PAINKILLER
My son and I were cruising on a small ocean liner, working cocktail hours for a hedge fund manager, who was celebrating his fiftieth birthday. It was a good gig; we were guests, really, except at cocktail hour. The vessel was small enough to pull into the shallow harbor at White Bay, Jost Van Dyke, in the British Virgin Islands. The ship’s launch dropped us about fifteen feet from shore in order to avoid getting into too shallow water. We found ourselves at the Soggy Dollar Bar, where I enjoyed my first (through my fourth) Painkiller. Our folded money, like everyone else’s, was wet from jumping into the water and the bartender/owner hung it on the clothesline running from one end of the back bar to the other.
2 ounces Pusser’s rum
1 ounce coconut cream (I suggest Coco López)
2 ounces fresh or unsweetened pineapple juice
1 ounce fresh orange juice
Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnish) well with ice and strain into a highball glass over ice. Dust with freshly grated nutmeg.
Variation For Dale’s spicy Sundeck Special, add 2 dashes of Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters to the drink when shaking.
PARADISI+
This original drink was created by Leo DeGroff and Tyler Kitzman at Sweet Liberty bar, Miami.
1 ounce reposado tequila
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce Agave Syrup (this page)
2½ ounces Stiegl Radler or Schöfferhofer grapefruit beer
Flamed orange zest coin (see this page)
Half grapefruit wheel, for garnish
Shake the first four ingredients well with ice. Strain into a pilsner glass over ice and top with the grapefruit beer. Flame the orange zest over the drink and discard. Garnish with the grapefruit.
PARIS+
This is from the celebrated bartender Colin Field at the Hemingway Bar in the Ritz Hotel in Paris. While you’re there, don’t forget to try Colin’s legendary Bloody Mary. Here, Colin creates a variation on the original Parisian by Frank Meier.
1 ounce Plymouth gin
1 ounce Dolin dry vermouth (French, of course)
1 ounce Marie Brizard Cassis de Bourdeaux
Flamed lemon zest coin (this page), for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnish) well with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the flamed lemon zest coin.
PEGU COCKTAIl
This was created at the Pegu Club in Burma when the sun didn’t set on the British Empire. The Pegu goes very well with a fish course.
2 ounces gin
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce Joseph Cartron Curaçao Orange
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
Lime peel, for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnish) well with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lime peel.
PENICILLIN+
Australian bartender Sam Ross successfully created one of a rare breed of cocktails: a cocktail based on malt scotch. The cocktail is fast becoming a modern classic. No surprise since Sam is an alumnus of Sasha Petraske’s original Milk & Honey bar in New York City.
2 quarter-size slices of fresh ginger
¾ ounce Honey Syrup (this page)
1½ ounces Dewar’s blended scotch
¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
¼ ounce Laphroaig Islay single malt scotch whisky
Slice of candied ginger, for garnish
Muddle the fresh ginger pieces in a cocktail shaker glass with the honey syrup. Add the blended scotch and lemon juice. Fill with ice and shake to chill. Fine strain into a double old-fashioned glass filled three-quarters full with ice. Float the Islay whisky on top of the drink and garnish with the candied ginger.
PILGRIM COCKTAIL*
I prepared this at the Rainbow Room for our Thanksgiving celebrations.
¾ ounce Myers’s dark rum
¾ ounce Banks 7 Golden Age Blend rum
¾ ounce Joseph Cartron Curaçao Orange
2 ounces fresh orange juice
½ ounce fresh lime juice
¼ ounce Bitter Truth pimento dram liqueur
Dash of Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters
Shake all the ingredients with ice and strain into a large chilled cocktail glass over ice cubes.
PIMM’S CUP
The traditional recipe is Pimm’s mixed with English lemonade—our lemon-lime soda—but I prefer fresh lemonade with club soda.
1½ ounces Pimm’s No. 1
3 ounces fresh lemonade
1½ ounces club soda or 7UP
English cucumber spear, for garnish
Granny Smith apple slice, for garnish
Combine all the ingredients (except the garnishes) in a highball glass filled with ice. Stir and garnish with the cucumber and apple.
Variation For a Pimm’s Royale, substitute Champagne for the club soda.
THE PIMM’S CUP
While working at the Hotel Bel-Air in the late 1970s, my interest was piqued by an odd drink that had a slice of cucumber and a slice of apple as the garnish. My British customers described how it was served back home—in a mug, garnished extravagantly with borage (a cucumber-tasting herb) or fresh mint sprigs and any or all of the following: orange, lemon, lime, and strawberries. A real fruit salad.
Pimm’s No. 1, gets its name from James Pimm, who operated an oyster bar in London from 1823 to 1865. He mixed a digestive tonic with gin, herbs, quinine, and other never-revealed ingredients. Pimm’s drink was served in a tankard as No. 1 Cup, sort of a Gin Sling. It sounds like the first English cocktail to me, although it was probably served without ice.
Pimm began a commercial enterprise in 1859 to sell the Pimm’s No. 1 off premises. Eventually it was extended to include Pimm’s No. 2, based on whiskey, and No. 3, based on brandy. After World War II, the brand was extended to No. 4, based on rum; No. 5, based on rye; and No. 6, based on vodka. The brand was then owned by Distillers Company, which eventually became part of the mega drinks company Diageo.
Pimm’s is the signature drink at the Wimbledon tennis tournament, where reportedly 40,000 pints of Pimm’s Cup No. 1 are served each year.
PIMM’S ITALIANO*
Wheel of English cucumber
½ ounce Cynar
1½ ounces Pimm’s No. 1
4 ounces Fever-Tree tonic water
Long English cucumber spear, for garnish
Lemon wedge, for garnish
Muddle the cucumber wheel and the Cynar in the bottom of a highball glass. Add ice cubes and build the drink in the glass and stir. Then add the cucumber spear and the lemon wedge.
PIÑA COLADA
In the 1950s in Puerto Rico, Don Ramón López-Irizarry came up with a delicious homogenized cream made from coconut. The product is known as Coco López Cream of Coconut, still used for tropical dishes and desserts. In 1957, Ramón Marrero, a bartender at Puerto Rico’s Caribe Hilton, combined coconut cream with rum, pineapple juice, and ice in a blender to create this famous drink. The trick is to use both light rum and dark rum, a dash of bitters, and a little heavy cream.
1½ ounces Appleton Estate white rum
1 ounce Myers’s dark rum or Gosling’s Black Seal Bermuda black rum
2 ounces Coco López Cream of Coconut
1 ounce heavy cream
4 ounces pineapple juice
Dash of Angostura bitters
1 cup crushed ice
Pineapple leaf, for garnish
Pineapple wedge, for garnish
Add all the ingredients (except the garnishes) to a blender and blend for 15 seconds. Pour into a specialty glass like a copa grande glass and garnish with the pineapple leaf and pineapple wedge.
PINEAPPLE CHAMPAGNE COCKTAIL*
Serves 6 to 8
Adapted from a recipe served at the Embassy Club in Hollywood in the 1930s.
1 cup fresh ripe pineapple cubes
1 cup fresh ripe pitted cherries
12 ounces maraschino liqueur
2 ounces fresh lemon juice
1 (750 ml) bottle brut Champagne
6 to 8 flamed lemon zest coins (see this page), for garnish
In a medium bowl, bruise the pineapple cubes and cherries and macerate them in the maraschino liqueur and lemon juice for 2 hours. Chill overnight. Strain the mixture, reserving the liquid and discarding the fruit. Add 2 ounces of the liquid to 6 to 8 chilled cocktail glasses and top each with Champagne. Garnish each with a flamed lemon zest coin.
PINK GIN
In 1978, I served this old recipe at the Hotel Bel-Air with orange bitters. After going through two bottles of orange bitters, I spoke to the steward about ordering more. He informed me that the brand was no longer produced and had not been available for more than twenty years; I switched to Angostura bitters. There are now many orange bitters to choose from, and I recommend Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6, Bitter Truth orange bitters, or Audrey Saunders’s mix from Pegu Club in New York City.
Originally this drink was served without ice, but these days you won’t find many takers for warm gin.
2 ounces gin
Dash of Audrey’s mix orange bitters (see Note)
Dash of Angostura bitters
Lemon peel, for garnish
Combine the ingredients (except the garnish) in an old-fashioned glass over ice. Stir. Garnish with the lemon peel.
Note Audrey mixes half Regan’s Orange Bitters No. 6 and half Fee Brothers orange bitters.
PINK LADY
1½ ounces gin
¼ ounce grenadine, homemade (this page) or store-bought
¾ ounce Simple Syrup (this page)
1 ounce heavy cream
Shake all the ingredients with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass.
PINK SQUIRREL
Crème de noyaux is an almond-flavored liqueur.
¾ ounce crème de noyaux
¾ ounce Tempus Fugit crème de cacao
1½ ounces heavy cream
Pinch of ground cacao nibs, for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnish) with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass. Dust with ground cacao nibs.
PISCO OLD-FASHIONED*
My variation on the classic that I prepared for road trips on behalf of the Trade Board of Peru 2019.
Dash of Bitter Truth Bogart’s Bitters
1 orange zest coins (see this page)
Dash of Barrow’s Intense ginger liqueur (see Note)
½ ounce Brown Sugar or Demerara Syrup (this page)
2 ounces Pisco 1615 Mosto Verde Italia
Splash of Ancho Reyes ancho chile liqueur
Flamed orange zest (see this page), for garnish
Muddle the bitters, 1 orange zest coin, the Barrow’s, and the syrup in the bottom of an old-fashioned glass. Add the pisco, chile liqueur, and ice.
Stir to chill. Garnish with a flamed orange zest coin over the top of the drink and drop it in.
Note The Barrow’s liqueur is made from Peruvian ginger in Brooklyn, New York.
PINK GIN AND TONIC*
My variation on the classic Gin and Tonic.
2 sage leaves
1½ ounces Fords gin
2 dashes of Peychaud’s bitters
5 ounces Fever-Tree tonic water
2 lime wedges, for garnish
Drop the sage leaves in the bottom of a highball glass. Add the gin and the bitters and muddle gently, then remove the sage leaves. Fill the glass three-quarters full with ice cubes. Top with tonic, stir, and garnish with two lime wedges.
PISCO SOUR, BLUEBERRY*
1½ ounces BarSol Primero Quebranta pisco
1½ ounces Blueberry Shrub (this page)
½ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce emulsified egg white (see this page)
Angostura bitters
Shake all the ingredients (except the bitters) with ice well to fully emulsify the egg and strain into a small cocktail glass. Place several drops of the bitters on top of the foam.
PISCO PUNCH
111 ounces or under 1 gallon
Duncan Nicol, the last owner of the Bank Exchange Saloon, died in 1926 and took with him the secret recipe for the legendary Pisco Punch. Here’s my stab at the recipe.
1 batch Dale’s Lemon and Orange Shrub (this page)
1 (750 ml) bottle BarSol Pisco Mosto Verde Italia or your favorite pisco puro
10 ounces Sandeman Rainwater Madeira
15 ounces unsweetened pineapple juice (fresh, if you can get it)
1 liter spring water
Fresh lemon juice (optional)
Simple Syrup (this page; optional)
Dash of Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters
Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish
Once you have prepared the shrub, the assembly is the easy part. Use a punch bowl or any large container that holds at least 1 gallon. Pour in the shrub, the pisco, the Rainwater Madeira, pineapple juice, and water and stir. Taste for sweetness; it should be perfect but adjust to your taste with more lemon juice or simple syrup, if desired. Serve over ice in a medium-size goblet or white wineglass with a dash of bitters and dust with freshly grated nutmeg.
PISCO SOUR
Pisco is a grape brandy that has been made for more than four hundred years in Peru and Chile, beginning when they were part of a Spanish colony called the Viceroyalty of Peru.
2 ounces BarSol Primero Quebranta pisco
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce Simple Syrup (this page)
¾ ounce emulsified egg white (see this page)
Angostura bitters
Shake all the ingredients (except the bitters) with ice well to fully emulsify the egg and strain into a small cocktail glass. Place several drops of the bitters on top of the foam and swirl with a cocktail pick.
PLANTER’S PUNCH*
My recipe from the Rainbow Plantation.
1 ounce Myers’s dark rum
1 ounce Flor de Caña Extra Seco 4-year rum
½ ounce Joseph Cartron Curaçao Orange
2 ounces fresh orange juice
2 ounces pineapple juice
½ ounce Simple Syrup (this page)
¼ ounce fresh lime juice
Dash of grenadine, homemade (this page) or store-bought
Dash of Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters
Orange slice, for garnish
Bordeaux cherry, for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnishes) with ice and strain into a collins glass filled three-quarters full with ice. Garnish with the orange slice and cherry.
POUSSE-CAFÉ
There is a section in Jerry Thomas’s 1862 edition of How to Mix Drinks called “Fancy Drinks” that begins with three pousse-café recipes. The first is from an early nineteenth-century saloon owner in New Orleans named Joseph Santina, whom Thomas credits with improving the whole category of cocktails with his Brandy Crusta (this page). Santina’s Pousse-Café is made with Cognac, maraschino liqueur, and curaçao. Thomas’s instructions say to “mix well”—not what I expected to find in what I have always known was a layered drink.
¼ ounce grenadine, homemade (this page) or store-bought
¼ ounce crème de cacao
¼ ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur
¼ ounce Joseph Cartron Curaçao Orange
¼ ounce Marie Brizard No 32 crème de menthe
½ ounce Martel VSOP Cognac
In the order they are listed, beginning with the grenadine, carefully pour each liqueur down the inside of a pousse-café glass over the back of a teaspoon positioned downward at an angle against the inside of the glass; each layer should float on top of the previous layer (see following).
LAYERING A DRINK
The technique for layering drinks that I have used for years simply requires a steady hand, a pousse-café glass, and a barspoon or teaspoon. The perfect pousse-café glass is hard to find, since the drink has been out of fashion for some time, but it should look somewhat like a tall pony glass except the top flares out. After pouring the first ingredient layer, insert the bowl of the spoon into the glass as far as it will go, with the rounded part of the bowl facing up. Adjust the tip of the spoon’s bowl so it is very near or touching the side of the glass. Pour each subsequent liquid over the bowl of the spoon so it flows down the side of the glass and gently floats on top of the previous layer. Brandy or cream will always be the final layer; brandy is completely dry, and cream, poured as described above, will float on top of most spirits.
PREAKNESS COCKTAIL
I found this in International Cocktail Specialties from Madison Avenue to Malaya (1962) by James Mayabb. The Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, was well served for some years by this tasty whiskey cocktail, and it is time to return to it. But there is bigger change in the wind for the Preakness. Rumor has it that Pimlico Race Course, only active for the Triple Crown, will close sometime after 2020, and the Preakness will move to a new as-yet-unnamed track.
2 ounces Angel’s Envy rye whiskey
1 ounce Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth
¼ ounce Bénédictine
Dash of Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters
Orange zest coin (see this page), for garnish
Stir the ingredients (except the garnish) with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the orange zest coin.
PRESBYTERIAN
This was my mom’s favorite drink. There is no satisfactory explanation for the name, but it seems to have been attached to the drink for more than a hundred years. My pal David Wondrich discovered that it works with scotch whisky as well. David also notes that Presbyterianism is part of the reform movement that was particularly associated with Scotland and so he experiments with scotch as the base. I am not an avid highball drinker so I haven’t gotten around to tasting David’s variation, but I shall when my tolerance for strong spirits starts to wane.
2 ounces Angel’s Envy bourbon
2 ounces club soda
2 ounces Fever-Tree ginger ale
Lemon zest coin (see this page), for garnish
Build all the ingredients (except the garnish) in a highball glass filled with ice and stir. Garnish with the lemon zest coin.
PRESTIGE COCKTAIL*
I served this at the release party for the original The Craft of the Cocktail along with seven other cocktails made by good friends Jerri Banks, Albert Trummer, Julie Reiner, Jeff Becker, David Marsden, Audrey Saunders, Angus Winchester, and George Delgado.
1 ounce Bacardí Reserva Ocho rum
¼ ounce Martini & Rossi dry vermouth
¾ ounce John D. Taylor’s Velvet Falernum
¼ ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce pineapple juice
Pineapple wedge, for garnish
Thin lime wheel, for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnishes) with ice and strain into a double old-fashioned glass. Garnish with the pineapple wedge and lime wheel.
PSYCHO KILLER+
“This drink was inspired by a Boulevardier cocktail with Redbreast 12 as the base instead of rye whiskey. This was originally included in our Volume 3 menu for 2014/2015. This menu won World’s Best Cocktail Menu from Tales of the Cocktail in 2015.
“Redbreast, which has notes of dried fruit, banana, and baking spices and a rich texture, was complemented by cacao and banana liqueurs. Absinthe was the last touch to tie everything together and contrast the sweeter and fruited flavors.” —Jillian Vose, cocktail director at Dead Rabbit
The name is still a mystery to me, but I think it has something to do with the Rabbit character in the Dead Rabbit menus.
2 ounces Redbreast 12-year Irish whiskey
¾ ounce Campari
½ ounce Giffard white crème de cacao
½ ounce Giffard crème de banane (banana liqueur)
2 dashes of absinthe
Stir all the ingredients with ice and strain into a Nick & Nora glass.
PUNCH ROYALE
Yields 3½ quarts
This is a variation on a David Wondrich recipe for the Punch Royale, the yield just over 3 liters.
1 liter Jameson Irish whiskey
½ (750 ml) bottle Leacock’s Rainwater Madeira
1 ounce Dale DeGroff’s Pimento Aromatic Bitters
Dale’s Lemon and Orange Shrub (this page)
1 liter spring water
Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish
Assemble the whiskey, Madeira, bitters, and shrub in a punch bowl; add the spring water and stir. Chill with block ice or large ice cubes added just before serving. Serve in goblets over cubed ice and dusted with fresh grated nutmeg.
RAINBOW PUNCH (NONALCOHOLIC)*
3 ounces fresh orange juice
½ ounce fresh lime juice
3 ounces pineapple juice
1 ounce Simple Syrup (this page)
¼ ounce grenadine, homemade (this page) or store-bought
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 ounce club soda
Bordeaux cherry, for garnish
Orange slice, for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the club soda and garnishes) and strain into an iced-tea glass filled with ice. Top with club soda and garnish with the cherry and orange slice.
RAINBOW SOUR*
Pineau des Charentes is a mistelle, a combination of raw grape juice and brandy—or, in the case of Pineau des Charentes, Cognac. The lore is that a Cognac producer thought he was blending two Cognacs when he topped up a barrel in his cellar, but one of the barrels contained raw grape juice. He was sure he had destroyed a batch of good Cognac and put it aside and left it. A couple of years later, his cellar master tasted it while checking barrels, and it had matured in an interesting way.
1½ ounces Pineau des Charentes
½ ounce Marie Brizard Apry liqueur
1 ounce fresh lemon juice
½ ounce Simple Syrup (this page; optional)
Bordeaux cherry, for garnish
Orange slice, for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnishes) with ice and strain into an old-fashioned glass over ice cubes. Garnish with the cherry and orange slice.
RED BEER
This is a really popular country style of beer drinking, especially in the Catskills. The flavor is quite pleasant and it works nicely with beer nuts and pickled hard-boiled eggs.
2 ounces chilled tomato juice
1 (12-ounce) bottle Yuengling lager beer
Mix the tomato juice into a glass of beer. Serve with pickled eggs.
RED LION
Grand Marnier reached back to the 1930s for this drink. It was originally promoted by Booth’s dry gin after it won first place in a 1933 cocktail competition, where it was served in a sugar-rimmed glass.
1 ounce Grand Marnier
1 ounce dry gin
½ ounce fresh orange juice
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
Flamed orange zest coin (see this page), for garnish
Shake the ingredients (except the garnish) well with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the flamed orange zest coin.
REGGAE*
I worked for a time creating cocktails for Colin Cowie–designed events, and the Reggae was created for a wedding in Mexico’s Cabo San Lucas.
1½ ounces Mount Gay rum
½ ounce Pierre Ferrand dry curaçao
1½ ounces pineapple juice
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
Freshly grated nutmeg, for garnish
Shake all the ingredients (except the garnish) with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
RICARD TOMATE
A popular way to serve Ricard in France, this recipe sounds awful, but it is surprisingly drinkable. With this drink, it is important that the ice be added last to prevent an unpleasant film or scaling effect on the surface of the drink. Spirits like Ricard and absinthe are made with essential oils from fresh botanicals that bond with the alcohol molecule. Those bonds break as the ABV diminishes; if it happens slowly, the liquid will louche—turn cloudy—as the oil separates from the alcohol. If you shock the spirit by dumping ice water and ice cubes wholesale into it, the bond breaks rapidly and the oil molecules cling together and form a scaly scum on the surface.
2 ounces Ricard
¼ ounce grenadine, homemade (this page) or store-bought
4 ounces room-temperature water
Pour the Ricard and grenadine into a highball glass and then slowly add the room temperature water. Finally, add ice cubes.
RICKEYS
Rickeys are traditionally dry drinks, but syrup or sugar can be added—hey, it’s cocktails, not watchmaking, so we can fool around a bit. Lore has it that the Rickey took its name from “Colonel Joe” Rickey, a Washington lobbyist in the late nineteenth century who regularly drank with members of Congress in Shoomaker’s bar. Joe actually drank whiskey, which is not to say that he couldn’t drop a lime in his whiskey. But, in fact, there is no evidence he had anything to do with the drink, it is just hard to overlook the eponymous evidence. Derek Brown, Washington, D.C., bar owner and author, tells the tale with all its twists and turns in his wonderful tome Spirits, Sugar, Water, Bitters: How the Cocktail Conquered the World. Early recipes for brandy, Canadian whisky, and gin rickeys appeared in George Kappeler’s Modern American Drinks in 1895, and they are exactly the same as our contemporary recipes.
GIN RICKEY
1½ ounces gin or base spirit of your choice
½ ounce fresh lime juice
4 ounces club soda
Lime wedge, for garnish
Mix all the ingredients (except the garnish) in a highball glass with ice. Garnish with the lime wedge.
LIME RICKEY (NONALCOHOLIC)*
This is the drinking man’s nonalcoholic drink that was popular at the Promenade Bar in the Rainbow Room.
¾ ounce fresh lime juice
¾ ounce Simple Syrup (this page)
4 dashes of Angostura bitters
Club soda
Lime wedge, for garnish
Build all the ingredients (except the soda and garnish) in a highball glass, top with soda, and stir. Squeeze the lime wedge over and drop it into the drink.