The Negroni

Beautiful and bitter, it’s The Negroni:

• 1 ounce gin or vodka
• 1 ounce sweet vermouth
• 1 ounce Campari Stir vigorously in an iced mixing glass. Strain into a small cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange slice.

The first time I went to Italy (many years ago), my friend Antonio took me to a bar in Naples. All of the beautiful people were standing around looking beautiful with lovely sparkling red drinks in their hands. To me it looked like fizzy cherry Kool-Aid, and I asked about it. I was told it was “Campari and soda” and I ordered one.

Curaçao Punch

A old one from 1882, it’s Curaçao Punch:

• 0.5 tablespoon sugar (alter to taste)
• 2 or 3 dashes of fresh lemon juice
• 1.0 ounce soda water
• 1.0 ounce brandy (Martell cognac specified)
• 2.0 ounces orange curaçao
• 1.0 ounce Jamaican rum (full-bodied specified)

In a bar glass or goblet, combine the sugar, lemon juice, and soda water. Dissolve the sugar, and fill a glass with finely shaved or thoroughly crushed ice. Add the remaining ingredients. Stir well, and ornament as Liberace might with all the fruit at your disposal.

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The Amarosa Cocktail

From halfway around the world comes The Amarosa Cocktail:

• 1.0 ounce Amaro Cora
• 1.0 ounce gin
• 1.0 ounce kirschwasser

Stir well and enthusiastically. Strain into a stemmed glass of your choice, but use something pretty, because this cocktail has a very pretty color. Twist a small lemon peel directly over the drink and drop it in.

Okay, I’m not a huge fan of amaro. I just find it to bitter, and while I love what it can do in a cocktail, I was very worried about drinking an amaro-centric libation.

Leatherneck Cocktail

Did you say you wanted a blue drink? Try the Leatherneck Cocktail:

• 2.00 ounces blended whiskey (Crown Royal recommended)
• 0.75 ounce blue curaçao
• 0.50 ounce fresh lime juice

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Okay, I don’t like blue curaçao. Curaçao is supposed to be a colorless spirit, but it is often dyed blue to add a weird color to drinks. Seriously, there is no blue food so there should be no blue drinks.

The Modernista

Another rare Scotch-based cocktail, The Modernista:

• 2.0 ounces Scotch
• 0.5 ounce dark Jamaican rum
• 1 teaspoon absinthe or pastis (Pernod, Herbsaint and Ricard all work.)
• 0.5 ounce Swedish Punsch
• 0.5 ounce fresh lemon juice
• 2 dashes orange bitters

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass. Add a lemon twist.

This is Dr. Cocktail’s name for The Modern cocktail, and the references I’ve found in the intertoobz all have Scotch, pastis or absinthe, and orange bitters in common, but in vastly different proportions. A couple include sloe gin. The drink is supposed to have originated just after the turn of the century (1900, not 2000), hence the name.

The Algonquin Cocktail

It’s back to the “A’s” with The Algonquin Cocktail:

• 1.50 ounces rye
• 0.75 ounce dry vermouth
• 0.75 ounce pineapple juice

Shake in an iced cocktail shaker, and strain into a cocktail glass.

I really thought I’d like this cocktail. I like rye and I thought it would go well with pineapple juice, and I really like the name.

The Algonquin is a hotel in New York City that is best known as the site of the “Algonquin Round Table“, a daily gathering of literary, entertainment and art figures that met for lunch there for nearly ten years. In my life I’ve experienced a couple of occasions where friends and acquaintances of mine have gathered for an experience I imagine to be similar to what the Vicious Circle was like, and I wouldn’t mind more of those in my life.

Picon Punch

After three long months, I was finally able to make an authentic Picon Punch:

• 1.0 teaspoon real pomegranate grenadine
• 2.5 ounces Amer Picon
• Soda Water
• 1.0 ounce brandy

Fill a collins glass with crushed ice. Add the real pomegranate grenadine and Amer Picon. Fill with soda water. Float brandy on top.

I had a lot of issues with this drink.

The first was getting Amer Picon. The French word “Amer” is similar to the Italian “Amaro” and it is used to describe a strong, herbal flavored liqueur. Amer Picon is supposed to have a stronger orange flavor than most Amaro, and while it is called for in a number of vintage cocktails, it is very hard to get “authentic” Amer Picon. Always hard to obtain in the States, The House of Picon radically changed the recipe in the 1970s, halving the proof, and thus modern Amer Picon can’t be used for that authentic experience.