Category Archives: Classic Cocktails

Cocktails with Benefits

Everyone loves a good coffee table book, but how many of those books are actually useful? We found one that’ll look just as good displayed on your table as it is essential for your bar cart.

Cocktails with Benefits, 40 Naughty but Nourishing Drinks by Nicole Herft is cocktail recipe book with four main categories: Fruitylicious, Drink Your Greens, Totally Tropical, and Smokey, Spicy, Sour, Sexy.

Herft uses only natural ingredients in her recipes, giving you a healthier way to consume your “naughty” cocktails. She leaves out the refined sugar and makes use of natural sugars like fruits and vegetables. That said, the drinks lead to less hangovers thanks to the natural ingredients.

I went ahead and tested out a recipe from the Fruitylicious category, the Iced Mixed Berry Sangria.

Iced Mixed Berry Sangria
2 cups fresh mixed berries (1 cup extra for the pitcher)
3 tablespoons agave nectar
Ice cubes
1 (750ml) bottle Rosé Rioja
Equipment needed: Small saucepan, Sieve, Cocktail stirrer, Serving pitcher, and 4 glasses

Place the mixed berries, 3/4 cup water, and agave nectar into a small saucepan and bring to boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat and pass the mixture through a sieve. Press the berries with the back of a spoon to make sure you get all their juices. Leave the mixture to cool.

Half-fill your pitcher with ice cubes. Slice the extra strawberries and halve the blackberries and add these, and the other mixed berries to the pitcher with the berry syrup and then the Rosé Rioja. Stir well and serve.

Cocktails with Benefit:, 40 Naughty but Nourishing Drinks
Author: Nicole Herft
Price: $14.95 online or in store

Pisco Portón Celebrates Pisco Sour Day

February 4th is the 14th annual Pisco Sour Day! Taste some classic sours as well as some intriguing new takes on the Peruvian cocktail at several locations including (but not limited to) Jettison, Armory De, Quarter Bar, La Duni Northpark, Bolsa, Cafe Salsera, and Victor Tangos.

(If you’ve been a reader for a while, you’ll know that Brian and Susie are both big fans of the distilled grape spirit.)

Can’t be asked to make it out tomorrow? Make your very own Classic Pisco Sour at home!

Pisco Portón’s Classic Pisco Sour
2oz Pisco Portón
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
1oz egg whites
Dash of Angostura bitters

Add all the ingredients in a blender. Blend on high for 15 seconds. Stop blender and add 5 cubes of ice, then pulse the blender 5 times. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with 3 drops of Angostura bitters.

Pisco Portón
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***Header photo borrowed from the badass @beautifulbooze. If you don’t follow her on Instagram, do it now!***

Sidecar

The Sidecar, another of the classics out of New Orleans, is perhaps one of the first cocktail I remember hearing about in my childhood. Incredibly simple–brandy, lemon, and triple sec–it’s none too sweet. Luckily, the sugared rim adds a nice amount of sweetness and plenty of sexiness.

The Sidecar has seen many offshoots, but is said to have come from the Brandy Crusta. It’s disputed to have been created at either Harry’s Bar in Paris or Buck’s Club in London–either way, it has been mentioned in just about every cocktail book since World War I. Wherever it came from, its ingredients have remained constant.

THE SIDECAR
2oz brandy (I went with Hennessy V.S.O.P. Privilège)
1oz fresh lemon juice
1oz triple sec (like Cointreau)

Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice then shake until very well chilled. Strain into sugar-rimmed glass.

Garnish: sugar rim
Glass: martini