Mary Pickford

• 1 1/2 oz. rum
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)
• grenadine

Combine all ingredients into a shaker full of ice. Shake and strain into a cocktail glass garnish with a drizzle of grenadine and a cherry.
 
Ok. I am going to comment on this drink because in most respects it meets the requirement of a good drink. (A cocktail solves a problem; this problem was a woman who didn’t like the taste of alcohol.) I’ve also made it before without the cherry liquor and enjoyed it. Something about adding an additional sweet liquor made it taste like fruit punch college kids make in garbage cans. That may have been because I was just enjoying a semi-dry drink beforehand and this one is so sweet. But I can’t help but think that Luxardo made this one too rich and my modification would be to use only a dash of it and grenadine.

More advice, if you know the drinker doesn’t want too sweet of a drink, shake all ingredients including grenadine in the hope of distributing the sweetness throughout so there is no syrupy bottom. Just go easy on the sweet stuff and use more rum.

Bombay Sapphire East G+T

• 1 1/2 oz. Bombay Sapphire East
• Tonic water
• juice of 1 lime wedge
• Lemon wedge and lemongrass stalk

Fill a highball glass with ice and gin. Top with lime juice and tonic. Garnish with lemongrass and lemon wedge.

Aviation

This is a sweet classic of a cocktail. I've seen it done with and without creme de violette, but since many of those cremes died out after Prohibition, the most common recipe is with just gin, lemon juice and maraschino liqueur--Luxardo especially.


The New York Bartender's Guide actually calls for a half teaspoon of apricot brandy. I've never seen it that way, but hey! Whatever floats your boat.

• 1 1/2 oz. gin
• 1/2 oz. lemon juice
• 1/2 oz. maraschino liqueur (Luxardo)
• 1/2 tsp. apricot brandy

Shake all ingredients on ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

St. Patrick’s Day (AKA Everybody’s Irish)

So I decided to make this drink out of season because I have the ingredients and I assumed that it would be a tragedy like most St. Patrick’s Day themed drinks. I wasn’t wrong. Of course the color of the original recipe would be a deeper green because of the real creme de menthe, but it would have also made the drink an even more awful. I used my own homemade creme de menthe with real mint, and that might have saved this cocktail from wasting my good liquor.

So this drink falls into the “Things I don’t want to waste my Irish whiskey on” category. The best drinks are made as solutions to a problem—like “how can I find a way to make this base liquor taste better by adding stuff to it?” kind of problem. The worst drinks are made with no consideration to what each component tastes like and proportions are judged in order to create a desired appearance. These can be dreadful, thought they might look attractive. This drink belongs to the latter category, because who doesn’t like a little Chartreuse or Irish whiskey, just not in the same drink.

It began almost too herbaceous with the Chartreuse standing out too much as I thought it would. The creme de menthe gave a similarly herbaceous cool in the finish. The problem was that I couldn’t taste the whiskey at all and that made adding bitters a bit of a mistake. It was already pretty bitter.
Then about midway through, I started to enjoy it because I was getting drunk. The mix of liquors was strong and a drinker can rightly say that they are Irish after drinking this cocktail—but then they might admit to a lot of things as well. Here’s the recipe if you want to experience it yourself:

• 2 oz. Irish whiskey
• 1/2 oz. green Chartreuse
• 1/2 oz. creme de menthe
• several dashes of bitters

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add several dashes of bitters.

Peppermint Patty

I don’t usually do shots, but I also don’t like to drink large quantities of liqueurs at one go either. This was a test of my uncolored homemade creme de menthe. I am pleased to find that when mixed with creme de cacao it tastes just like the original Peppermint Patty cocktail minus the color.

• 1 1/2 oz. creme de menthe
• 1 1/2 oz. creme de cacao

Combine all ingredients in a lowball glass with ice. Stir well.

The Corpse Reviver #2

It was a nice morning visiting Dupont Circle to try the Corpse Reviver #2. I could feel myself more energized just drinking it. Interesting how 3/4 is the rule of thumb here so it is easy to remember when you are hung over. Here’s how they make it:

• 3/4 oz. Lemon juice
• 3/4 oz. Hendricks gin
• 3/4 oz. Lillet Blanc
• 3/4 oz. Cointreau
• dash of absinthe 

Combine all ingredients except for absinthe in a shaker full of ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with cherry.

Green Chartreuse Martini

• 2 oz. gin
• 1 oz. green Chartreuse
• 1 oz. dry vermouth 

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