3 Greatest Cocktail Recipes (of all time!)

My cocktail book, Steve the Bartender's Cocktail Guide, recently surpassed 20,000 sales. So to celebrate, I'm gonna make three of my all-time favorite cocktails that also happen to be featured in the book. Let's get to it. So for the first of my favorites, in no particular order, I'm doing a Vocare. It's a stirred cocktail, cognac, rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, and Benedictine. Starting with a chilled mixing glass and measuring one ounce, 30 mil of cognac. This is Pierre Ferrand Amber Cognac. And rye whiskey, one ounce, 30 mil. Brittenhouse rye, bottled in Bond since 100 proof. And one ounce, 30 mil of sweet vermouth. I'm using Martini and Rossi. Then we have quarter ounce, 7.5 mil of Benedictine to sweeten it up a little bit. Add some more herbal complexity as well. It's a herbal liqueur. So cognac, rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, Benedictine, and then we finish it off with some bitters. So Peychaud's bitters, two dashes. So this is a Japanese dasher bottle, so tripling it. One, two, three, four, five, six. And Angostura bitters, one, two, three, four, five, six. So two dashes of each. I know that doesn't make sense, but they have the Vocare ready to go. Add plenty of ice, stir it down for 20 to 30 seconds. This is a classic New Orleans cocktail from about 1930. And I'm straining this onto a large rock. Garnish with a lemon twist. They have a Vocare. Cheers. The blend of whiskey, rye whiskey, adds that little bit of spice, but the blend of rye and cognac just pairs beautifully together. Sweetened up with the sweet vermouth, adds more herbal complexity as well as that Benedictine. Benedictine is a favorite liqueur of mine. It's kind of like honeyed herbal notes. This is such a good cocktail. And if you have something like Carpagna Antica Formula or Cocchi di Torino for the sweet vermouth, that would be my preferred bottle, Cocchi di Torino. I do have a bottle on the way, but I'm trying to make it so that I only have one sweet vermouth opener at a time. This is fantastic. Onto cocktail number two. Now, if you've been following the channel for a while, I'm sure you saw this one coming, the Inzoni. Gin, Campari, lemon juice with muddled grapes. So it's kind of like a Negroni sour, but replacing the sweet vermouth with the muddled grapes. Excellent cocktail, and this is one of those drinks that when I first tried it, I was like, this is a banger. Vincenzo Errico was the original creator of this. He called for Concord grapes, but they're not available everywhere. They're not available all year round. So green grapes are preferred, but five, and then muddled. Then one ounce, 30 mil of gin. I'm using Threefold aromatic gin, nice and citrusy. Pairs well with Campari. Pairs well in a citrusy drink like a sour. Otherwise, you can go a London Dry if you want something a little bit more juniper forward. Threefolddistilling.com.au. Link's in the description if you guys wanna check it out. Unfortunately, it is not yet available overseas. It's available in Australia, but it will hopefully soon be available in other countries. One ounce, 30 mil of Campari. This is one of those drinks that I say, this is a drink to introduce someone to Campari. Campari is very bitter, and this combined with the lemon juice and the sugar, it subdues that bitterness, brightens it up a little bit, and it's definitely worth a try, even if you don't like Campari. Three quarter ounce, 22.5 mil of fresh lemon juice. And then simple syrup. Half an ounce, 15 mil. And if you wanted to, this cocktail would benefit from a little dash of saline. Completely up to you. Ice and shake for 10 to 12 seconds. And double strained over fresh ice into an old-fashioned glass. All right, look at that color. Such a good-looking drink. And garnished with three green grapes. That's such a good-looking drink, I love it. It's been a while since I've had one, actually. It's like, you've got the flavor of Campari, but that bitterness is toned down, so it just makes it more approachable for everyone. You still get bitterness, but it's more like bitter orange as opposed to that really dry bitterness that you typically get with Campari when you drink it straight. Of course, don't forget to double strain that because you've got the muddled grapes. But you get some of that grapiness coming through as well. Such a good drink. If you are not a fan of Campari and you wanna get into it, I've also got a video up here for Campari drinks, three Campari drinks for people that hate Campari. Check that out. And Zoni's in there, too. And last but not least is the Penicillin. This one goes way back for me. It was one of the first cocktails that I tried. It's one of the first cocktails that I had with an isle of whiskey that I really started to appreciate. I've peated whiskeys, and it was introduced to me by a friend, Carla. If you're watching, shout out to you. Whiskey, scotch whiskey cocktail. It's fantastic. It's got honey syrup, ginger. It's got a little bit of spice. It's got some smoke in there. It's got lots of little different components. But it really is, it's just a sour. And I love sour cocktails. And I haven't had this cocktail for ages until yesterday when I was hosting a livestream. Speaking of, if anyone is interested in a live workshop, I've got a live workshop on mastering classic cocktails. So if you are just getting started with cocktails and you're interested in fast-tracking your knowledge with cocktails, then I'll leave a link in the description below so you can check it out. It'll be hosted as a live workshop, so live Q&A as well, where you can interact and ask as many questions as you want. And then it'll be available on demand. So we've got two ounces, 60 mil of blended scotch whiskey. I'm just using Famous Grouse. Relatively inexpensive scotch whiskey. Should be available in most places, I believe. And then I've got freshly pressed lemon juice, three quarters of an ounce, 22.5 mil. This cocktail was created by Sam Ross. He's of Milken Honey alumni, trained by Sasha Petroski. He also writes regarding cocktails, which is a fantastic cocktail book. A lot of classic cocktails in there. So Sam actually calls for three quarters of an ounce of a honey ginger syrup. So it's, personally, I wouldn't go making a honey ginger syrup because I'd only be using it in this one cocktail. I'd keep them separate, keep a honey syrup, keep a ginger syrup, and then you can use them for other cocktails as well. So rather than doing three quarters of an ounce, we're just gonna split it and do one third of an ounce, which is close enough. So honey syrup being three parts honey, one part water. And ginger syrup, I'm using Libra & Co. Just got a good amount of spice to it. One third of an ounce. Of course, if you want to, you can alter the ratios between your honey and ginger. Maybe get a little bit more ginger syrup, get some more spice. And then we add some ice into the cocktail shaker and shake for 10 to 12 seconds. So as I said, so far this drink is just a simple sour. A sour, two parts whiskey, three quarter ounce citrus, and three quarter ounce sweetener. But the sweetener is honey and ginger syrup. So we wanna strain this over fresh ice. Double strain. And I didn't forget an ingredient. We have an isle of whiskey float. So this is where the smoky component is gonna come into play. Quarter ounce, which is a little bit more than a bar spoon. Float it on top. Some people like to add it into the shaker. Then you get that smokiness, rather than being a little bit more dominant on top. It just mixes through the drink. Or you can use an atomizer and spray it so you get those aromatics as soon as you lift it to your face. Typical garnish, I'm pretty sure, gonna be candied ginger. But I don't think most people are gonna have candied ginger lying around. So I just like to garnish this with a lemon wheel. Nice and simple. There you have the penicillin. Honey, spices from the ginger, and the smokiness from that whiskey. Frost. Such a good drink. Honey, ginger, and that smoke. Those particular flavors work so well together. And whiskey is just Scotch whiskey particular. Nice and malty, smoky. Lots of different flavors coming together. The pair perfectly. Thanks for watching. Check out the links in the description below. And I will see you next Wednesday.