Lately I am getting into cocktails. My new favorite drink is the Black Velvet. I remember getting one at some place on Charles St. in Baltimore a couple of years ago. I just thought of it again last night for some reason and decided to make some tonight.

Anyhow, here's the recipe:

It's equal parts Guinness Stout and Champagne.

Pour the stout in first, and add the champagne slowly so it doesn't mix. Well, that's what the recipe book says. I don't mind it mixing a little.

Post your favorite drink!

I like margaritas, but I can't make 'em the way I like 'em. About the only "cocktail" I ever make at home is a gin & tonic. Plum wine and tonic is also good.

I used to make a drink consisting of "some Irish cream" and "some Kerns mango-orange juice", the whole poured into a tall glass filled with ice. The acid in the juice would curdle the cream, making it really thick, and the fruit would also mask the alchohol flavor. Basically resulting in an alcoholic smoothie.

Long Island Ice Tea.

Hmmm..

Jagermeister shots.

White Russians.

Mimosas (only at Christmas).

Hendricks & Lillet with lemon.

Manhattan: bourbon, sweet vermouth and a dash of bitters.

The Five Best Drinks Of All Time

5. The Frozen Margarita
   2 tsp coarse salt
1 lime wedge
3 oz white tequila
1 oz triple sec
2 oz lime juice
1 cup crushed ice

Place salt in a saucer. Rub rim of a cocktail glass with lime wedge and dip glass into salt to coat rim thoroughly, reserve lime. Pour tequila, triple sec, lime juice, and crushed ice into a blender. Blend well at high speed. Pour into a cocktail glass.

Unless the bar you're at is attached to a Mexican restaurant, avoid ordering this drink.  Never order it anywhere that might even possibly be considered a dive. You'll just annoy the bartender. This is the best drink for summer parties though, since it can be made easily by the pitcher and ambushes lightweights.  Use a mid-range tequila like Curevo Gold, and don't skimp out by buying premade mixer.

4. The Mojito
   3 fresh mint sprigs
2 tsp sugar
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 1/2 oz light rum
club soda

In a tall thin glass, crush part of the mint with a fork to coat the inside. Add the sugar and lime juice and stir thoroughly. Top with ice. Add rum and mix. Top off with *chilled* club soda (or seltzer). Add a lime slice and the remaining mint, and serve.

Mojitos are a great socializing drink, especially appropriate for more upscale, trendy places.  Not a dive bar drink.  Unlike the also tasty Mint Julip, the mojito won't embarass you when you order it.  It's very light and refreshing, so you can keep drinking them for hours without getting too hammered.  Careful when you order it though, as sometimes bartenders put blue curacao in a mojito, and that is just plain wrong.  Who cares what rum is used (go with the well rum), the mint, sugar and club soda are there to mask the flavor.

3. The Long Island
   1/2 oz vodka
1/2 oz light rum
1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz tequila
juice of 1/2 lemons
1 splash Coca-Cola®

Combine all ingredients (except cola) and pour over ice in a highball glass. Add the splash of cola for color. Decorate with a slice of lemon and serve.


The best well drink you can ask for.  Your go-to cocktail for dive bar. There's no point in using notable spirits in this graveyard of alcohol. This thing is just a hammer, it doesn't need texture.  If your goal is to just get plastered fast without annoying the bartender, this is your drink.  I like to knock back a few neat shots of the more decent stuff a bar has, then switch to these after my third or fourth shot.  Good times, good times.  It's cheap, strong, and goes down easy despite being entirely composed of alcohol (remember: cola for color, not filler).

2. The Martini
   1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz dry vermouth

Stir with ice cubes, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with an olive or a twist of lemon.

Truly the only way to drink gin.  Despite tasting rather awful until you've had three or four and can't taste anything, the martini is an excellent drink for it's cool factor alone.  Sidle up to a bar and ask for a real martini made with something nice, like Bombay Sapphire, and ask for it "extra dry" -- which should mean "pour the vermouth in the glass, and then pour it out." -- and knock it back without flinching, and you'll have instantly proven you're cool.  Don't ask for it to be shaken, not stirred.  It's always shaken, unless the bartender is an idiot, and nobody is impressed by James Bond posturing.  

1. The Old Fashion
    2 oz bourbon whiskey
2 dashes Angostura® bitters
1 tsp water
1 tsp sugar
1 maraschino cherry
1 orange wedge

Mix sugar, water and angostura bitters in an old-fashioned glass. Drop in an orange wedge. Muddle into a paste using a muddler or the back end of a spoon. Pour in bourbon, fill with ice cubes, stir and garnish with cherry.

I used to be a huge fan of the Whiskey Sour, until I sampled one of these, which is the Sour's ornery grandpappy.  It's a classic, and quite possibly the first cocktail ever, but it's one of the best sipping cocktails around, a good drink for when you're waiting for a table at a restaurant, or have reason to nurse a drink. This is an easy one for a half-rate bartender to get wrong. Use Maker's Mark. Do not let the bartender add soda water.

Oh, and a friend of mine and I invented an excellent drink that we call the Dharma Sunrise.  It requires a juicer, preferably a Juiceman brand juicer.  This thing is not only very tasty, it's packed with vitamins and energy and will brighten up your whole day.  if you have access to a juicer, this thing puts the Bloody Mary to shame as the ultimate Breakfast of Champions.

   Dharma Sunrise
3 oz of gold tequila
1/8 large watermelon (rind included)
1/2 fresh jalapeño pepper

Blend watermelon and jalapeño pepper in juicer.  Include the rind of the watermelon (plenty of healthy vitamins). Mix tequila and juice in 24 oz tumbler, fill with ice.

Sangria Señorial.  It's a Mexican soft drink, non-alcoholic, and it tastes like...

...like bliss.

Okay, it tastes like grape and citrus.  Blissfully so.

Quote from: Dr Rotwang!Sangria Señorial.  It's a Mexican soft drink, non-alcoholic, and it tastes like...

...like bliss.

Okay, it tastes like grape and citrus.  Blissfully so.

I think I've had this in Texas. It's basically like grape soda, but it has sort of a wine(ish)-flavor. Is it carbonated?

I can't remember the brand name exactly. I also used to get Jarritos (Tamarindo!). For a couple of summers I worked for a food warehouse that handled La Preferida imports and I think Goya.

UPDATE: I found it. Sangria Penafiel is what I had. Link below--->   http://www.mexgrocer.com/6342.html

Sour Punch - A pal and I invented this one New Year's a few years ago, and I've since sent it out through my extended social circle.

Ingredients:

750mL - 1L red wine per person
~12 oz vodka per person
1L Tropicana Orange Juice or reasonable imitation per person
1 packet cherry or grape flavoured Kool-Aid
1 packet orange flavoured Kool-Aid
Additional sugar as necessary
Sliced lemons, limes and oranges that've been mashed up a bit to be oozy
1 tbsp. / L unsweetened lime juice
Grenadine to taste (usually about 1 tsp per 2L of fluid)
Syrop de Cassis to taste.

Mix this in a chili pot capable of holding it all. Add water to soften it until you've got about a gallon per person. All must drink their gallon. No slackers allowed. You can bottle it in used, poorly washed whiskey bottles and this gives it a fine body when consumed later. Drink slowly to avoid vomiting, as its bright red colour will make it appear that you are vomiting blood. The traditional wine is Carlo Rossi by the 3L jug, with Prince Igor for the vodka. It has a sour, sharp taste that cuts through other flavours. You may be unable to taste anything other than the punch for some time after finishing.

Rye and water. For me, there is no substitute.

A mixed drink for me is a shot of Jameson's, a can of Old Style and a Lucky Strike.  Then you follow that up with a Bloody Mary on the following Sunday.

Mixed drinks!

Local tender invented what I like to call the 'velvet lap dance'. I don't think he likes the name. Is it safe for your tender to hate you?

Don't forget to ask that girl at the bar if she wants a Long Hard Fuck.