This is the all time classic drink made from rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters (and of course, a cherry). Many make this with bourbon whiskey (some consider it blasphemy due to the sweeter overture of a Bourbon as opposed to Rye) and Canadian whiskey (I guess this one goes back to the Prohibition Era). The proper way to serve this is in a chilled glass – neat – with no ice. I prefer with a King ice though. If served without ice, a martini (cocktail) glass would be the appropriate glass. With ice, a lowball glass is a must.

Among bartenders, it is common practice to stir the drink instead of shaking it before pouring into a chilled glass. In the olden days, it had to be done to avoid the froth that formed (and with whiskey and vermouth, it may take some time to go away) but these days, the alcohol production is far more refined and has less of the very fine pollutants that cause the froth in the first place.

The origin of this classic drink is a little confusing. It was either made by a bartender called Black in Manhattan, New York (Broadway, to be specific) in the 1860s or by Dr. Iain Marshall at the Manhattan Club in New York in the 1870s.

In this, I used Southern Rye Whiskey, Gallo Vermouth and Peychaud’s bitters.

One of the favorites during the Prohibition (when orange liqueur was replaced with orange juice making it some kind of a cousin of Screwdriver and easily passed off as orange juice), this cocktail is made of dry gin, sweet vermouth and Cointreau.

Gin, Champagne, lemon juice and sugar. I am a little split over the glass decision. My gut says flute glass which many agree to. But there are equal number of people who think Collins glass is the right glass.. here I served in a flute..

This one is for run lovers. White rum, orange curacao and lime juice…

And this is the second cocktail of the evening. The Quickie is made from Bourbon, white rum and Triple sec.

This was the evening of a double cocktail. I figured I had earned them after my faster than normal 10 mile run. The drinks are almost identical liking but they cannot be any more different from each other in taste or character.

This is the Nineteenth Hole – made from gin, both varieties of vermouths and some bitters.

This gin based drink originated way back in 1916. In fact, in those days, The Last Word was the costliest cocktail money could buy at 35 cents. This drink hit the heights of popularity twice – once in the 1920s – made popular by Frank Fogarty in the bar Detroit Athletic Club and then again by Murray Stenson in the bar Zig Zag Cafe in Seattle in the 2000s.

This drink is made from gin, green chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and fresh lime juice.

And this is the second drink I have chosen for the company event. Stayed with the same QuantumSpatial colors. This a cousin of Blue Monday. Instead of vodka, you have gin. And instead of Cointreau, you have its very close cousin Triple Sec. Of course, you have the blue curacao in either of them.

We have a corporate event coming up with all our partners. I guess nobody trusted the CEO to give a good speech, so I am the official bartender 🙂 I have been experimenting with a a few cocktails to match our company colors (you can check it out at www.quantumspatial.com). This is one of the two that I have settled on.

A Blue Monday is made from vodka, cointreau and blue curacao.

The origin of the name is – ah! should I just say “very interesting”! It involves a monkey’s testicles – so I am going to let you Google it up… 🙂

The drink goes back to the 1920s and was invented in Paris at Harry’s New York bar. The owner – Harry MacElhone is usually credited with the invention…

This drinks has orange juice, absinthe, gin and grenadine.