Gin

— No. 146 —

Basil Smash

The 4th of July is one of my favorite hol­i­days, and I cel­e­brate every year by host­ing a par­ty com­plete with home­brewed shandy and fresh sum­mer cock­tails. Because my gar­den is usu­al­ly over­flow­ing by this time of the year, I like to take advan­tage of that by cre­at­ing cock­tails packed with fresh herbs. This year, I’ll be serv­ing my adap­ta­tion of the Basil Smash. The Basil Smash was orig­i­nal­ly cre­at­ed by Jörg Mey­er of Le Lion — Bar de Paris in Ham­burg, Ger­many. Accord­ing to Jörg, he …

— No. 134 —

The Fencer

The Lucien Gaudin is a clas­sic but obscure cock­tail that cel­e­brates the well dec­o­rat­ed French ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry fencer of the same name. You may notice it shares sim­i­lar­i­ties with the Negroni. Both fea­ture gin and Cam­pari. The Lucien Gaudin how­ev­er has the dis­tinct pres­ence of orange, both from the fla­vor with the Coin­treau and in aro­ma of the orange peel gar­nish. The Lucien Gaudin is a dry, crisp clas­sic that is light on its feet. Lucian Gaudin 1 oz …

— No. 130 —

Signs of Spring

This cock­tail is named for its inclu­sion of elder­ber­ry, long thought to her­ald the begin­ning of spring. All the Year Round: A Nature Read­er by Frances Lucia Strong and Martha Allen Lane (1896) is a book designed to inter­est young school chil­dren in nature and includes the pas­sage: “How warm the sun­shine is!” exclaimed a lit­tle bud on an elder­ber­ry twig. “Yes,” answered her twin sis­ter, “I believe spring has come at last. How glad I am!” And how glad …

— No. 129 —

Bee’s Knees

The Bee’s Knees cock­tail is a gin, lemon and hon­ey clas­sic that dates back to pro­hi­bi­tion. The phrase “bee’s knees” was pro­hi­bi­­tion-era slang for “the best.” In that time, the addi­tion of ingre­di­ents such as cit­rus and hon­ey were often used to cov­er the less than ide­al smell and taste of bath­tub gin. Improv­ing the taste of an infe­ri­or gin may have been the goal, but the result was a fan­tas­tic con­coc­tion that can hold its own today. Cale­do­nia Spir­it­s’s …

— No. 110 —

Ginger Rogers

The Gin­ger Rogers is the per­fect pool­side cock­tail. It’s refresh­ing and it’s easy to make. Not to men­tion mint, gin, gin­ger, and gin­ger ale are per­fect com­pli­ments. Ide­al­ly you’d want to use a collins glass for this cock­tail, but when you’re pool­side you’ll take what you can get. This recipe was cre­at­ed at Port­land’s Zefiro in 1995 by Mar­co­v­al­do Dionysos. It gained its pop­u­lar­i­ty at Absinthe Brasserie and Bar in San Fran­cis­co where it was one of the most ordered drinks. …

— No. 101 —

Pressure Drop

The Pres­sure Drop, a cock­tail cre­at­ed by Man­hat­tan’s Death and Com­pa­ny, is undoubtably a wor­thy addi­tion to my series fea­tur­ing the best cock­tails from my trav­els. New York City boasts some of Amer­i­ca’s best cock­tail bars. If you’re in the Big Apple, seek out Death and Com­pa­ny and pull a stool up to the bar. The Pres­sure Drop was eas­i­ly my favorite cock­tail on their menu. It’s such an out­stand­ing cock­tail it even made it on Syl­vain’s menu all the …