A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink. Most commonly, cocktails are either a single spirit or a combination of spirits, mixed with other ingredients such as juices, flavored syrups, tonic water, shrubs, and bitters. Cocktails vary widely across regions of the world, and many websites publish both original recipes and their own interpretations of older and more famous cocktails.
Bitters is traditionally an alcoholic preparation flavored with botanical matter for a bitter or bittersweet flavor. Originally, numerous longstanding brands of bitters were developed as patent medicines, but now are sold as digestifs, sometimes with herbal properties, and as cocktail flavorings.
A pisco sour is an Peruvian alcoholic cocktail of that is typical of Peruvian cuisine as well as the national drink of Peru.The drink's name comes from pisco, which is its base liquor, and the cocktail term sour, about sour citrus juice and sweetener components. The Peruvian pisco sour uses Peruvian pisco as the base liquor and adds freshly squeezed lemon juice, simple syrup, ice, egg white, and Angostura bitters. The Chilean version is similar, but uses Chilean pisco and Pica lime, and excludes the bitters and egg white. Other variants of the cocktail include those created with fruits like pineapple or plants such as coca leaves.
A sour is a traditional family of mixed drinks. Sours belong to one of the old families of original cocktails and are described by Jerry Thomas in his 1862 book How to Mix Drinks.
Angostura bitters is a concentrated bitters based on gentian, herbs, and spices, produced by House of Angostura in Trinidad and Tobago. It is typically used for flavouring beverages, or less often, food. The bitters were first produced in the town of Angostura, hence the name, but do not contain angostura bark. The bottle is recognisable by its distinctive oversized label. Angostura is Spanish for "narrowing", the town of Angostura having been at the first narrowing of the Orinoco River.
The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks is a book about cocktails by David A. Embury, first published in 1948. The book is noteworthy for its witty, highly opinionated and conversational tone, as well as its categorization of cocktails into two main types: aromatic and sour; its categorization of ingredients into three categories: the base, modifying agents, and special flavorings and coloring agents; and its 1:2:8 ratio for sour type cocktails.
A champagne cocktail is an alcoholic cocktail made with sugar, Angostura bitters, Champagne, brandy, and a maraschino cherry as a garnish. It is one of the IBA official cocktails.
A spritz is a Venetian wine-based cocktail, commonly served as an aperitif in Northeast Italy. It consists of prosecco, digestive bitters and soda water.
The brandy sour is a mixed alcoholic cocktail considered the unofficial national cocktail of Cyprus. While other forms of the brandy sour cocktail exist, the Cypriot variety is a distinct mixture, which only shares the basic brandy and lemon flavourings with other variants. Both brandy and lemons are among Cyprus's major exports, and both have distinctive Cypriot characteristics.
The Casino is an IBA official cocktail made with gin, maraschino liqueur, orange bitters and fresh lemon juice.
The Tuxedo is an IBA Official Cocktail composed of gin, dry Vermouth, orange bitters, maraschino and Absinthe.
Tommy's margarita is a variant of the margarita cocktail. It is recognized by the IBA as a new era drink.
A brandy crusta is an IBA Official Cocktail made of brandy, Maraschino Luxardo, curaçao, fresh lemon juice, sugar syrup, and Angostura bitters.
The Vieux Carré is an IBA official cocktail made with rye whiskey, cognac, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine, and Peychaud's bitters. It originated with Walter Bergeron, a bartender at the Carousel Bar in Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans. The name is French for "old square”, in reference to the city's French Quarter neighborhood. The drink is classified as one of the Unforgettables by the IBA.
The Tipperary is an IBA official cocktail made with Irish whiskey, sweet red Vermouth, green Chartreuse, and Angostura bitters.
The New York sour is an IBA official cocktail. Largely similar to the whiskey sour, the New York sour adds a float of dry red wine to the drink.
A Green Swizzle is an alcohol-containing cocktail of the sour family. It was popular in Trinidad at the beginning of the 20th century but got lost during the course of the Second World War. Today's recipes usually constitute an often distinct divergence from the original.
