Apricot Lady

I made this cocktail at work where I keep my house made apricot brandy. The other bartenders agree that the apricot flavor needs to be front and center, so after making a first go I added a little more apricot brandy.

What I like about the Apricot Lady is that it is very light and drinkable, easy to make, and probably satisfying to those guests who are not big drinkers. The egg white foam on top is a nice touch, but it is the simplicity of serving it on the rocks that won't turn off men looking for a strong drink with a feminine name.

• 1 1/2 oz. light rum (Bacardi used)
• 1 oz. apricot brandy (homemade apricot brandy used)
• 1/2 tsp. triple sec
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• 1 egg white
• orange slice

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain out the ice and re-shake for foam. Pour into an Old Fashioned glass full of fresh ice and garnish with the orange slice. 

Midnight Cocktail

It's almost midnight at work and I'm whipping up this cocktail with the house made apricot brandy for the occasion. This apricot brandy is richly flavored with real apricots and sugar. It is a grape brandy, however, but not a bad one.

A cocktail that relies entirely on apricot brandy is only enjoyable when the apricot spirit is delicious in itself. Those artificially flavored apricot spirits are pretty gross and wouldn't stand up well to this kind of a spirits-forward drink recipe.

• 2 oz. apricot brandy (house made version used)
• 1 tbsp. triple sec
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. 

Apricot Cocktail

At my restaurant, I get to play around with fresh, local ingredients. That was the point of doing this cocktail here! I made this apricot brandy using pitted apricots soaked in brandy for a few days. After pressing the soggy fruit into the brandy, I added sugar and cognac and strained out the pulps.

The difference a homemade apricot brandy makes is very important to a cocktail in which the main ingredient is apricot brandy. You wouldn't want to do this with some cheap sugary liqueur.

I'm also showing off Cirrus, a potato vodka produced locally in Virginia. It is a great sipping vodka on its own, but it is super in a cocktail like this. Here's to summer!

• 1 oz. apricot brandy
• 1 tbsp. vodka or grain neutral spirits (Cirrus used)
• 1tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tbsp. orange juice
• 1 apricot slice (optional)

Combine liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the apricot slice. (optional)

Apricot Fizz

This is a basic Fizz recipe using my homemade apricot brandy that I made at work. It's probably the best spirit infusion I've made because it tastes like ripe apricots and the cheapness of the brandy is completely fixed. Now it tastes like fine cognac spirit.

You can pretty much do a Fizz with anything, so it stands to reason that apricot brandy would work well. The whole recipe seems designed to make it easy to do for bar service with minimal tools and ingredients, with sugar syrup and stirring. There's no egg in this drink, but you could do that...[plans for the future].

• 2 oz. apricot brandy
• 1 oz. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar syrup
• sparkling water
• lemon peel

Combine liquid ingredients in a mixing glass with ice. Stir and strain into a highball glass full of fresh ice. Top with soda and stir again. Twist the lemon peel on top.

After Dinner Cocktail

I realize that showing this drink in the afternoon daylight goes against its recommended serving time. The After Dinner Cocktail is a rich and very tart drink that has simple proportions. It is too sweet to use as an aperitif, and if anything comes across as tropical, like a fruit brandy Daiquiri.

Still it is a good beginning for other offshoot cocktails, should you wish to change the proportions.

A note on the ingredients. First, the recipe calls for triple sec or Cointreau, but since there's only two ounces of liquor in the drink in total, I opted for the stronger Cointreau. This was also necessary because the sweetness of the apricot brandy. Which brings me to my second point. The apricot brandy I used is an infusion of real pitted apricots in brandy. After pressing them into the brandy, I strained out the solids and added simple syrup to taste. I later added cognac to round out the flavor. This makes for a decadent cocktail ingredients that is getting a lot of use at my bar.

• 1 oz. apricot brandy (house made apricot brandy used)
• 1 oz. triple sec or Cointreau (Cointreau please)
• juice of one lime
• lime slice

Combine all ingredients except lime slice in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the lime slice.