5 Basic, Quick, Simple Cocktails

Okay, so you've stocked your bar. You've invited some friends over for drinks and appetizers. Now what? What do you serve them?

Optimally, you'd want to know a little bit about each person and what their preferred spirit (and pretty much everyone who drinks has one) is. Some people are gin drinkers and some people are dyed in the wool whiskey drinkers. Some people will only touch Irish whiskey--and of those, some will only drink Jameson's and some only Bushmills (and a few people who prefer the subtlety of Tullamore Dew).

Likewise some people are tequila drinkers, and some prefer rum--and of rum drinkers, some prefer straight Bacardi and some prefer it mixed with coconut, a la Captain Morgan or Malibu rum. And then there are the ones who are beer only (or wine only) and who don't touch distilled spirits at all.

It takes all kinds, and like all get togethers, you want to know your guests and their food and drink preferences.

For instance, a good gin and tonic will almost always please a gin drinker. It's the basic gin highball. Here's a good recipe:

2 oz gin
5 oz tonic water
1 lime wedge

Pour the gin and the tonic water into a highball glass almost filled with ice cubes. Stir well. Garnish with the lime wedge.

For the vodka drinker, a vodka and ginger (also called a Vodka chiller)

1 oz. Vodka, Ginger Ale to fill
Garnish with a lime wedge.

For rum drinkers, especially nowadays, there's the ever enticing Cuba Libre, which is a fancy way of saying, "rum and coke, garnished with lime"

Cuba Libre

1 oz. Rum, Cola to fill
Garnish with a lime wedge.

For tequila drinkers, the Margarita, especially appropriate given the upcoming Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

Dale Degroff's Margarita Recipe

1½ oz Tequila
1 oz Cointreau
¾ oz Lime Juice
¼-½ Simple Syrup

Run with ice through a blender to make a slush. Pour into margarita glasses prepared as follows: Dip rim of glasses into lemon juice, then salt. Garnish with lime.

And for the whiskey drinkers among us:

Seven and Seven

1 oz. Whiskey (Seagram's 7-Crown)
Lemon-Lime Soda (7-Up)to fil

Some of us prefer New Jersey and some of us prefer...Kentucky! For the latter group here is a recipe for a bourbon and branch:

Bourbon and Branch

1 oz. Bourbon Whiskey
bottled water to fill

The "branch" in a bourbon and branch is the bottled water. Branch is a Texan term for bottled water intended to be mixed with alcohol.

Garnish with a lemon twist.

And the brandy drinkers sometimes drink Brandy Alexanders. This tipple allegedly "goes down like a milkshake." I would not know. But it seems like it might.

Brandy Alexander

1 1/2 ounces Brandy
1 ounce White Creme de Cacao
1 ounce Heavy Cream

In a shaker half-filled with ice cubes, combine the brandy, creme de cacao, and cream. Shake well. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with the nutmeg.

So those are some basic cocktails and highballs for pretty much every spirit I named that you'd want to stock a home bar with.

Next up, we'll get into some more complex cocktails that require a bit of prep such as the Collins which require easily made Collins mix. After that, a few basic mocktails or nonalcoholic cocktails. 'Til next time...