What is your favorite alcoholic cocktail?

French 75 (use good champagne)
French 76 (use good champagne)
Old fashioned (use expensive cherries)
Side car (use orange brandy instead of orange liqueur)
Manhattan (don't skimp on bitters)
Cosmopolitan (throw the used lime into the shaker)
Whiskey sour (use egg white)
Gimlet (add a cedar leaf for more flavor)

Fresh fruit is a must to make the best drinks.

Second the whiskey sour (with egg white) and the Manhattan..

..and I'll add a Moscow Mule when on a sunny patio and it's a scorching day
- Kentucky Mule here. Bourbon rather than vodka.
  
  I also recommend Bundaberg ginger beer in any mule.
I like the cut of your jib! 🎩

Great list. Missing Sazerac, but someone else has you covered already.

Off to find a cedar leaf, I haven't tried that...
Whiskey sour (use egg white)

I've never heard of putting an egg white in those. What does that do?
- Adds texture, almost creamy. Shake the hell out of the drink until it gets a nice foam topping.
My absolute favorite is New Your Sour (Basically Whiskey Sour with a dash of red wine (and slightly different mixing ratios. Last time I made them with Acquafaba (basically bean water; the water you get from a can of chick peas) instead of egg white and let me tell you, that worked like a charm, can only recommend!
Never heard them called leaves before, only needles so that's cool.

Gin and Tonic with fresh Rosemary and Orange is nice. Bet a cedar leaf would be nice in there too.
Adding to your list:

Sloe gin sour

Sloe gin fizz

If you’re ok with bitter flavors, I’m a big fan of the Negroni.

I prefer mine straight up so it doesn’t dilute too much.

I prefer its big sibling the Boulevardier.

1.5 parts bourbon or rye

1 part campari

1 part sweet vermouth. I prefer Carpano Antica

Express an orange peel over and garnish with it
- But if I have good rye I’m making a Manhattan so there’s a booze cherry as “dessert”.
I'm normally a fan of bitter and other really strong flavors, but personally most negronis are just too much for me, lengthen it out with some prosecco to make it sbagliato though and it's a damn tasty drink.
I love Negroni. It needs to be on the rocks tho. If you do it properly, it needs to be cold. Also in terms of quantity, no ice means a ton more alcohol, I prefer to drink 3 properly made if the goal is to get drunk.

Absolute favorite is the Sazerac. Any recipe you find use less sugar.

Do you make yours with a split base of rye and cognac or do you go for straight rye? Love me a good Sazerac! If you haven't had one yet, give the bijou or la louisiane a try too. Both are delicious new orleans style cocktails
- I like it straight rye mostly but always love to try and see if a good bartender can make it 50/50 too.

The Dude was on to something, white russian all the way.

Rye Manhattan up. Rye old fashioned if you want rocks and sweeter profile. But always rye.

Straight rye can be good too.
- I do enjoy a good rye! But generally I enjoy bourbon neat/on the rocks or rye in cocktails.

For a cocktail, I'll take a well executed Mojito 9/10 times. That other 1/10 is often a White Russian.

Else a gin & tonic as a long drink, as long as they got decent stuff.

These days I have maybe 2-3 drinks a year at most, so I'm not willing to settle for inferior ingredients.

Well executed being the key here! I don't know how many Mojitos I've had with just 5 limp mint leaves barely muddled in them
- Yeah, or using syrups for lime, mint and even sugar. I've once received something that can only be described as a glass of sprite with a dash of toothpaste. Utterly repulsive.

Rarely drink cocktails, but Long Island Ice Tea is probably my go-to.

That’s almost as dangerous (easily drinkable) as jungle juice.

The Last Word is my favorite, but I rarely have the ingredients on hand. The Bees Knees is a more common go-to.

Naked & Famous is my favorite. It’s been described as the result of a Oaxacan love affair between The Last Word and a Paper Plane.

Penicillin. Honey, bourbon, scotch, ginger, and lemon, all in one.

This is my go to during cold months, though I usually see it made with scotch instead of bourbon.
- I prefer bourbon, haha. Not super traditional, but I tend to prefer bourbon over scotch, so other than the smokey top I like bourbon in mine. Doesn't make a huge difference overall!

Mai Tai. All the joy of vacationing on a beach, without the beach.

I dunno about favorite, but my go-tos are an Old Fashioned in the fall and winter, and a Tom Collins in spring and summer.

Those become a Manhattan or an Aviation if I’m feeling fancy or just want to mix it up.

I like tiki drinks.

Painkillers are incredible. I'll take 12.

measurements:

2 oz Dark Rum (preferably Pusser's Rum, as it's the traditional choice)
4 oz Pineapple Juice
1 oz Orange Juice
1 oz Cream of Coconut *Garnish: Grated Nutmeg and optionally a pineapple wedge or cherry

Instructions:

Combine Ingredients: In a shaker, add the dark rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, and cream of coconut with ice.
Shake Well: Shake vigorously until well chilled.
Strain: Strain the mixture into a hurricane glass or large snifter filled with ice.
Garnish: Generously grate fresh nutmeg on top of the drink and, if you like, add a pineapple wedge or cherry for decoration.

I really like both the Jungle Bird and Artichoke Hold served on crushed ice as tiki drinks.

The Jungle Bird

1.5 oz Jamaican rum

.75 oz Campari

1 oz pineapple juice, preferably fresh

.5 oz lime juice

.5 oz Demerara syrup (1:1 sugar to water) Shake on ice and strain into crushed ice. Garnish: pineapple wedge and frond

Artichoke Hold:

0.75 oz Jamaican Rum preferably Smith & Cross

0.75 oz Cynar

0.5 oz Elderflower Liqueur preferably St Germain

0.75 oz Lime Juice

0.5 oz Orgeat

Same as above, shake on ice and strain onto crushed ice.
- The jungle bird is one of the greatest. I typically use blackstrap rum. I've even clarified it before with milk

I'm sober now, but back when I drank I always loved a martini made with equal parts gin and sweet vermouth with a splash of grenadine and a maraschino cherry.

Is the sun up? Bloody Mary

Is the sun down? Extra dirty gin martini. Preferably Hendricks or Botanist.

For me, an extra dirty bloody mary, which includes olive brine and pickle juice. A shot of each, or to taste. Lifts it into a new realm.

Gin and Tonic is my go-to.

The one that catches people off guard, but people generally seem to enjoy once they try is dark rum and orange juice (but the OJ has to be good, the kind thats pulpy / thick).

That's my reaction with a jager mule usually. Just a Moscow mule, sub the vodka for jagermeister. It sounds way too much, but the flavors of the ginger and the jager fit so well together, it's really more than the sum of its parts.

I like the sound of that. Needs to be bitter, otherwise I chug them !

I quite like salty margaritas and dirty martinis.

If you want bitter use fresh grapefruit juice, the sodas have enough sugar for a sweet/tart balance I enjoy but fresh is a lot more "dry."

I don't drink hard liquor any more, but even when I did, I didn't drink cocktails, but did get a tiny bit fancy on straight whiskey.

Rye, mid or top shelf. Chilled glass with a whiskey stone. Sometimes with a beer.

I have multiple - it depends on the occasion:

illegal (I love mezcal)
moscow mule
bloody mary
piña colada

Piña coladas are fucking king.
- I have a friend who makes his own piña colada. He always makes way too much of it, so occasionally the odd bottle ends up in my liquor cabinet. I am normally not too much into sweet drinks, but I absolutely love that stuff.
- I think bacardi sells a mixer for pina coladas that is frozen like orange juice in those can things. Put that with the liquor in your blender.
  
  https://starfishmarket.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Bacardi-Mixers-Pi%C3%B1a-Colada-10-OZ.jpg

Dark, unspiced rum and any of the fruit juice monsters mixed 1:1 in a big gulp.

Keeps my heart on it's toes.

An Old Pal - which is a minor variation of a Boulevardier

1 ounce Rye
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce dry Vermouth
Served straight up garnished with a twist of lemon

If I can find it, Time Release is fantastic and should be on everyone's must try list

1.5 ounces Dry Gin
1 ounce White Port
0.5 ounce Sloe Gin
0.25 ounce Yellow Chartreuse
Stirred not shaken, served straight up, garnished with a cherry

Great sipper that changes in flavor significantly as it warms up. Most places don't have White Port on hand and few have Sloe Gin on hand so can be difficult to get at a bar.

Replace the Grapefruit from your Paloma with some Japaleno brine and it's my current go to

Daytime: Caeser

Nighttime: Negroni or Manhattan

Those are my go to as well, except bloody Mary, but similar to a Caesar.

Caipiroska, a Caipirinha variant with Vodka instead of cachaça

https://iba-world.com/caipirinha/

Sazerac - basically a Louisiana old fashioned

2 oz Rye whiskey
1/4 oz dark simple syrup ( like Turbinado, Demerara, etc)
5ish dashes of Peychaud’s bitters
rinse glass with absinthe (I swear it doesn’t taste like anise/licorice at all in the end)
lemon twist
serve straight up

A Right Hand.

You have to make it yourself though because unfortunately no one knows what the hell this delicious drink is.

I'm a big fan of a Malt Neat.

The ingredients are:

-3oz Islay malt

That's it! It's so easy and simple, and it's impossible to mess up!

A white russian or a raspberry or mango mojito

If I have to pick one drink to take to a desert island, it's the classic Sazerac.

That is what I will want most of the time when I want a cocktail. However, I will allow a few others to enter rotation, depending on mood, time/temperature, and place:

Margarita.
Vesper.
Pastis.

And, finally, my embarrassing guilty pleasure (which I never order except when I am in company I know well or I am on a Caribbean island): piña colada.

Painkiller, which is piña colada for grown-ups

Whiskey Sour, skip the egg

Classic Daiquiri (not the slush one)

Salmiakki, keep it classic.

Oh look it's a Finn. The premade salmiakkikossu or home made turkinpippuri infusion?
- Koskenkorva, I haven't tried steeping my own.

Old Fashioned, when the bar is stocked enough and the barman knows, then Smoke & Cigars

Amoretto sour or gin gin

By far, Negroni.

1/3 dark vermouth 1/3 Campari 1/3 gin

Add to a low and wide glass with a fair amount of ice. Smoked rosemary and orange peel for extra infusion of flavour and stir.

You can experiment with the brands and types of vermouth and gin but Campari stays.
- My house does a lot of Negroni variations. I will often swap the Campari for Ramazzotti or Cappelletti to dial down the bitterness and add some herbal notes. Also works great as a Boulevardier or with mezcal.
- Replace the gin with bourbon and it becomes a boulivardier! That’s one of my favorites.
- You can have my bottle of campari, I LOVE gin but a Negroni? Nah, that shit is like drinking cough medicine from the 1800s sans heroin.
- Scrolled way to far to find my absolute favourite drink. +1

Negronis, I love campari and gin

I also love coming up with cocktails so I'd love to share one of my favorites, the Fire Eater

Dried whole chili peppers, broken in half
Fireball
Maraschino cherries and syrup
Fill with coke and serve over ice, alternatively use cherry coke

The drink gets spicier as you drink. For the full fire eater experience eat the chilis at the end.

Division Bell! It's punchy and tart with the citrus and slightly bitter aperol, and the mezcal gives a really welcome smoky flavor. I add just a quarter oz simple to the standard recipe, otherwise I find it a little dry.

-1 ounce mezcal -3/4 ounce Aperol -1/4 ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur -3/4 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed -1/4 ounce simple syrup

-Add ingredients to a shaker with ice, shake well before straining into a coupe and garnishing with a grapefruit twist

Yes, it needs simple otherwise is too dry

I'm partial to the New Orleans cocktails. If I'm making a Sazerac, I like this variation.

On the whole, though, my favorite has to be the Vieux Carré

3/4 oz rye
3/4 oz cognac
3/4 oz sweet vermouth
1/3 oz Bénédictine D.O.M
2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
1 dash Angostura bitters
Optional absinthe rinse (I usually keep some absinthe in an atomizer because I refuse to throw out perfectly good absinthe)

Serve in a rocks glass with a lemon twist

At the same time, though, my love for bitter sometimes draws me to a Bonsoni:

2 oz Carpano Antica vermouth
1/2 oz Fernet Branca

Well,

I normally like my liquor with just a splash of water, but I do make a mean mojito. The secret, which I discovered by accident, is adding a bit of catnip along with the mint. It has a smoother minty flavor which compliments the lime juice really well

Also, catnip tea is commonly used to help people sleep, so you get nice and relaxed without drinking too much.

I would like to know how you found out about the cat nip thing by accident.
- My catnip and mint grow next to each other and I harvested some by mistake, then got curious about what it would taste like.
- I have both of these, dry, in jars next to each other. If they weren't labeled I'd have to smell and maybe even taste to tell them apart. Fresh they look similar with smallish deeply textured leaves.

Personally a fan of the Sonic Screwdriver, because I like my drinks like I like my ladies: sweet, bubbly, geeky as hell, and able to knock my ass out.

2 parts Sprite

2 parts orange juice

1 part vanilla vodka

1 part Blue Curaçao

Combine and serve in a highball glass on the rocks.

I've invited one based on my taste for palomas and pisco sour. El Condor:

1oz of Tequila or Mezcal
1oz of Pisco (Peruvian)
0.5oz Syrup Agave (you can find it in the muesli section) or simple syrup
2oz Lime juice
2oz grapefruit juice
1 Eggwhite to shake if you like it more smooth
chili salt rim or chilistring garnish

Probably the best cocktail I did so far.

Scotch and soda.

Visit us at !cocktails@lemmy.world

I love a Paloma and agree, Jarritos and fresh lime, absolutely.

My current favorite is an adjusted Paper Plane

2 parts bourbon

1 part Aperol

1 part Amaro Nonino

1 part fresh lemon juice

Shaken with ice, served up.

Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn't work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !cocktails@lemmy.world

It always changes on the day but couple of my favourites are

-corpse reviver No. 2 -absinthe sour -pina colada -bloody mary( with gin instead of vodka and homemade chili sauce instead of tabasco)

I am also here to rep Corpse Recover No. 2.

It's very refreshing. Gin, lemon juice, lillet, cointreaux, and a touch of absinthe.

Other than cheap domestic beer when im trying to get drunk, I stick to Old-fashions. Great drink to sip as the liquor slowly mixes with the water from the melting ice, smoothing out the flavors.

1.5 ounce whisky

.5 ounce of simple syrup (I like mine extra sweet)

A couple dashes of Angostura bitters

1 fat chunk of ice

(Basil Hayden is my bourbon of choice)

I like a Canadian Old Fashioned.

Bourbon

Maple syrup

Angostura bitters

Ice

Orange peel if you have them
Agreed on Old Fashioneds. We make them with bourbon, sometimes rye to change it up, and throw in some orange bitters
- I'll twist an orange peel over my bourbon to get some of the oils! My buddy does the same with lemon peel and rye

I don't do cocktails much, mostly because I don't really have the ingredients around. One I like to do now and then is whisky (around half the drink, preferably spicy rye) and the rest about equal proportions of apple juice and ginger ale, poured over a chunk of ice.

All time favorite: Jungle Bird. The perfect mix of tiki drink in spirit but with a punch and grown up flavors!

Also love me a Bee's Knees with some high quality gin and honey. There's a fantastic New England distillery called Barr Hill that makes gin from honey, which makes for an extra amazing one.

I've really been enjoying the "Sour" format lately, too. Very versatile with all the random liquors or lower-proof alcohols I've collected over the past few years making random drinks.

Caipirinha. Made with cachaça, sugar, and lime. The drink is prepared by pounding the fruit and the sugar together, then adding the liquor.

Gimlets with homemade lime cordial if I'm trying to get hammered. Alternatively: death in the afternoon to black out

Dark n stormy with lemon hart 151 and a couple dashes of ango if I'm feeling lazy

Old fashioneds with a nice barrel proof bourbon to unwind

Amaretto sour for something sweet

Vieux carre if I want vermouth

There's a whole wide world of fancy booze out there, I couldn't pick just one favorite lol

Dark & Stormy is my favorite, from what I've tried

An Ethicurean. I genuinely believe it's the perfect cocktail but I've only ever come across it in a single bar in all my life.

Serves 1
ice cubes
lemon ¼
thyme 2 sprigs plus 1 to serve
honey 1 tsp
vodka 25ml
apple juice 100ml

Full recipe.

I quit drinking a while ago, but before I did I was exploring quite a few different things. Kind of amazing how much different alcohol there is.

Some highlights:

Belgian beers. Trappist stand out in this field but it is very difficult to go wrong. This encompasses very high quality beers (best in the world, IMHO) of dizzying variety. Sour (NOT bitter like an IPA...SOUR), fruit beers (lambic), wheat, doubles, triples, reds, browns, and more. Here is a nice guide.
Rye whiskey. several varieties exist and most of them very unique tasting. Search enough and you'll find some very unusual ones.
Vodka martinis. The drunk's drink.
Sipping tequila. Costco had some sort of house brand that was amazing. I only recommend agave but there are less good varieties.
Bloody Marys. Some places make these with so much food in them they could be a meal. I like spicy.
Ouzo chased by Coke is an amazing taste. Try it sometime if you never have.
Pepper vodka. I had some I bought in Ukraine (years ago) that was amazing. Pepper meaning spicy pepper not black pepper. Do not buy the absolut version it is shit.

No shit that Kirkland brand añejo is absolutely a good sipper!
- That's the stuff! Cheap and fucking amazing taste.

Anything spicy or peppery. I'm pretty basic. Jalapeños are enough, but if you're creative about it, so much the better.

Ive been adding Jalapenos to margaritas and using tajin for the glass rim. Very nice change.

Lots of good cocktails in here. Going to plug !cocktails@lemmy.world for everyone to check out and contribute these cocktails, too.

Black Russian is my thing most of the time. Also gin sour without egg is great.

Monte Carlo

1.5oz Bourbon, 0.5 Benedictine, 2 dashes Angostura

I've been experimenting with my own, and this one is my new fave.

Jelly Baby

2 oz peach Eddies
0.5 oz aperol
3 oz pineapple juice
2 oz Squirt soda
Splash peach syrup

I love fruity strong cocktails and this one tastes just like jelly babies. It's so good!

My usuals are the Black Russian and the Gin and Tonic.

Black Russian = 1 jigger vodka, 1 jigger kahlua and coke, in a tall glass.

G&T = 2 jigger gin, a splash of Rose's lemon squash and tonic water, in a tall glass.

Aviation. I like gin and I don’t care for bitter much.

Tanqueray and cranberry juice with lime

Is your mind on your money?
- And my money on my mind, yes.

Jameson Whiskey

Ginger Ale

Ice

Squeeze of lime

Lime slices

Not a specific drink suggestion, but I really love “vector bar”. It’s an app where you can track the ingredients you have on hand, and it will give you recipes based on what you have. It has a lot of other great features, too.

back when i drank, mint julep.

Dubonnet Manhattan

The paloma sounds amazing. Thank you.

I'm revisiting the classic Old Fashion. I love it.

Depending on how much money I've got, either rum and soda or vodka-martini.

That's for drinking at home, getting pantsdrunk.

French Martini
Whisky Mac

I don't usually go for cocktails, but when I do I really like a peaty whiskey sour, or a boilermaker with Guinness or a session IPA and again a peaty whiskey.

Moonlight Vodka Martini (own recipe)

Two shots of Skyy vodka
Dolin Dry Vermouth
Dash of Grand Marnier
Jigger of seltzer water
Quick shake with a lot of crushed ice
Garnished with garlic-stuffed green olive

Why do you pur seltzer water if you then shake it?
- Gives it a little fizz and cuts down the harsh edge. It's a very small amount.

Basil smash is my house specialty but I'll experiment with it, had a big phase of getting into mixology this year though it's currently a lot less due to following a strict calorie planning.

I drink beer in the summer, bourbon whiskey in the winter. But I have a holiday tradition, on the solstice I buy myself a bottle of Lairds and spend the rest of the week mixing Jack Roses.

Jack Rose:

1 1/2 ounces applejack or apple brandy
3/4 ounces lemon or lime juice
1/2 ounce grenadine

Shake all ingredients until chilled, double strain into a coupe glass, garnish with lemon twist.

You'll basically never find a bar that stocks applejack, so if you want one you'll have to mix your own.

A gin and tonic with Squirt

Good whisky, neat

Decent whisky, bitters, club soda, ice in a short glass.

Gin, flavored fizzy (LaCroix etc), splash of lime juice, ice

Gin shaken with ice, small rinse of dry vermouth in glass, 3-4 blue cheese olives

4:3:3:4 añejo tequila, grand Marnier, key west lime juice, honey simple (50/50 honey and water) shaken or blended with ice. (Could sub honey for sugar free sweetener to be "healthy")

My favorite margarita is just 2oz tequila (yes añejo or reposado), 1oz orange liqueur, juice of one lime. No sweetener, the liqueur provides enough sweetness.

i love fruity drinks, pina colada is my favorite but bartenders hate making it so i just go for whatever cocktail has coconut or pineapple flavor

Pineapple juice, whiskey, and a squeeze of lime is so much better than it should be.
Why do bartenders hate making piña colada? (I feel guilty now)
- some places may only have 1 blender and they have to clean it out after every use

Tie between Pisco Sour and Bloody Mary. Usually a night drinking the former will lead to the latter the next day.

Sub "Caesar" for "Bloody Mary" and I'm down.

The Drunk Uncle

1 oz blended scotch
1/2 oz islay scotch
3/4 oz cynar
3/4 oz dry vermouth

99,9% Ethanol, for cleaning and extracting shit.

I dont drink poison lol

I’m a big IPA guy. Especially at 99% great to clean 3D printer bed and flux from PCBs.
- And for extracting Terpenes and Cannabinoids ;D