Slip out the Back, Jack

Makes 1 Slip Out the Back, Jack

2 oz Laird’s Applejack
1/2 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 oz Allspice Dram
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 egg white

Add ingredients to a shaker without ice. Dry shake for 10-15 seconds. Fill with ice and shake for 20 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.

The Manhattan

Makes 1 Manhattan

1 oz Woodford Reserve bourbon
1 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1 oz Noilly Prat sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura bitters

Stir with ice in a mixing glass. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Here’s my old [but still great] Manhattan recipe.

Smoky Barista

I made a fantastic cocktail from a nonalcoholic cocktail book called ZERO—from the talented folks over at the Aviary cocktail book—and had some extra ginger syrup left over. I wondered what ginger would taste like with mezcal and tested it out in this riff on a margarita. It. Is. Amazing.

Ingredients

2 oz Fidencio mezcal
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz ginger syrup
6 Starbucks Caffe Verona coffee beans

Directions

Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice. Shake until well chilled. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Ginger Syrup

I just bought the Alinea Group's newest non-alcoholic cookbook—it's amazing, btw—and found myself with some extra ginger syrup after trying out one of their cocktails. So I HAD to add it to a margarita with watermelon. And presto: Watermelon Ginger Margarita.

Ingredients

1 large hand of ginger.
granulated sugar, as needed

Directions

Peel the ginger and process through a juicer. Refrigerate the ginger juice for an hour or two to let the starch settle. Decant the juice into another container and weigh the juice. Measure half that amount of granulated sugar. [For the math-challenged, if you decant 150 grams of ginger juice, you'll need 75 grams granulated sugar.] Add the ginger juice and sugar to a blender and blend on high until all the sugar is dissolved.

Watermelon Ginger Margarita

2 oz Espolon tequila
3/4 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz ginger syrup
4 1-inch cubes watermelon

Muddle the watermelon cubes in the bottom of a shaker. Add ice and all the ingredients. Shake until well chilled. Strain into a double old fashioned glass with a salted rim and an ice sphere.

Apples & Oranges

Ingredients

2 oz Laird's Applejack
3/4 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz 1:1 apple cider simple
1 g ground cinnamon (about 1 bar spoon)

Recipe

Add ice to a cocktail glass. Fill with water. Set aside.

Add all ingredients to a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice. Shake until your hands freeze to the shaker, a good 30-45 seconds ought to do it.

Dump the water and ice from the cocktail glass. Double strain the shaker’s contents into the cocktail glass.

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Because you like autumn cocktails, you may also like these recipes:

Apple Cider Simple Syrup

Ingredients

250 g apple cider
250 g light brown sugar

Recipe

Microwave method:
Add apple cider and light brown sugar to a heatproof bowl and microwave on high until it boils, 3-5 minutes depending on the power of your microwave. Carefully remove from the microwave and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Cover with plastic wrap and cool to room temperature. Transfer to a glass or plastic squeeze bottle and refrigerate.

Stovetop method:
Note: You can also make this on the stovetop. Add the brown sugar and apple cider to a small saucepan set over high heat. Bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve all the ingredients. Cover and cool to room temperature. Transfer to a glass or plastic squeeze bottle and refrigerate.

Mint Simple Syrup

I love mint almost as much as I love adding mint to cocktails.

Ingredients

50 g mint leaves (JUST THE LEAVES)
200 g water
200 g sugar

Recipe

Add water and sugar to a saucepan and heat over medium. Or high. It doesn't matter. Once it starts boiling, remove from the heat.

OR

Add water and sugar to a pyrex measuring glass and microwave on high until it starts boiling.

Stir until all the sugar dissolves.

Add mint leaves and let cool.

Strain.

The Martini

Calling cocktails “martinis” is like calling all comedians Lenny Bruce. Sure, we’d all like to be him, but there can be only one.

A Martini contains only gin and dry vermouth (orange bitters is optional) and is garnished with olives or a lemon twist. Never vodka (that’s called a Kangaroo). Never onions (Gibson). And if you like it “bone dry, like Winston Churchill liked it,” you’re really just drinking chilled gin (and I judge you).

That said, if you’re looking for a dirty martini recipe, I’ve got you covered.

Making a Martini can be intimidating. A drink with so few ingredients leaves no room for error. Over-pour, under dilute, stare too long at your guests with your mouth gaping and you’re asking for trouble (and a lot of uncomfortable guests).

Some people will (ridiculously) claim that shaking bruises the gin. They are wrong. Shaking accelerates dilution. Shaking drinks that contain sugary ingredients can lead to cloudy cocktails. They’ll look disgusting, but they won’t taste any different.

Makes 1 martini

Ingredients

2 ounces (70 mL) good gin, such as The Walter Collective (my personal favorite)
3⁄4 ounce (20 mL) dry vermouth, such as Noilly Prat
1 dash of orange bitters (optional), such as Angostura

Directions

Put all ingredients in a glass with ice. Any glass will do. Stir for 60 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. I use a julep strainer and think you should too. You could use two forks, as I’ve suggested before. The goal, once again, is to separate ice from the liquid. Garnish with an olive or two. Your other alternative is a lemon twist. Not a slice, a wheel, or wedge. A twist. (See page 10 if you want to know more about why I’m adamant this should be a twist and nothing else.)

The Donna Rosa

This is a riff on the Jasmine cocktail, and by "riff" I mean "I added an egg white and called it something completely different." I named it after the Pink Lady cocktail [just to be confusing, I guess?]. Except in Italian, because...Campari. Does Donna Rosa translate to Pink Lady? Google says "yes", but Google's shifty, so who knows. Whatever you call it, it's wonderful. Give it a try and let me know how it turned out in the comments below!

Ingredients

1 oz gin
3/4 oz Campari
3/4 oz freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 oz Cointreau or triple sec
1 egg white

Recipe

Add all ingredients to a shaker filled with ice. Shake for at least 30 seconds. 60 seconds is better. You want that egg white completely emulsified and frothy. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Enjoy!

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The Dirty Mela

Ohhhh... you so dirty.

This is the Dirty Mela. An Anthony LeDonne original. I'm probably not the first to mix these three ingredients in these ratios, but I AM the first to post it on my website. And, since my website is my world, I'm the first to make it. Ever. [No arguments.]

Applejack is a watered down version of apple brandy, and by "watered down" I mean "cut with 80 proof grain neutral spirits." You'd think that would make an inferior product. And you'd probably be right. But in this drink Applejack is better. And cheaper. Don't waste a delicate apple brandy in here... Your wallet will notice the difference more than your tongue.

The name Dirty Mela points to the drink's roots: mela, Italian for apple, and dirty... well I don't know why dirty was in there. But it felt right [translation: Wiff named it so it's not changing].

Ingredients

1oz Laird's Apple Applejack
1oz Noilly Prat Sweet Vermouth
1oz Campari

Directions

Add everything to a mixing tin/glass/jar/container full of ice. Stir for 60 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail* glass.

*Don't call it a martini glass. This isn’t Applebee's. Also, don't call cocktails martinis unless they are Martinis, made only with gin and dry vermouth (although a dash of orange bitters is acceptable per the original recipe). A "vodka martini" is called a Kangeroo. And yeah, you should feel weird saying that; that's the price you pay for drinking a "vodka martini". [Can you feel my judgement?]