM ROSS, 2005
When experimenting with the Collins template, keep in mind that seltzer contains a bit of carbonic acid, which increases the perception of acidity. For this reason, we often use a 1-to-1 ratio of citrus juice to sweetener in Collins-style cocktails unless we want an extra-tart drink (which we do for the basic Collins, but when adding other flavors we tend to back off on the acid). In the Grapefruit Collins, the grapefruit juice has a balanced sweet-tart flavor, so we remove it from the equation and then use equal amounts of lemon juice and simple syrup.
2 ounces cold seltzer
2 ounces Beefeater gin
1½ ounces fresh grapefruit juice
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
½ ounce simple syrup (this page)
4 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Garnish: 1 grapefruit half wheel
Pour the seltzer into a Collins glass. Short shake the remaining ingredients with ice for about 5 seconds, then strain into the glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes and garnish with the grapefruit half wheel.
Parachute
TYSON BUHLER, 2017
The Parachute is a great example of building a Collins-style cocktail on a low-proof base, here split between a juicy white port and the slightly bitter Salers aperitif. Because each of these ingredients has a powerful flavor, this cocktail drinks much like a full-proof sour but doesn’t carry such a strong alcohol punch.
2 ounces cold tonic water
1 ounce Quinta do Infantado white port
1 ounce Salers Gentiane
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
¾ ounce simple syrup (this page)
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Garnish: 1 grapefruit half wheel
Pour the tonic water into a Collins glass. Short shake the remaining ingredients with ice for about 5 seconds, then strain into the glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes and garnish with the grapefruit half wheel.
Moscow Mule
CLASSIC
The Moscow Mule is famous for good reason: it has a strong ginger bite and is unquestionably refreshing. You may notice that this recipe uses slightly less lime juice than a typical sour-style cocktail. We do this to honor the original recipe, which was just a simple mixture of vodka and ginger beer topped with a squeeze of lime—more a Highball than a sour. In addition, ginger’s powerful flavor has a zip somewhat like citrus, so when we use it, we often back down on any lemon or lime juice in the cocktail to let it shine.
2 ounces cold seltzer
2 ounces vodka
½ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce House Ginger Syrup (this page)
Garnish: 1 lime wheel and 1 piece of candied ginger on a skewer
Pour the seltzer into a Collins glass. Short shake the remaining ingredients with ice for about 5 seconds, then strain into the glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes and garnish with the lime wheel and candied ginger.
Dark and Stormy
CLASSIC
In the Moscow Mule (this page), the vodka core keeps the cocktail clearly focused on the interplay between ginger, lime juice, and the fizziness of seltzer. If a more flavorful spirit is used, the proportion of ingredients may need to be adjusted—a principle that’s clearly illustrated in our version of the Dark and Stormy (which, like the Moscow Mule, was traditionally made with ginger beer). To balance the rich molasses flavor of Gosling’s Black Seal rum, we up the amounts of both the ginger syrup and the lime juice.
2 ounces cold seltzer
2 ounces Gosling’s Black Seal rum
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce House Ginger Syrup (this page)
Garnish: 1 lime wheel and 1 piece of candied ginger on a skewer
Pour the seltzer into a Collins glass. Short shake the remaining ingredients with ice for about 5 seconds, then strain into the glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes and garnish with the lime wheel and candied ginger.
Silver Fizz
CLASSIC
At their simplest, fizzes are basically Collins-style drinks served without ice. Although fizzes are most commonly associated with gin, they can be made with any spirit. This classic cocktail, the Silver Fizz, is a simple fizz to which an egg white has been added. When the cocktail is shaken, the egg white’s tightly packed proteins unfold and trap air, forming bubbles. When the drink is then topped with seltzer even more frothiness ensues, as those proteins wrap around the carbon dioxide bubbles to create a light and fluffy foam.
2 ounces Beefeater gin
¾ ounce simple syrup (this page)
¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
1 egg white
2 ounces cold seltzer
Dry shake all the ingredients (except the seltzer), then shake again with ice. Double strain into a fizz glass. Slowly add the seltzer, occasionally tapping the bottom of the glass on a table or flat surface to settle the foam. As you finish adding the seltzer, a white puck of foam should form on top of the drink. No garnish.
Ramos Gin Fizz
CLASSIC
Perhaps the most famous of the fizzes is the Ramos Gin Fizz, a New Orleans cocktail wherein the clean simplicity of a Silver Fizz is enriched with heavy cream. Traditionally, it’s shaken for a full ten minutes to create a light, ethereal texture that’s like a boozy liquid cloud. We’ve never found a full ten-minute shake to be necessary (it’s more theater than necessary); five minutes is more than enough to create airy lightness needed for the Ramos. (See this page for the N2O Ramos Gin Fizz, a version made in a whipper canister.)
2 ounces Fords gin
½ ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
1 ounce simple syrup (this page)
1 ounce heavy cream
1 egg white
3 drops orange flower water
2 ounces cold seltzer
Dry shake all the ingredients (except the seltzer), then fill the shaker with ice cubes and shake for 5 minutes. Double strain into a pint glass. Slowly add the seltzer, occasionally tapping the bottom of the glass on a table or flat surface to settle the foam. As you finish adding the seltzer, a white puck of foam should form on top of the drink. No garnish.
Presbyterian
CLASSIC
As mentioned a few times earlier in this chapter, changing the core spirit in a cocktail may call for adjusting the type and amount of citrus in the cocktail. The classic Presbyterian is similar to the Moscow Mule (this page) and the Dark and Stormy (this page), being simply spirit combined with ginger ale. But in this case, the core spirit is rye whiskey, seasoned with lemon juice. For our version, we include both lemon juice, for its sweet and refreshing flavor, and lime juice, for its pleasant astringency.
2 ounces cold seltzer
2 ounces Old Overholt rye
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
½ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce House Ginger Syrup (this page)
Garnish: 1 lime wedge
Pour the seltzer into a Collins glass. Short shake the remaining ingredients with ice for about 5 seconds, then strain into the glass. Fill the glass with ice cubes and garnish with the lime wedge.
Old Cuban
AUDREY SAUNDERS, 2001
The legendary bartender Audrey Saunders created this deeply complex cocktail that livens up a Mojito with bubbles. To add greater complexity, Audrey relies on a lightly aged rum and seasons with Angostura bitters and mint, creating a drink that is both refreshing and sophisticated. We love the Old Cuban because it evolves as you drink it: with the first sips, you’re met with tongue-tingling effervescence and fresh mint flavors. As the cocktail warms and the bubbles lose a bit of their intensity, the rum’s richness comes to the front in a soothing way.
1½ ounces Bacardi 8-year aged rum
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce simple syrup (this page)
2 dashes Angostura bitters
6 mint leaves
2 ounces cold dry Champagne
Garnish: 1 mint leaf
Shake all the ingredients (except the sparkling wine) with ice, then double strain into a chilled coupe. Pour in the Champagne, and quickly dip the barspoon into the glass to gently mix the wine with the cocktail. Garnish with the mint leaf.
French 75
CLASSIC
Yes, Champagne does make everything better, including a Collins! Some bartenders prepare a French 75 in a tall glass with ice like a Collins, but we opt for the swankier version in a flute. Either way, introducing Champagne (or a similar style of sparkling wine) changes the cocktail’s balance, adding both proof and flavor. Therefore, the formula for this classic cocktail calls for decreased amounts of all three elements of the sour base—in our version, half the gin, and two-thirds of the lemon juice and simple syrup.
1 ounce Plymouth gin
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
½ ounce simple syrup (this page)
4 ounces cold dry sparkling wine
Garnish: 1 lemon twist
Shake all the ingredients (except the sparkling wine) with ice, then strain into a chilled flute. Pour in the sparkling wine, and quickly dip the barspoon into the glass to gently mix the sparkling wine with the cocktail. Express the lemon twist over the drink, then place it into the drink.
The Eliza
DEVON TARBY, 2016
With careful adjustments, the subtle complexity of the French 75 (this page) can be modified to create exceptional variations. In this cocktail, we’ve replaced the citrusy Plymouth gin with sarsaparilla-forward Aviation gin in combination with Clear Creek pear brandy and savory French cassis, spiked with lavender bitters to provide a seductive floral hint.
½ ounce Aviation gin
¼ ounce Clear Creek pear brandy
¼ ounce Giffard Cassis Noir du Bourgogne
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
½ ounce simple syrup (this page)
1 dash Scrappy’s lavender bitters
4 ounces cold dry sparkling wine
Shake all the ingredients (except the sparkling wine) with ice, then strain into a flute. Pour in the sparkling wine, and quickly dip the barspoon into the glass to gently mix the wine with the cocktail.
Ice Queen
NATASHA DAVID, 2015
The Ice Queen expands on the French 75’s flexibility by bringing in some elements from the Old Cuban (this page)—rum, mint, and lime juice—and adding cucumber for a savory element.
1 cucumber slice
½ ounce simple syrup (this page)
1½ ounces Plantation 3 Stars rum
½ teaspoon Giffard Menthe-Pastille
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
4 ounces cold dry sparkling wine
Garnish: 1 lime twist
In a shaker, gently muddle the cucumber with the simple syrup. Add the remaining ingredients (except the sparkling wine) and shake with ice. Strain into a chilled coupe. Pour in the sparkling wine, and quickly dip the barspoon into the glass to gently mix the wine with the cocktail. Express the lime twist over the drink, then place it into the drink.
Accidental Guru
NATASHA DAVID, 2014
Beer and cider can also be used to add effervescence to Collins-style drinks. Because these ingredients can vary widely in alcohol content, flavor, sweetness, and acidity, using them requires careful attention to adjusting the amounts of the base spirit, citrus juice, and sweetener. In the Accidental Guru, just 1 ounce of strong spirit (whiskey) is used and the citrus juice is dialed back a bit. Less sweetener is also used, in this case because the drink is enhanced with peach liqueur.
1 ounce Bushmills Original Irish whiskey
½ ounce Giffard Crème de Pêche de Vigne
½ ounce fresh lime juice
½ ounce House Ginger Syrup (this page)
3½ ounces cold Blanche de Bruxelles beer (or another wheat beer)
Garnish: 1 lime wheel
Shake all the ingredients (except the beer) with ice, then strain into a large chilled fizz glass. Pour in the beer, then garnish with the lime wheel.