Chris Brislawn

A daiquiri infused with basil and sweetened with honey sounded promising, and the herbal character of the basil suggested pairing it with a rhum agricole; I used Rhum J.M rhum agricole blanc. This worked *very* well (use lots of basil and muddle well) and makes for one of my favorite variations that doesn't stray too far from the standard daiquiri recipe. I used 10:3:2 proportions instead of the sweeter proportions given above. Playing with a local honey choice as suggested by G.M. Genovese adds another degree of freedom to explore; I used a 3:1 syrup of Colorado mountain flower honey.

A gin-based variant of the mint julep. My wife just planted a bunch of basil for the summer so we had to try this to celebrate World Gin Day. Next time I'll try serving it over crushed ice in our olde julep cups.

A very good drink to sip on the beach. Just had one in Grenada but garnished with a dusting of ground Nutmeg rather than banana wedge. A local touch and very good.

I second the ground nutmeg recommendation. Adds a very nice touch.

Delightful combination of ingredients not usually found together. Hamilton Jamaican Pot-Still Black Rum gave the rum some prominence in this mix, but the Carvalhas Tawny contributed its share. Not sure sweet white port would work as well; this doesn't need extra sweetener. I added both orange and lemon twists.

Nice to have more tequila aperitif cocktails that have some bittersweet herbal notes and bear no resemblance to a margarita. The Amaro Montenegro works well with the tequila in this. Kristi suggests adding a pink edible flower to the garnish for a little extra flair. Could use another drop or 2 of rose water; I had no idea whether we had any but Kristi went to the pantry and immediately returned with a bottle so I had to make it. No idea what the name means other than referencing the pink color. Highly recommended.

One detail: no fresh pomegranates to squeeze so I used pomegranate liqueur, which seems to have worked fine.

Nice to have more tequila aperitif cocktails that have some bittersweet herbal notes and bear no resemblance to a margarita. The Amaro Montenegro works well with the tequila in this. Kristi suggests adding a pink edible flower to the garnish for a little extra flair. Could use another drop or 2 of rose water; I had no idea whether we had any but Kristi went to the pantry and immediately returned with a bottle so I had to make it. No idea what the name means other than referencing the pink color. Highly recommended.

Needs plenty of dilution, especially if using Rittenhouse, as I was. Would be interesting to try with other and lower abv ryes. Was really enjoying the Woodford reserve recently, bottle now sadly finished. Hayman’s sloe gin.

Great Manhattan variation. Hayman's "slow" gin really mellows the spirituous Whistle Pig PiggyBack rye, which is only 96.56 proof according to the bottle but 100% rye. Difford's 3:2 proportions are about right with these ingredients. And as The Man Behind The Bar I was careful to use Nick & Nora's as you stressed; Kristi says we should watch "Thin Man" movies while sipping these.

Thank you Chris. Great advice. I did notice the recipe had changed. Now on to a Sloegroni.

I had good results making the Sloegroni with Ramazzotti Aperitivo Rosato in place of the rosato vermouth. You need to watch the sweetness on that one.

Yes, added more gin. Is there a 'navy strength' you recommend?

Simon Difford is the one recommending Navy Strength gin for this. If it was strong enough to ensure victory against the Spanish Armada, in the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Battle of Jutland then it's probably great in the Six Cylinder, but I find normal London Dry strength (~94 proof) to be plenty adequate. I'd rather just bump up the volume of base liquor in a Negroni-like drink by a quarter ounce or so to lessen the sweetness a little bit. Good dilution helps, too, especially when serving in coupes with no ice-cubes.

Fabulous! Found the bitterness from the Campari, Byrrh, and the vermouths effectively balanced the cherry sweet center from Luxardo's Cherry Sangue Morlacco. And just enough gin. Wouldn't change a thing.♡

Agree that Byrrh works well in this and that the full complement of Campari is appropriate given the number of other sweet ingredients. A touch more gin if you don't have "Navy strength." I also agree on your assessment (below) of the Complex Tipperary.

Also good bumping up the gin to 30ml, which may overcome reservations re excessive sweetness/Campari-ness.

No "Navy strength" gin so I snuck the Tanqueray up to 3/4 oz (22.5 ml), which was enough. No reason to cut back on the Campari; the bitterness and "extra" ingredients makes this a serious, cherry fruit-forward Negroni variant. I used Byrrh, which worked quite well with the gin & Campari. Used Cocchi Extra Dry & Storico rosso, but I'm thinking a little more bitterness from Dopo Teatro instead of Storico might work well, too. There's more going on here than in a Negroni; I can see why it won a competition way back in 1928.

The cognac in a Vieux Carre' lightens and softens the rye, but the armagnac in the Old Square also adds a layer of its own flavor and richness, especially if your bottle has been sitting around as long as mine has (Dartigalongue Hors d'Age, opened some time back in the late 20th century). Replacing some of the rosso in a Vieux Carre' by oloroso sherry adds another layer of complexity and richness as well without making it sweeter; the sweetness is about right as specified here. An excellent Vieux Carre' variant.

A new favourite negroni! This really made my cocktail evening. Created a couple of years after the Cornwall negroni and a definite improvement by evolution of it, in my opinion. Better balanced and integrated. Will definitely be having again.
Garnish instructions seem contradictory lemon vs orange flamed twist? I was half way through doing lemon when noticed the orange. Lemon non-flamed actually worked better with the Tanq 10 that I was using.

I, too, was confused by the specification of both lemon and orange flamed zest twists, so I used one of each. According to Death & Co.'s "Modern Classic Cocktails," which is probably as close to Phil Ward's original recipe as we're gonna get, the official garnish is a flamed orange "coin," as shown in Difford's photos. I've watched video of Dale DeGroff igniting flaming orange coins and it looks like you get just one good flaming squeeze per coin (don't burn your fingers). I don't do coins and can attempt several pyrotechnic squeezes out of a good-size zest strip. A great Negroni variation with more body than the standard recipe. And no, I haven't read the book.

Using a primary shot of overproof white rum makes it a nuclear daiquiri, adding a Smith & Cross secondary makes it thermonuclear. No idea why this was originally made with Yellow Chartreuse; just because it 's yellow (Strega??) it doesn't necessarily belong in a banana daiquiri. As others have noted, Creme de Banane (I had Tempus Fugit) works much better. I also think splitting the citrus between lime & lemon works better, and I didn't miss the Xanthan gum. I did add a couple dashes of pimento dram, though. Finally, this clearly belongs in a tiki mug.

Adding just a hint of fire & brimstone in the form of 1 tsp mezcal is a nice riff on Kilgore's Purgatory. Thematically, it seems most appropriate to use the smoky Del Maguey Vida de Muertos.

Made it with Milagro Reposado; no Punt e Mes so used Alessio Rosso, which was great in this drink and works well with Difford's chocolate garnish suggestion. Squares of chocolate do not skewer well on toothpicks or cocktail swords and a square of chocolate at the bottom of a cocktail glass looks more like a mistake than a garnish so I did something I've done before (e.g., "Munich Negroni Western Style") and grated a light dusting of chocolate over the drink, which enhances the nose as well.

R. Elgar proposed more traditional Manhattan proportions for this, with 3/4 oz rosso vermouth and 1/4 oz Benedictine for 2 oz rye, which works well particularly if you offset the added sweetness of Benedictine by using a vermouth amaro if you want an aperitif cocktail rather than a dessert drink. I've now tried this with Punt e Mes, Dopo Teatro, and Tempus Fugit "Alessio" (which I also regard as a vermouth amaro), and all work well for that purpose. Elgar's early comment referred to "an absinthe...made in New Orleans," which had to be Herbsaint, and Marie T. Straus recommended Herbsaint, too, so I tried rinsing an Old Fashioned, per C. Lopez, with Herbsaint instead of absinthe; a very N'awlins touch.

Don't know how you miss Mardi Gras as an occasion on the Difford's Guide calendar! Good excuse to revisit and tweak the Grand Sazerac.

No Braulio, but this was excellent with Amaro Meletti, Lillet Rouge, and Campari. In light of the NOLA connection I added a couple dashes of Peychaud's Bitters, which made it even better. Another winner for the NOLA whiskey cocktail compendium, and another winner from JE Clapham.

Somewhat in anticipation of burns night/reminiscence of Hogmanay added a leftover shortbread biscuit as further garnish - matches the almost honeyed herbal sweetness here. Delish!

I hope the shortbread garnish was just in the general vicinity of the cocktail and not dissolving in the bottom of the glass. Agree with T. Cull that 30 ml is just as easy to measure out as 25 so went with a full ounce of gin (Hendrick's). A full ounce of Chartreuse would overwhelm the drink, however, while half an ounce provides herbal complexity but probably better balance. And while the Jamie Gordon Bijou seems in retrospect a bit like a Negroni-with-added-Chartreuse, I went with Dopo Teatro to get some bitterness along with the sweet ingredients; this was incredibly good, 5 stars. Happy New Year!

The "Dr. Funk" was invented prior to the 1950's. The drink is referenced in a book by George Chappell published in 1931.

A version also appears in Trader Vic's 1946 "Book of Food & Drink," where Vic marks it as one of his "original" (or "signature") drinks. Looks like Beach and Vic were probably both basing their recipes on the good doctor's old potion!

A traditional old German orangey Manhattan topped with champagne and named The Ohio. Fascinating. And pretty good as an aperitivo, too.

Following up on a comment by K. Brown for the reposado version, I replaced the agave syrup by a teaspoon of orgeat and cut the amaretto back to 1 tsp. Definitely want to use a good anejo for this one; I had El Tesoro.