Drinks - quick and easy recipes - page 22

Blanco tequila stands in for the usual gin in this twist on the classic Negroni, from Jacques Bezuidenhout and Food & Wine magazine.

Who says milkshakes are only for summer? Not us! These fantastically autumnal treats are so good you should probably make a double batch. For an adult version, add a shot of bourbon to the blender before mixing. Just before you begin, make a half batch of Easy Whipped Cream. Make-ahead note: Make up to 1 hour in advance, then freeze airtight; warm slightly while stirring before serving. For more cool milkshakes, check out our Chai Frozen Milkshakes, Stout Chocolate Malt, and Guinness Milkshake.

By dressing up classic Spanish sangría with Spiced Simple Syrup and tart cranberries, Chef Jose Garces of Philadelphia has created an ideal cocktail for a winter holiday celebration. It’s best to start the day before you plan to serve the sangría, by macerating fresh cranberries and diced Granny Smith apples in the simple syrup. Next day, add a bottle of Tempranillo rosé, and a half cup each of port wine, Cointreau, and cranberry juice. Chill, and let the party begin.

Our classic Irish coffee recipe comes from Dutch Kills, an equally classic bar in Long Island City, New York. The warm, revivifying cocktail was said to be popularized in the 1940s by Joseph Sheridan, a chef in the port city of Foynes, Ireland. In 1952, Irish Coffee was introduced to San Francisco by the Buena Vista Cafe. Sheridan’s recipe was written with the effortless poetry of the Irish: “Cream—rich as an Irish brogue; coffee—strong as a friendly hand; sugar—sweet as the tongue of a rogue.

New York food and beverage expert Nick Mautone turned us on to this cocktail, a blend of sparkling wine with brandy, warm spices, and a touch of brown sugar. It’s the perfect opening to a memorable Thanksgiving, a sophisticated and seasonally-driven cocktail for a Christmas get-together, and an ideal prelude to the cork-popping moment when the New Year rings in at midnight.

Here’s a head-clearing daytime cocktail with a double dose of ginger. First, make our Ginger-Infused Vodka (it needs to infuse at least overnight, preferably longer, so plan accordingly). Then slip a couple of ounces of it in a cocktail shaker, along with tomato juice, fresh horseradish, Worcestershire, Tabasco, lime juice, the usual battery of Bloody Mary spices, and—and here’s what makes this Bloody really remarkable—another hit of ginger, in the form of freshly grated root. Shake, pour ove...

Here’s an adaptation of a bubbly celebration drink from American mixology pioneer Dale DeGroff. It combines añejo tequila, blood orange juice, aromatic Clément Créole Shrubb liqueur, and a top-up with sparkling rosé. What to buy: Blood orange juice is available at well-stocked grocery stores and online. Clément Créole Shrubb liqueur, from Martinique, is made up of a blend of rums flavored with spices and orange. We featured this recipe in our Drinks Around the World for New Year’s Eve story.

San Francisco mixologist Erick Castro taught us how to make this easy holiday punch. It’s a flexible recipe that works with almost any base spirit. Here we use genever, blended with orange curaçao, simple syrup, bitters, sparkling water, lemon juice, sparkling wine, and a touch of grated nutmeg. Garnish with pineapple slices and whole star anise before serving. You’ll need to make a batch of Rich Simple Syrup and freeze a large block of punch ice before you begin.

A fizz is one of simplest, most refreshing tall drinks we know. There’s something about the mix of gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup topped off with fizzy water that expresses the soul of the cocktail. Here, we give it a pink twist—a little boost of deep red grenadine syrup—that turns the classic fizz into a blushing sipper perfect for Valentine’s Day or other romantic occasions. Try pairing with our fresh Red Velvet Cake recipe to really impress your date. Game Plan: Try it with our easy, h...

A pre-Prohibition cocktail with a kick, the Frisco turns two ingredients into classic cocktail-lounge glamour. Bénédictine D.O.M., an ancient herbal liqueur originally made by monks and infused with a long, secret formula of aromatics, tempers rye whiskey with just the right amount of sweetness and mystery. The lemon-peel garnish adds a subtle blast of freshness. If you add a squeeze of lemon juice, too, this becomes a Frisco Sour.

This suave blend of bourbon, fresh grapefruit juice, and honey was invented at the Vendôme bar in Hollywood in 1930. If you’re into brunch cocktails, the Brown Derby is perfect: tart enough to wake up the palate, but not tangy enough to jolt you. The bourbon, naturally, softens the edges of even a harsh start to the day. For more, check out our Whiskey Sour, Sazerac, and Vieux Carré.

Inspired by Abby Sciuto, Chief Forensic Scientist on the CBS series NCIS, this milkshake cocktail has something dark lurking in its depths. In this case that’s bourbon: half an ounce blended with vanilla-bean ice cream and cream stout beer. It’s sweet, cold, and indulgent enough for dessert, adult enough for after-dinner sipping. Milkshake cocktails are also a great choice for an afternoon around the pool, or that grown-up burger barbecue for anyone who wants something thicker.

Martin Cate of Smuggler’s Cove in San Francisco uses a Collins glass for this tropical classic, and garnishes it with a sprig of mint and a wheel of lime. Like the many maligned Mai Tai recipes floating about in the cocktail ether, the originator of this tiki classic has been muddied, with accounts naming Don the Beachcomber and others fingering his rival, Victor “Trader Vic” Bergeron. Either way, Vic’s version is the one that lingers as the canonical formula.

At Grand Army Bar in Brooklyn, New York, Damon Boelte’s clever twist on the Americano turns the traditional aperitivo into a Franco-Italian shandy. Where the standard Americano pairs equal parts bitter Campari with sweet vermouth, the Perfecto splits the sweet in half with two different vermouths — brutish Carpano and the fruitier French Dolin Rouge — to create a more nuanced sweetness. The traditional topper of soda water is then replaced with pilsner beer.

The first vestige of spritz ancestry, the white spritz, or spritz liscio, was likely — as the Italian mythos goes — born in Hapsburg-occupied northern Italy in the 19th century. This version, with soda water, emerged in the first years of the 20th century, and is a malleable blueprint created to suit each drinker’s palate. Simply add a splash of homemade syrup or fruit liqueur to a base of white wine and soda, and garnish with abandon.

Yay, cake with rainbow-colored sprinkles! It’s like birthday in a cup anytime you want to celebrate that it’s, well, a Tuesday. You know what would go great before this totally rad milkshake? Another simple delight: Pizza Dough Dogs. Or if we’re going all carnival-style, Corn Dogs.