Vodka Sling

As I've said before, a sling is an easy way to drink a particular liquor. The Vodka Sling is citrusy and sweet and a good rocks sipper if you really like your vodka. Aylesbury Duck wheat vodka was especially smooth when done this way.

• 2 oz. vodka (Aylesbury Duck used)
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. water
• 1 tsp sugar
• orange twist

Dissolve sugar in water in a mixing glass. Add vodka, lemon juice and ice and stir. Pour into a chilled Old Fashioned glass. Garnish with an orange twist. 

Screwdriver

Sometimes simple is exactly what is called for. You want orange juice that gets you drunk, right? That's the screwdriver. Easy to make. Easy to drink. Go for it with breakfast or on hot days. Or, you know, when you want orange juice that gets you drunk.

• 2 oz. vodka (Aylesbury Duck used)
• orange juice

Build drink in a Collins glass full of ice with vodka and top with orange juice.

Madras

Get a good look! That's Aylesbury Duck vodka, there.

This is a fine drink for a beginning drinker or cocktail maker. Its easy to make, not too strong, and it has an air of tropical escape to it, even though it is probably made with store bought juice. I'm not sure what the drink has to do with Madras, as a city, but the name also imparts some of that exotic charm.

• 2 oz. vodka (Aylesbury Duck used)
• 3 oz. cranberry juice
• 3 oz. orange juice

Build drink in a Collins glass with ice first. Add vodka and juices and stir. 

Fino Martini

As I am constantly discovering, sherry, with its infinite variety, can be substituted for any fortified wine. In this Martini it is taking the place of dry vermouth. You don't notice so small an amount of sherry in a gin cocktail, but you can choose to do this with vodka as well. I like how this cocktail is non-specific about base spirits. It's still a Martini, right? Aylesbury Duck vodka makes a great base for the Fino Martini.

• 3 oz. vodka or gin
• 1/2 oz. fino sherry
• lemon twist

Stir liquid ingredients except lemon twist with ice in a mixing glass and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Twist lemon peel over glass and drop in.

Alternatini / Truffletini

I know what you are thinking, a Chocolate Martini. No, this must predate the Chocolate Martini of the mid 90s with all the chocolate syrup and berries and cream. In fact the Alternatini has a few characteristics that land it squarely in the real Martini category with an alternative garnish (as long as you allow that a Martini has to include vodka or gin, vermouth and a garnish and not much more.

This cocktail has both sweet and dry vermouth, so it is well covered. Sweet vermouth and chocolate go together like wine and chocolate, so I can see where this is headed. There's only enough creme de cacao to suggest a chocolate flavor.

I have sweet Aylesbury Duck vodka for this cocktail because it is well suited to dessert drinks, or pretty much anything. It is a vodka designed for bartenders, super versatile, easy to grip the bottle (in your face Ciroc) and it has a graduated bottle so you can measure the amount left in the bottle.

The original recipe (and this was the 90s) calls for cocoa powder and a Hershey's Kiss. I think we can do better than some Swiss Miss and a waxy chocolate. I have a Godiva truffle and some really nice Bellagio cocoa powder for my garnishes. This drink may still taste like vodka, but it finishes like dessert. It is no more filling than a truffle.

• 3 oz. vodka
• 1/4 oz. sweet vermouth
• 1/4 oz. dry vermouth
• 1/2 tsp. creme de cacao
• chocolate truffle
• cocoa powder

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with truffle and sprinkle cocoa powder on top.

Huntsman Cocktail

The Huntsman Cocktail is a big departure from the cherry brandy and bourbon drinks that make up the Hunter's/ Huntress cocktail group that also includes the Forrester.  

This is one of those interesting combinations of vodka and dark rum drinks that exist, I think, because dark rum tends to dominate a cocktail if used entirely as the spirit base. So vodka is used in the Huntsman Cocktail as a matter of balance of flavor. I used Aylesbury Duck vodka because I had exactly two ounces and because (I discovered when drinking it) of the winter wheat distillate that makes this vodka softer and slightly perfumed.

The rum that dominates the Duck is Lyon Bijou Batch dark rum. I got a bottle of this rum at its local distillery at St. Michaels, Maryland, and talked with the distiller, Ben Lyon. He makes a white lightning, dark rum, 100-proof sailor's reserve rum aged in bourbon barrels, and a corn whiskey. A batch of rye is forthcoming. Lyon says that the dark rum is the most difficult to make. All Lyon spirits are very small batches of about 100 bottles. For the dark rum, Lyon said he colored and flavored the rum by cooking caramel on his stove top to add to the batch.

2 oz. vodka (Aylesbury Duck used)
1 oz. dark rum (Lyon Bijou Batch dark rum used)
1 oz. lime juice
1/2 tsp. bar sugar

Combine all ingredients in a shaker and stir until sugar is dissolved. Add ice and shake. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass (coup glass shown).