Cocktail Masterclass

Ingredients

• ·60 ml bourbon or rye
• ·1 sugar cube (or 5 ml simple syrup)
• ·3 dashes Angostura bitters
• ·1 dash orange bitters
• ·Splash of cold water

Method

Muddle the sugar with the bitters and water in the base of a rocks glass until dissolved. Add whisky and one large cube. Stir 20 seconds. Twist orange peel oils over the surface, then drop it in.

The template for every whisky cocktail. If yours tastes hot, you underdiluted; stir longer. Never use fruit salad — no cherry, no orange wedge, no muddled orange.

Ingredients

• ·60 ml rye whisky
• ·30 ml sweet vermouth (Carpano Antica or Cocchi Storico)
• ·2 dashes Angostura bitters

Method

Stir all with plenty of ice in a mixing glass for 25–30 seconds until well chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe. Drop in a proper cherry — Luxardo or your own bourbon-soaked.

Vermouth is the make-or-break. Fresh, refrigerated after opening, replaced every 2 months. Sub Scotch for a Rob Roy; sub Canadian for a milder round.

Ingredients

• ·60 ml bourbon
• ·25 ml fresh lemon juice
• ·15 ml simple syrup (1:1)
• ·20 ml egg white (or aquafaba)

Method

Dry shake (no ice) for 10 seconds to build the foam. Add ice, shake hard for another 15 seconds. Double-strain into glass. Once foam settles, dot Angostura and drag a cocktail pick through.

The dry shake is not optional. Skip the egg and you have lemonade with whisky in it; include it and you have velvet.

Ingredients

• ·50 ml blended Scotch (Famous Grouse, Monkey Shoulder)
• ·20 ml fresh lemon juice
• ·20 ml honey-ginger syrup (equal parts honey, water, muddled ginger)
• ·10 ml peated single malt (Laphroaig 10, Ardbeg 10) — floated on top

Method

Shake first three ingredients hard with ice for 15 seconds. Strain over one large cube. Float the peated malt on top by pouring gently over the back of a bar spoon.

Sam Ross, Milk & Honey NYC, 2005. Modern classic. The peat float is dramatic and utterly changes each sip depending on where you drink from.

Ingredients

• ·45 ml bourbon or rye
• ·30 ml Campari
• ·30 ml sweet vermouth

Method

Stir with ice 25 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe, or serve over a large cube in a rocks glass. Express and drop orange peel.

A Negroni's older, whisky-drinking cousin. Bitter, warming, structural. Perfect autumn aperitif.

Ingredients

• ·60 ml blended Scotch
• ·30 ml sweet vermouth
• ·2 dashes Angostura bitters

Method

Stir with ice for 25 seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe. Twist and drop lemon, or drop a cherry — dealer's choice.

A Manhattan with Scotch. Use something with sherry-cask influence for the best results (Naked Malt, Monkey Shoulder Smokey Monkey).

Ingredients

• ·50 ml blended Scotch
• ·20 ml Drambuie

Method

Build in the glass over one large cube. Stir briefly to combine. Express a lemon peel over the top.

Two ingredients. Zero effort. The Drambuie amount is dogma — err on the lower side or it turns sweet.

Ingredients

• ·25 ml blended Scotch
• ·25 ml sweet vermouth
• ·25 ml Cherry Heering
• ·25 ml fresh orange juice

Method

Shake hard with ice for 12 seconds. Double-strain into a chilled coupe. Express an orange twist over the top.

Named for a 1922 Valentino bullfighting film. Equal parts, which seems mad on paper, and dazzling in practice.

Ingredients

• ·45 ml whisky
• ·135 ml very cold soda water

Method

Chill the glass. Fill with ice. Pour whisky. Top with soda straight down the middle. Stir ONCE, gently, from the bottom up. Serve immediately.

The Japanese national pour. The ice must be cold and hard, the soda must be cold and lively, the glass must be tall. Get all three right and it's revelatory.

Ingredients

• ·60 ml rye whisky
• ·5 ml simple syrup
• ·4 dashes Peychaud's bitters
• ·1 dash Angostura bitters
• ·5 ml absinthe (to rinse the glass)

Method

Chill a rocks glass with ice while you work. Stir rye, syrup and both bitters with ice for 25 seconds. Discard the ice from the chilled glass, add absinthe, swirl to coat, discard the excess. Strain the cocktail into the absinthe-rinsed glass. Twist lemon over the top and DISCARD the peel (don't drop it in).

New Orleans' pre-Prohibition original. Served neat, no ice, no garnish in the glass — pure, aromatic, bracing.