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I've been getting very interested in cocktails over the past couple of years. I'm not interested in going out to cocktail bars - I've been making them in the house. It's become apparent that by far and away my favourite cocktails are some of the older classics - Fish House Punch, Hurricane, Rum Swizzle etc.

Does anybody have any favourites or classics that they'd recommend? I'd love to hear of some that I may have missed.

This could be made at home, but it's definitely a bar drink from its inception, and a Nano Original (in that despite it being dirt-basic, no one seems to have ever encountered or heard of it before me): Basically it's just whiskey, seven (lemon-lime), and bitters. This mix has the curious attribute of seeming to benefit best the more pedestrian its ingredients are. Once they ran out of rail whiskey and substituted Jameson, and IMO it didn't work. So I warn you beforehand: It MUST be made with rail whiskey, the seven from the devil-may-care tap (for atmosphere), and the bitters should be not designer, but Angostura. As I said, pedestrian as hell, but the result is surprisingly satisfying. When it's made right, the taste reminds me of honey. A tall glass filled with ice, an ounce of detestable-grade whiskey, fill it with the lemon-lime soda, and top it off with three to five slugs of bitters, depending on the timidity of your wrist. Now, you could build it with the bitters first so that it all mixes together beforehand, and I'm okay with that, but if you want the Nano-authentic classic, it is bitters last for presentation, and that gives the drink its name: Blood in the Water. You admire the ghoulish vision before you (and assess the proportion of bitters thereby), and then mix it after the fact with your straw (hopefully an eco-friendly one). Mixing done, the Nano way is to ditch the straw. Like all cocktails, a Blood in the Water isn't for everyone, but I think it's pretty good, and it's my go-to when I'm out on the town.

Interesting. I see that there is a radically different cocktail, also named "Blood in the Water". This other one consists of two types of rum, blue curacao, sour mix and a few drops of grenadine. It seems also to be called "Shark Bite". Looks nice.

I would try yours, but I'm not familiar with this "seven" thing. How would I make that at home? Do you have a recipe?

benhall.1 wrote:some of the older classics

Molotov?

"Seven" is short for "7 Up", a sweet lemon-lime soda drink. Not all such sodas are of the brand, of course, but since it has always been the major one, in a bar context we frequently call it that just as we generically call facial tissue "kleenex" or you call vacuuming "hoovering".

Nanohedron wrote:"Seven" is short for "7 Up", a sweet lemon-lime soda drink. Not all such sodas are of the brand, of course, but since it has always been the major one, in a bar context we frequently call it that just as we generically call facial tissue "kleenex" or you call vacuuming "hoovering".

I vaguely know what "7 up" is. I've never had it though. I must admit, my cocktails don't tend to feature sodas, or coke or anything like that. I tend to go for spirits, freshly squeezed citrus juices and ingredients like sugar syrup and grenadine that one can make oneself.

benhall.1 wrote:I vaguely know what "7 up" is. I've never had it though.

I think on your side of the Pond it gets called "lemonade". If you asked for lemonade in the States you would get something quite different.

benhall.1 wrote:I must admit, my cocktails don't tend to feature sodas, or coke or anything like that. I tend to go for spirits, freshly squeezed citrus juices and ingredients like sugar syrup and grenadine that one can make oneself.

Count mine out, then.

Nanohedron wrote:

benhall.1 wrote:I must admit, my cocktails don't tend to feature sodas, or coke or anything like that. I tend to go for spirits, freshly squeezed citrus juices and ingredients like sugar syrup and grenadine that one can make oneself.

Count mine out, then.

Oh I don't know. Couldn't I use a standard sour mix instead of the 7 Up? Something like equal parts of lime juice, lemon juice and 1:1 sugar syrup?

benhall.1 wrote:

Nanohedron wrote:

benhall.1 wrote:I must admit, my cocktails don't tend to feature sodas, or coke or anything like that. I tend to go for spirits, freshly squeezed citrus juices and ingredients like sugar syrup and grenadine that one can make oneself.

Count mine out, then.

Oh I don't know. Couldn't I use a standard sour mix instead of the 7 Up? Something like equal parts of lime juice, lemon juice and 1:1 sugar syrup?

You could try that, but it wouldn't be the same. Lemon-lime soda flavorings come from the essential oils (one hopes), but not the juice.

EDIT: Wait, here's a recipe: http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/lem ... ivity-feed

I don't know what you'd use to substitute for the soda, though. Water, maybe?

That looks fine. Basically an old fashioned lemonade recipe, with limes as well as lemons.

Mind you, here in the UK, back in the days when people used to use soda syphons, we would put bicarbonate of soda in them - hence the term "soda syphons". But I gather that, in the States, the soda tends to be left out of soda, leaving, essentially, just carbonated water.

benhall.1 wrote:Basically an old fashioned lemonade recipe...

Only in the UK. In the States lemonade is cloudy, made with straight lemon juice, water and sweetener, and no cooking involved. I don't know if we even have a term for your version. If I asked for lemonade and got something clear, I'd think I was being cheated!

benhall.1 wrote:But I gather that, in the States, the soda tends to be left out of soda, leaving, essentially, just carbonated water.

You are correct, sir. We must have used bicarb in the past too, but now the general product is just carbonated water. We still call it "soda", though, and don't even think about it. A whiskey soda is just whiskey with carbonated water.

The word's so ubiquitous for carbonated water and the flavored drinks made from it that I seldom say "soft drink", which is our term for a carbonated beverage (without alcohol, hence the "soft"), and chiefly of commercial make, like Coke, 7 Up, Dr. Pepper, and the like. People in my region are more likely to call a soft drink "pop", but for some reason I took up the more East-coasterly habit of calling it "a soda". I have no idea how that happened. But everyone calls plain carbonated water "soda". Clear as mud?

Last cocktail I had was this. http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink4305.html Disaronno, triple sec etc. Yum.

awildman wrote:Last cocktail I had was this. http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink4305.html Disaronno, triple sec etc. Yum.

Ah right. Crème de Cacao is one that I haven't got yet. I have a feeling it wouldn't be for me, which is why I haven't got it yet. Maybe I should give it a try.

Tonight's serving is going to be a Pisco Sour. I've only just bought the Pisco. Looking forward to it.

Last night's cocktail was a classic Rum Swizzle.

Frankie Boyle has a story about an Englishman ordering a pint of lager and lime in a Glasgow bar and being sternly informed, "We don't do cocktails".