Alexander Timofeyev

Very tasty with Mr. Black coffee liqueur and cool espresso (I used Nescafe Gold instant).

Coffee liqueurs run the gamut on sweetness from the very dry St. George Nola to the slightly sweet Mr. Black to the sweet Borghetti and Grind to the very sweet Kahlua, and thus people may want to adjust the amount of espresso to balance.

I prefer this as an equal parts cocktail omitting the sweet vermouth:
1 oz London dry gin
1 oz Campari
1 oz coffee liqueur (Mr. Black for me)

I make mine less sweet and more Irish as an equal parts cocktail with Irish whiskey and coffee liqueur:

1 oz Irish whiskey
1 oz coffee liqueur
1 oz Irish cream
1 oz espresso

You can also try blanco or reposado tequila and light or dark rum in place of the whiskey for interesting variations.

Anyone else make this with 1 oz of each, shake it, and double strain it into a coupe glass with a quick zest of nutmeg? I think the frothiness is great, makes for a very enjoyable drink.

Absolutely. Difford's calls it an Irish Chocolate Oranj'tini, but I call it a Scrambled B-52 cocktail.

I tried to like this. I felt like I ought to like it since it plays a key role in a couple iconic cocktails (Singapore Sling, Blood and Sand, etc.) but I have to agree with Mr. Murray. It's reminiscent of a prominent brand of cough medicine in the USA. The flavor is all cherry no brandy. I can't imagine a situation where the flavor profile of a cocktail would not be improved (if altered) by substituting Luxardo Maraschino. But I admittedly have a dry palate.

Luxardo Maraschino has a very different flavor from Cherry Heering. I'd first reduce the amount of Heering, to keep it from overwhelming while preserving the original flavor of the cocktail. Swapping Luxardo for Heering would yield a different drink altogether.

I've never tried Cherry Heering and don't want to add seldom used bottles to my blooming bar (many are on the ground and some in my bedroom). I've searched for substitutions and haven't seen Luxardo cherry syrup from the jar of cherries as a sub. I understand that it's non alcoholic so maybe that's why, but in a cocktail like The Simon where it calls for only 1/4oz Heering I'd be interested to know what people who've tried Heering & Luxardo syrup think.

I agree with Dave, I think the maraschino cherry syrup would be an okay substitute, particularly at just 1/4 oz. I think adding a teaspoon of Cynar or Averna, if you have one of those, will balance out the sweetness while adding the herbal component that the syrup is missing.

Mellow and fragrant. This is a nice drink but I find myself missing the spice and warmth of the classic old fashioned recipe. Could be that my bourbon is not up to the task. I’m new to this cocktail making business and I wasn’t sure how I felt about bourbon. So I played it safe and bought myself a budget-friendly bottle of four roses. I’m keeping an eye on the comments of other bourbon drinkers to decide what I should buy after I’ve finished with the four roses.

My go to for a regular Old Fashioned is Rittenhouse Rye.

For a bourbon Old Fashioned, I would go with a mid-tier bourbon such as Four Roses Small Batch, Elijah Craig Small Batch, New Riff Bottled in Bond, or for a more budget option Evan Williams Bottled in Bond or Old Grandad Bottled in Bond. In a cocktail where the spirit is so centered, the added flavor the mid-tier brings helps elevate the drink.

But you can also add spice and warmth by adding Angostura bitters instead of, or in addition to, the orange bitters. Bourbon + orange bitters is all about mellow, so turn to a rye whiskey (Rittenhouse) or high-rye bourbon (New Riff, Old Grandad) and Angostura bitters for warmth and spice.

I was wondering. Sometimes fresh mint can be inconsistent for various reasons. Wouldn't be nice to add 1 or 2 bar-spoons to our Mojitos, to enhance the mint feeling?

Adding a bar spoon to a quarter once (5 - 7.5 ml) to Mojitos is one of my favorite uses for creme de menthe.

I think this modernized version is much better than the equal parts original - I would even increase the cognac slightly to 2.25 oz / 67.5 ml - but it's still an intensely minty cocktail that bares for me an unfortunate association with toothpaste. My favorite version dials the Creme de Menthe way down - 2 oz / 60 ml cognac with 0.25 oz / 7.5 ml creme de menthe - for more of a minty cognac Old Fashioned feel.

Four different liqueurs, two juices, and an exotic garnish? How very tiki. I did find the maraschino to be a bit too much for me, and cutting it in half was much better.

For those on the US side of the pond, I would recommend these proportions:
1 oz Rittenhouse Rye
0.5 oz Suze
0.5 oz Yellow Chartreuse
0.5 oz Luxardo Maraschino
0.5 oz lemon juice
0.5 oz lime juice
1 tsp Benedictine

And I went with a green chartreuse rinse, as misting it seemed a bit much for home mixing.

I am the known Luxardo skeptic, so the next time I would reduce Luxardo by a half. But this is anyway a really special cocktail worth to make it! I eased the preparation by rinsing the cooled glasses with Chartreuse vert instead of spraying the ready cocktail.

I completely agree. I lowered the maraschino to 15 ml, bumped up the Suze, yellow chartreuse, and juices to 15 ml and rye to 30, and did a green chartreuse rinse instead of the flamed green chartreuse spritz (which is a bit much for a home bartender) and was very happy with the results.

My preferred variation is with equal parts maraschino and green chartreuse - 15 ml each - with a Lagavulin rinse in addition to the 5 ml in the cocktail. I feel the flavours better balanced that way, and the hint of smoke and peat comes through without getting lost.

Although I am a real Laphroaig fan, I suggest the original recipe and rinse only with the smoky whisky.

I think either one isn't enough on their own, but I think both of them together - a rinse of the glass and 5 ml in the shaker - is perfect. It's still subtle - just a hint of peat and smoke - but keeps it from getting lost in the other strong flavours.

I try these receip with a little change, I use 7 years old rum instead of white. I think the add of sugar syrup give at these daiquiri the right mouth close. The fruity taste of mango mixed with the refreshing And citrusy touch of the lime juice is great.

I agree. I think using an aged rum like El Dorado 5 or 8 or Plantation 5 makes it more interesting and 0.5 oz simple syrup to match the lime juice brings out the sweet mango flavour.

I have mixed feelings about this cocktail. On the one hand, it's pretty tasty, sweet, and very easy to drink. On the other hand, it's not very interesting, and is dangerously easy to drink. The pineapple really dominates, such that it tastes like you're drinking pineapple juice with a splash of rum, and the rum is so hidden that it tastes more like a gulper than a sipper. I can easily see someone drinking several of these in an hour and then wondering what hit them.

In revisiting this cocktail, I found I like bumping up the rum to 1.75 oz or 2 oz - it helps temper the sweetness of the pineapple with a stronger rum presence, and actually brings out more of the amaretto flavour.

This cocktail also benefits from more age on the rum, such that El Dorado 8 or 12 year work much better than 5.

I'm confounded by the Zombie - I like tiki drinks, I like boozy drinks, I like all of the ingredients separately, but I really dislike how they come together in this cocktail. I've tried this recipe with pineapple juice, the original with cinnamon syrup, and either way I ended up with possibly the worst cocktail I've ever had. And that's compounded by this cocktail being quite the production to make. I feel like I'm missing something, or maybe the Zombie just doesn't work for my palate.

I feel like there must be something wrong with my taste buds. I just made this with 2oz gin (Aviation), 0.5oz maraschino (Luxardo), 0.5oz crème de violet (Rothman & Winter), and 0.5oz lemon juice, and I still felt like the lemon juice dominated the drink, followed by the maraschino. I will try dialing the lemon juice down even more next time.

And I agree about it never looking as purple in real life. I think all the online photos are of pure crème de violet in a glass.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that your photo was staged, yours is the only one that looks real. The photos on every other site, however... The one on Liquor.com and on Aviation Gin's site look like pure crème de violet in a glass.

I feel like there must be something wrong with my taste buds. I just made this with 2oz gin (Aviation), 0.5oz maraschino (Luxardo), 0.5oz crème de violet (Rothman & Winter), and 0.5oz lemon juice, and I still felt like the lemon juice dominated the drink, followed by the maraschino. I will try dialing the lemon juice down even more next time.

And I agree about it never looking as purple in real life. I think all the online photos are of pure crème de violet in a glass.

I like to increase the Pimm's to a 1:2 ratio of Pimm's to mixers, and to make it simpler I often sub in a lemon-lime soda like Sprite for the mix of ginger ale and lemonade.