10. Duvel
9. Kwak
8. Isle of Jura
7. Ginger Beer
6. Ginger Juice (honey+lemon, no apple juice!)
5. Chocolate Silk
4. Vodka Martini, only one olive.
3. Long Island
2. Kentucky Coffee
1. Peets latte

I haven’t been fortunate enough to find any great mixed drinks at bars as I’ve probably not found the right bars. Perhaps I’ll find some new favorites in trying your recipes at home..

1. Cheap Spanish Red Table Wine
2. Cheap French Pinot Noir
3. Navy Black Strap Rum & Diet Coke
4. Jet Pilot
5. Titos or V6 and fresh squeezed OJ
6. Mai Tai
7. Malibu, coconut and Pineapple
8. Pina Colada with a Meyers floater
9. Bloody Mary with Hot Pickled Ocra
10.White Russian

Thought I might as well chime in with ten favorites of my own, in no particular order:

- Drambuie and warm milk, on any given winter night
- Myers’s rum daiquiri, made with Key limes, and NEVER frozen
- Cinnamon Manhattan, on the rocks with Knob Creek, fortified with Goldschläger and a dash of cherry syrup
- Tomato martini, with Ketel One, the freshest tomatoes you can find, a pinch of onion, dry vermouth, and black pepper
- Fresh peach & Chambord margarita, with Don Julio blanco tequila
- Hennessy sidecar, with Cointreau and Meyer lemon
- Chipotle-raspberry Bloody Mary, with Stoli Rasberi
- Mint julep, preferably with Knob Creek
- Fresh jalapeño Don Julio blanco tequila martini, with a lime twist

1-Labatt Blue Dry
2-Libertine
3-Jack and Coke
4-Red table wine
5-Flamming Dr.Pepper
6-Rye and Seven
7-Drambuie-Soda
8-Mojito
9-Long Island
10-Mailbu-Sprite

Thanks, guys, and happy 4th.

Lonnie, I’m working on it, I’m working on it!

Hey, you coming to DC for Repeal Day or what?

10. Spanish Coffee
9. Gin Fizz
8. Tom Collins (Hendricks)
7. Gin & Tonic
6. Makers & Coke
5. Negroni
4. Extra Dry Martini
3. Whisk(e)y Sour
2. Sidecar
1. Margarita (OVER ICE, NEVER FROZEN!)

That was a tough list! So many favorites, but of course I get plenty of juice and water (w/o alcohol).. Next time I’ll list wine and beer..

Cheers and Happy 4th!

And on that note, my personal top 5 (at the moment, and given my relatively small cocktail repertoire):

1. Margarita – Of all the cocktails I make at home, this one satisfies the most often.

2. Mojito – When made properly, the most refreshing drink on the planet.

3. Sidecar – For the same reasons you mentioned: tart, sweet, yet nice and strong. A great flavor combination.

4. Daiquiri – The original, Hemingway-approved version. Much more than the sum of its parts.

5. Pina Colada – Okay, I have a sweet tooth. But pineapple and coconut really do make great bedfellows.

When I’m not in the mood for those, a cold beer, tall glass of ice water, or a shot of neat scotch will do. And in the colder months, replace all of those drinks with anything involving Jack Daniel’s.

Beer (everything from PBR to Guinness)
Coffee
Frisco Sour (yum, Benedictine)
Green Ghost (yum, Chartreuse)
Jack Rose
Last Word
Mai Tai
Manhattan
Negroni (I love Campari)
Old Pal (did I mention that I love Campari?)

… but it might be a different list next week …

* Coffee – Except from Starbucks

* Whisky Sour

* Bourbon (Makers Mark or Woodford)

* Gin + Tonic

* Beer, Being from the Cornhusker state, I will have to try the Nebraska Bitter.

* Water

That’s about it. I suppose I would have more if it weren’t for my penchant for dive bars with crappy bartenders. I have had Old Fashoned, Manhattans, and Side Cars, but all have been abomonations. I suspect this is more a product of the creator than the intended creation.

As a side note my favorite drink order is “I’ll have two shots of your crappiest whiskey!” Man, that was a bad night…

As for Liquor Boy, I’ll deal with you later….

Jeff

Beer
Red Wine
Chelsea Sidecar
Richmond Gimlet
Manhattan
Bourbon (neat)
Tom Collins
Whiskey Sour
Cuba Libre
Mint Julep

Love, T G IPA,Woodford Reserve, My
Bloody mary(Still the Best In Town)
Sparkling Wines, Meads, Hennessey Ricard, Sidecars as well, and 007 martini’s as only you can make them for me, shaken with two onions and an olive…… I still say, We could rock
Las Vegas next time!!!!!!!!! HOOTERS
HOT WINGS ARE THE BOMB. Your luving
friend………………….

Here are a few of my favorites:

Negroni
Gin Martini,3:1
Cucumber Gimlet
Calvados Sidecar
Knob Creek, couple of cubes
Clermont Kiss, one of my creations
Blood and Sand, Charlotte Voisey just
made a great one for
me on Monday.
El Tesoro Paradiso, with Julio of
course.

OK, I guess the list could just go on and on.

As professionals in our field, let’s agree to disagree. I’ll take my Martinis shaken and my Negronis stirred.

Great column!

Cheers to you my friend!

Which leads me to my next choice Jager, yes there is a time and place for it. You just have to find yours… possibly prior to a Tool concert, or Christmas night at a Chinese restaurant. Don’t just shoot it, taste it, and you’ll find the bitters that you seek. If I want alot of the same flavors without the stigma or sweetness, Freinet Branca is amazing, but hard to find.

In the realm of refreshing-summers-on- the-patio-drinks. Pimms Cup with a cucumber slice, (crush the ice of course)

Ouzo (pair it with dolmas, mmmmmm)

Thanks Jeff for including the Negroni. I can always tell when someone orders this that they are either a foodie or another bartender. Your Negroni is still the best in town…I bow to you.
As well as the sweaty mess that you work with. (Someone has to be the MaryAnn to your Ginger).

This golden bitter uses fresh Cascade hops in modest amounts to create a more subtle hop flavor and bitterness than its big brother, Hammerhead. Nebraska Bitter was first brewed at the Fulton Pub & Brewery, located in Southwest Portland. This crisp and flavorful ale has become a standard attraction at McMenamin’s taps everywhere.

Malts: Pale Malt; 40L Crystal Malt
Hops: Cascade
Original Gravity: 1.044
Terminal Gravity: 1.008
Alcohol by Weight: 3.6%
Calories/pint: 187

As for the shot? It’s usually bourbon, but (and I’m surprised Sean Bigley didn’t call me out on this) quite often it’s good old Fernet Branca.

2. Bourbon – neat (Knob Creek is my go-to).

3. Old fashioned – and not that orange and cherry muddled abomination you get at most bars, either. 2oz rye, a tsp of simple syrup, two dashes of orange bitters, stirred with ice and garnished with a cherry.

4. Martini – four to one Vya and Plymouth, two dashes of orange bitters, served with a twist.

5. Mai Tai – I make mine kind of like you would a daiquiri (2oz rum, 1oz syrup, 1oz lime), but replace the syrup with a half ounce each of curacao and orgeat.

6. Gin and tonic. Nothing more refreshing on a muggy DC summer day.

- Diet Coke (shutup, I can’t help it)
- Corpse Reviver #2
- The Last Word
- Champagne
- Tom Collins (an underrated drink in my opiniom)
- Mojito (at least when I make them)
- Gimlet (I’m most definitely trying the Richmond soon, Jeffrey)
- Martini (I use a 3:1 ratio)
- Martinez
- Espresso/coffee

I’m still doing a lot of exploration but these are ones I always come back to. There was a period, a long period, where I drank Champagne almost exclusively. And that, my friend, is a very expensive and untenable habit. But man is it among the things I’m thankful for every day.

A dart for failing to identify your beer style in the “Beer and a Shot,” though. Half is “cool, light and refreshing”? Not if it’s a barleywine, my friend, or Imperial stout or doppelbock or, well, you get the point.

Thing is, I’ve always found that pilsner and a shot (presumably of something whisky/whiskey like) just don’t work together. Pale ale or IPA is better, but still not as good as a best bitter or ESB. And for great harmony, try a brown ale, chilled but not iced to death, or an abbey-style dubbel.

And don’t you dare accuse me of over complicating matters, Mr. “better yet, my housemade cinnamon-cardamom quinine syrup and soda”!

I love all of your contributions and have always enjoyed y’all’s writing. Keep it up!