In his Vintage Sprits and Forgotten Cocktails, Ted "Dr. Cocktail" Haigh affirms that Thomas Franklin Fairfax Millard (1868-1942), a war correspondent and journalist, is the confirmed author of the Twelve Mile Limit Cocktail.
Invented by bartender Doug Petry of Rye in Louisville, Kentucky, this cocktail truly stretches the boundaries of its namesake. While it presents a soft color palette (reddish Peychaud’s bitters floated atop milky white absinthe), the Absinthe Old-Fashioned packs a punch. If you didn’t already have enough reasons to make a pilgrimage to Kentucky and explore its cocktail scene, this one alone is worth the trip.
The Brooklyn cocktail is a classic pre-Prohibition cocktail that is experiencing a resurgence in popularity. It is a variation of the Manhattan, but with dry vermouth and Maraschino liqueur.
The Colleen Bawn is a classic cocktail with a rich history. It's a flip-style drink, meaning it includes a whole egg (both yolk and white) that is shaken vigorously to create a frothy texture.
The Creole cocktail is a classic cocktail with a rich history dating back to the early 1900s. It is known for its complex and balanced flavor profile, combining the sweetness of vermouth with the bitterness of Amaro and the herbal notes of Bénédictine.
The Elk's Own is a classic cocktail with a rich history dating back to the 19th century. It's a complex and flavorful drink that blends the warmth of rye whiskey with the sweetness of port wine, balanced by tart lemon juice and a touch of sweetness from simple syrup. The addition of egg white creates a smooth, frothy texture.
The Greenpoint was created by Michael McIlroy of Milk and Honey. Inspired by Vincenzo Errico's Red Hook Cocktail, he whipped up his own variation also named for the neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY he was living in. These two cocktails created an entire series of manhattan variations named from neighborhoods in Brooklyn and have inspired many bartenders from elsewhere to create their own manhattan variations named for neighborhoods in their own city.
The Haunted House cocktail is a spooky and delicious drink that's perfect for Halloween or any other spooky occasion. It's made with bourbon, apple cider, lemon juice, and a variety of spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The drink is garnished with a cinnamon stick and a lemon wheel, making it both festive and festive.
The Whiskey Cocktail, along with this Improved version appeared in Jerry Thomas's 1876 The Bar-tender's Guide. The book also includes "Improved" versions of the Brandy Cocktail, and Gin Cocktail which are all what we today call Old Fashioned cocktails. In the words of Jerry Thomas, they have been "improved by moistening the edge of the cocktail glass with a piece of lemon." Such "improved" American cocktails from the period are also distinguished by using European ingredients, particularly maraschino liqueur and/or absinthe.
This drink appeared in a 1937 issue of Esquire magazine, and was recently rediscovered by David Wondrich. Jim Meehan includes it in his wonderful cocktail tome, The PDT Cocktail Book.
The La Louisiane is a classic New Orleans cocktail with a rich history dating back to the 19th century. It is a rye-based Sweet Manhattan made even sweeter with herbal Bénédictine liqueur and bittered with Peychaud's and absinthe.
Created by Anders Ericson, the Lonely Penguin is a unique and refreshing drink that combines the flavors of whiskey, lemon, blackberry, and coconut. It's a perfect choice for those who enjoy a bit of sweetness with their spirits.
The Lumberjack in Love is a cocktail that combines the flavors of rye whiskey, allspice dram, cherry juice, lemon juice, semi-rich simple syrup, and beer.
The Manhattan, a classic cocktail, believed to have started around the 1860s or 1870s, with a rich history, is a sophisticated and timeless drink that has captivated cocktail enthusiasts for generations.
The Monte Carlo first appears in print in David Embury's 1948 The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks as "1 part Bénédictine, 2 parts Rye, 1 or 2 dashes Angostura to each drink. Shake with cracked ice".
The cocktail appeared in print in MacElhone (1927), by Harry MacElhone, the proprietor of Harry's New York Bar in Paris. The cocktail appears, not in the main list of recipes, but in the essay "Cocktails About Town" by Arthur Moss, which describes cocktails by men-about-town; this essay also includes the boulevardier. The Old Pal is credited to William "Sparrow" Robinson, a sports editor for The New York Herald in Paris, while the "old pal" refers to Moss, to whom it is dedicated. The cocktail is described as:
I remember way back in 1878, on the 30th of February to be exact, when the Writer was discussing this subject with my old pal "Sparrow" Robertson and he said to yours truly, "get away with that stuff, my old pal, here's the drink I invented when I fired the pistol the first time at the old Powderhall foot races and you can't go wrong if you put a bet down on 1/3 Canadian Club, 1/3 Eyetalian [Italian] Vermouth, and 1/3 Campari," and then he told the Writer that he would dedicate this cocktail to me and call it, My Old Pal.
The Prescription Julep is a classic cocktail that dates back to the mid-1800s. It's a refreshing and complex drink that combines the flavors of rye whiskey, cognac, mint, and sugar.
Created by Vincenzo Errico for Milk & Honey in 2003 this is the drink which launched a whole category of Manhattan variations. This drink was created when Errico discovered the Brooklyn, a Manhattan variation which uses Amer Picon, a french digestif no longer available in the US. Errico was an Italian which Sasha Petraske brought back from London and convinced to come to New York and work at the bar for a few years. Errico wanted to showcase the long neglected (at the time) Punt e Mes which is an italian Vermouth which has a distinct flavor profile in that it has a bitter finish. It is somewhere in between a vermouth and an amaro, but is wine based. Errico expertly paired the bitter of the vermouth with the sweet dryness of the maraschino liqueur and the dryness of the rye whiskey, which also a tad sweet from the corn in it’s mash bill. The result, a perfectly balanced Manhattan variation. Joseph Schwartz was the guy who suggested the name Red Hook because it was drink that was somewhere in between a Manhattan and a Brooklyn. Brilliant!
The Sazerac is a local variation of a cognac or whiskey cocktail originally from New Orleans, named for the Sazerac de Forge et Fils brand of cognac brandy.
The first known definition of the word "cock-tail" was published 13th May 1806 in The Balance and Columbian Repository, an upstate New York newspaper, in response to a reader enquiring what was meant by the word in an article.
Cock-tail, then, is a stimulating liquor, composed of spirits of any kind, sugar, water, and bitters--it is vulgarly called a bittered sling, and is supposed to be an excellent electioneering potion, in as much as it renders the heart flout and bold, at the same time that it fuddles the head. It is said also, to be of great use to a democratic candidate: because, a person having swallowed a glass of it, is ready to swallow anything else.
Editor, The Balance and Columbian Repository, 13 May 1806
While it might not be the most well-known cocktail, it has a rich history dating back to the late 19th century. Legend has it that the drink was created in honor of Martin Lomasney, a powerful Boston politician who represented the city's Eighth Ward.
A "Whiskey Daisy No. 3" is a variation of the classic "Daisy" cocktail, which is believed to have originated in the late 1800s, with the earliest known version being a "Brandy Daisy" mentioned in Jerry Thomas's bartending guide; the "Whiskey Daisy" is simply a variation where whiskey is used as the base spirit instead of brandy, and "No. 3" likely refers to a specific recipe variation with slightly different proportions of ingredients within the Daisy family.
Cocktail Recipes