Can you identify the ingredients in a martini, cosmopolitan, Manhattan, Mai Tai, Long Island Iced Tea, Harvey Wallbager and more? See how well you know your cocktails.
Cocktail Ingredients Quiz
Crazy for Cosmopolitans? You'll need vodka, Cointreau or triple sec, lime juice, and one other ingredient to shake 'em up at home.
Grenadine
Orange juice
Cranberry juice
Pink grapefruit juice
Some folks get fancy with the recipe, but a traditionally-made Mai Tai gets its signature flavor from lime juice, dark rum, grenadine (or simple syrup), curacao and what other key ingredient?
Almond syrup
Mango juice
Coconut milk
Orange juice
Shaking up vodka, cream, and this variety of liqueur results in a White Russian.
Coffee
White chocolate
Vanilla
Peppermint
The rim of a Sidecar glass is coated in what tasty substance?
Sugar
Salt
Cocoa
Honey
The non-alcoholic classic Shirley Temple contains ginger ale (or lemon-lime soda), orange juice and a sweet splash of what?
Fruit punch
Cranberry juice
Grenadine
Pineapple juice
Vodka or gin would need just this ingredient to be shaken or stirred into a gimlet.
Roses Lime Juice Cordial
Olive juice
Fresh lime juice
Pickle juice
Rye (or bourbon), vermouth, bitters and a cherry are the components of which classic cocktail?
Negroni
Old Fashioned
Manhattan
Rob Roy
Mix up rum, lime and Coca-Cola to make this drink.
Cuba Libre
El Presidente
Bronx
Corpse Reviver
Mint, sugar, lime, soda water and this liquor come together to be muddled into a mojito.
Cachaca
Tequila
Rum
Pisco
Standard ingredients in a Negroni include gin, vermouth and what other liquid?
Lemon juice
Egg whites
Angostura bitters
Campari
It's not just a punchline -- the Harvey Wallbanger is a fern bar staple featuring vodka, orange juice, and this odd liqueur.
Goldschlager
Rumplemintz
Galliano
Peach Schnaaps
When this is popped into a Martini in lieu of an olive, it becomes a Gibson.
Jalapeno pepper
Lime wedge
Gherkin
Cocktail onion
James Bond may be more commonly associated with the Martini, but writer Ian Fleming also had him slugging down Vespers, which are concocted from Lillet Blanc and which two liquors?
Brandy & Scotch
Gin & Vodka
Vodka & Bourbon
Bourbon & Brandy
Mix orange juice and this spirit for a hard-hitting Screwdriver.
Rum
Vodka
Champagne
Whiskey
Sure, you could ask for a vodka & cranberry with a lime wedge, but it's much more festive to order it this way:
Greyhound
Salty Dog
Cape Cod
Madras
If you've got bourbon, mint, and a splash of soda, you're on the right track to make the Derby Day classic, a Mint Julep. What's still missing?
Lime
Sugar
Bitters
Nothing
The Bloody Mary is a brunch standard, but this addition transforms it into a hearty Bloody Bull.
Beef broth
Red Bull
A whole hot pepper
Pepper vodka
Creme de menthe and cream are terribly tasty together, but if you want a Grasshopper, hop to the store for a bottle of:
Vanilla vodka
Creme de Cacao
Green food coloring
Mint extract
A Greyhound gets its distinctive flavor from vodka and this mixer:
Sweetened lime juice
Pineapple juice
Cranberry and orange juice
Grapefruit juice
We all know that a Long Island Iced Tea has no tea in the mix, but what liquor isn't part of the standard recipe?
Even Gummi bears need exploratory surgery sometimes.
At least that's what the wickedly funny folks at Instructables would have us believe. They've created this hilarious and slightly unsettling series of photos showing the iconic bears going under the knife for such, er, unorthodox procedures as a head transplant, limb transplant and split personality transplant (you'll just have to see that one for yourself). The photos of the procedures are accompanied by helpful hints: When preparing for surgery, remember that "dried Gummi gore can be wiped off with a paper towel or you can replace the whole blade."
If surgery whets your appetite for more Gummi fun, there's a related gallery on the site that teaches readers how to make a Gummi bear fruit smoothie. And the bears themselves might be relieved to see instructions for vodka-infused Gummis -- after all they've been through, they could probably use a drink.
Sweet! Licking the good stuff off of the mixing paddle now has gourmet approval. David Burke's new restaurant, Fishtail, offers diners batter-smeared paddles alongside their "can o' cake."
Mark Bittman teaches you how to freeze things properly -- think beans, fish, herbs and fruit.
Absolut has added another variety to its line of flavored vodkas: Mango. With its tropical taste and groovy, painterly swirls on the bottle it's a bit surprising that it took until No. 10 for Absolut to add this one to their repertoire.
Or not. After I ordered a mango 'n' tonic at a bar recently, the bartender looked slightly askance and asked if I was "sure," explaining that "a lot of people don't like it."
One taste had me in agreement: As a straight-up shot or with a non-masking mixer like tonic water, Absolut Mango has a peculiar taste. It starts fruity-mango and ends fruity-mango, but there's some strange bit in the middle that sort of flops on the tongue like mango detergent.
This is especially odd since Absolut so adroitly used mango in its New Orleans flavor, but perhaps the hit of black pepper that elevated that vodka above its peers also helped disguise the troubling mango notes (not to mention its super-cool design).
Absolut Mango does work nicely when blended into a cocktail or combined with juice: She's just not a sipper.
When it comes to naming drinks after people -- whether they be real or fictional -- what comes first? Do you decide to honor a personage and then make the appropriate cocktail, or do you mix it up and then go, "Hmmm... who does this remind me of?"
I do most of my cocktail inventing around the holidays. The reason for this is twofold. One, I always visit my parents and they possess a liquor cabinet that shames some bars, not only in actual number of bottles, but also in the array of top-shelf and/or rare liquors. Two, when does one find oneself in need of a drink more than the holidays?
Whether it's the merriment of celebration, the release of stress, or simply the desire to take a breather from all the socializing by indulging in a brief respite behind the bar, December is the time for mixing. And also for giving, so allow me to give you my two newly-invented cocktails for 2008: the Ginger-Pear Cocktail and the Nihilist.
Over the past few years, as premium vodkas have come into vogue, I've heard more and more about the taste of vodka. Suddenly, reviews have been overflowing with comments like "a nice, caramel finish," "a buttery nose," and "an insouciant grin underlying pearly orange tones." Okay, I made the last one up, but am I the only one who sometimes wonders if professional liquor tasters have been dropping acid?
At any rate, the irony of this is that the ideal vodka shouldn't have any flavor at all. In fact, I'd argue that the ultimate mark of a good vodka is that you can pull it out of the freezer, pour yourself a shot, and taste absolutely nothing except for the quick death of a few thousand brain cells. This, by the way, is why a traditional vodka tasting often has savory items like caviar, blini, fresh dill, and preserved herring. Since it doesn't impart flavor, vodka makes a good, inoffensive base for other flavors.
While most of the top vodkas on the market cost upwards of $30, there are a few classic and lesser-known vodkas that offer premium quality and (lack of) flavor for very reasonable prices. For example, Svedka is a first-rate, mild-flavored vodka from Sweden. Like Absolut, it has an great ad campaign; unlike Absolut, however, it is a very tasty, very reasonably priced vodka.
Vodka seems to be is the beverage of choice when celebrities decide to dabble in distillation. Jay-Z's Armadale, Jimi Hendrix' Hendrix Electric, Roberto Cavalli's Roberto Cavalli, Donald Trump's (what else) Trump.
Now Dan Akroyd joins the party with his Crystal Head vodka, which comes in a skull-shaped glass bottle. He promotes the new libation with a video so bizarre many originally suspected that it was some sort of viral marketing for a Ghostbusters sequel. Akroyd babbles about Roswell and ectoplasm with the straightfacedness of Leonard Nimoy on In Search Of... before showing off his (admittedly very boss) bottle "in which," he explains, "we have chosen to enclose joy, in the form of of a very pure alcoholic beverage."
Akroyd also speaks of his enthusiasm for what he calls "the most challenging arena in the legal recreational consumables industry." The vodka itself is made in Newfoundland, Canada, and is "quadruple-distilled."
Three of my favorite things converged recently: David Byrne, sweet tea, and booze. Down south, the latter two are common enough on their own, but now Firefly Distillery has combined them with Sweet Tea Flavored Vodka.
I was beyond skeptical when my friend brought a bottle to an outdoor David Byrne show in Atlanta. I'd never even met a canned or bottled sweet tea, or for that matter a flavored vodka, worth spitting at (most necessitate spitting out). I expected something cloying and artificial-tasting.
To my surprise, Firefly exercised remarkable restraint in infusing--or should I say brewing--the vodka with (according to John T. Edge writing for the Gourmet blog) local tea and sweetened with regionally appropriate Louisiana cane sugar. Edge calls it hyper-sweet, but by sweet tea standards it really isn't. He also recommends mixing with lemonade, which my friend also suggested. But such doctoring isn't necessary. Water and ice do the trick.
The smooth dance moves and electrifying vocals of David Byrne aren't necessary, either. But in my opinion, if "the name of the bar, the bar is called Heaven," then it follows that "heaven is a place" where spiked tea and live Talking Heads hits meet.
As pumpkin season lands upon us with a slightly squishy thud, allow me to share this recipe for pumpkin cocktails. These are always a huge hit at Thanksgiving, but also enjoyably appropriate for Halloween. Be aware that you need to prepare in advance to give the vodka time to infuse....
It's pink, it sparkles, and it comes in a fancy bottle. It's Nuvo!
Nuvo is the world's first sparkling liqueur, made with vodka and French sparkling wine. None of that, in theory, would make it pink. But, it's pink. Magic! (additives!)
It is definitely best enjoyed very cold, and is meant to be served in champagne flutes over ice.
The flavor and aroma are delicate; you can definitely taste the wines used (very fruity). There is a strength to it, though. The best way I can find to describe it is to say it tastes like sparkling white zinfandel with a ridiculously high alcohol content...and frankly, it's not bad!
Nuvo, in it's signature bottle, makes a great gift and looks chic when served at parties. Its classy pink color makes it feel just a little bit more special than champagne or any of your usual liqueurs. Add more vodka to it to make a sparkling pink cosmopolitan! We approve.
There are some people who it is just plain good to know. When you're in college, for example, the guy with a truck is incredibly helpful, and when you go in to business, the understanding accountant and the slightly unethical lawyer are almost necessities.
A few years ago, my friend John became one of these fabulously helpful people. A lifelong resident of southwest Virginia and a trained chemist, John had a skill set that was uniquely wonderful: he knew how to get hold of moonshine, and he knew how to test it for impurities. While the grain liquor (or "likker," if you prefer) that I got from John wasn't all that cheap, it was completely flavorless, and I soon discovered that it made the perfect carrier for various fruits. Within a couple of months, I had a collection of incredibly delicious infused cordials that I would mix with seltzer or tonic water to produce light, moderately alcoholic spritzers with insanely pure tastes.
If you're a fan of flavored vodkas and can stand a little fun being poked at you, I recommend this post from the A.V.Club. They reviewed three new flavors of vodka from Three Olives brand, and it's pretty amusing.
The flavors in question are tomato, root beer, and triple shot espresso. Not being a huge vodka fan in the first place, I found this review ,um, not too helpful, but entertaining. In the name of humor, they were a little homophobic, but I tried to remember to take it with a grain of salt.
Apparently, the tomato flavor was the least popular, which sounds reasonable to me. Can anyone find a reason for tomato flavored vodka? It didn't even get great reviews with bloody mary mix. The root beer flavor was deemed "all right', but apparently it went well in a root beer float. The triple shot espresso was by far the favorite. A.V.club also tried it with a Starbucks Mocha Frappuccino to raves.
If you have your own personal review of these or any flavored vodkas I'd love to read it. Maybe it'd inspire me to try vodka more often.
I've never been able to afford Johnnie Walker Blue, though I am partial to the Black variety. Russians, though, seem to have no problem affording it. The land of vodka and harsh winters is now the biggest market for the world's priciest Scotch whisky according to the Financial Times.
Vodka still accounts for more than 90 per cent of the country's spirits sales, largely because Russians are not used to the taste of whisky or gin. Despite this barrier sales of costly libations have been rising largely due to the populations increased wealth.
Last year Russia became the first European country to import the "King George V" edition of Johnnie Walker Blue Label, which can go for up to $1,000. That's quite a markup over the everyday version, which sells for a mere $180 a bottle.
Vodka seems to be is the beverage of choice when celebrities decide to dabble in distillation. Jay-Z's Armadale, Jimi Hendrix' Hendrix Electric, Roberto Cavalli's Roberto Cavalli, Donald Trump's (what else) Trump. 
It's pink, it sparkles, and it comes in a fancy bottle. It's Nuvo!
If you're a fan of flavored vodkas and can stand a little fun being poked at you, I recommend this 
I've never been able to afford Johnnie Walker Blue, though I am partial to the Black variety. Russians, though, seem to have no problem affording it. The land of vodka and harsh winters is now the biggest market for the world's priciest Scotch whisky according to the 
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