Name: Balalaika
Total time: 4 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 35 ml Triple sec; 25 ml Vodka; 15 ml Lemon juice; 10 ml Chilled water

Balalaika
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Serve in a Martini glass

Ingredients:
1 ¹⁄₆ oz	Cointreau triple sec liqueur
⁵⁄₆ oz	Ketel One Vodka
¹⁄₂ oz	Lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
¹⁄₃ oz	Chilled water optional

Read about cocktail measures and measuring

How to make:

Select and pre-chill a Martini glass.
Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.
SHAKE all ingredients with ice.
FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.
EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Strength & taste guide:

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

More cocktails with similar strength and taste profile

Review:

Richly flavoured with orange and lemon.

View readers' comments

History:

Adapted from a recipe in Stanley M. Jones' 1977 Jones' Complete Barguide.

BALALAIKA
Cocktail Glass Shake
1 oz vodka
1 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz Cointreau
Stanley M. Jones, 1977

Nutrition:

One serving of Balalaika contains 137 calories

Alcohol content:

1.3 standard drinks
20.76% alc./vol. (20.76° proof)
17.6 grams of pure alcohol

More Citrusy cocktails

Difford’s Guide remains free-to-use thanks to the support of the brands in green above. Values stated for alcohol and calorie content, and number of drinks an ingredient makes should be considered approximate.

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Robert Aitchison

26th January 2024 at 00:17

Balanced and with a good citrus hit

Miguel Perales

16th September 2023 at 21:21

Very nice. Citrus, obviously, is the predominant flavor; however, this is not very sour. It is actually very balanced as is. Used Cointreau as my triple sec.

Keith Jones

13th August 2022 at 08:16

Try swapping the vodka for pisco.

David Hoyle

29th March 2022 at 16:22

This is certainly citrus-y and slightly sharp, what with the equal proprtion of lemon juice. Based on an old 80s cocktail book recipe, I have also tried this with Curaçao - Giffard's is a lovely opaque orange colour, and find its more complex flavour goes very well with the vodka and lemon. To my taste, the De Kuyper Triple Sec version ideally needs a little sugar syrup.

David Hoyle

29th March 2022 at 22:16

Correction: the Giffard is an attractive transparent orange Curaçao (not opaque). Thanks for the notification - the newly rebalanced ingredients look to be a very enticing proposition!