French 75 (use good champagne)
French 76 (use good champagne)
Old fashioned (use expensive cherries)
Side car (use orange brandy instead of orange liqueur)
Manhattan (don't skimp on bitters)
Cosmopolitan (throw the used lime into the shaker)
Whiskey sour (use egg white)
Gimlet (add a cedar leaf for more flavor)

Fresh fruit is a must to make the best drinks.

If you’re ok with bitter flavors, I’m a big fan of the Negroni.

I prefer mine straight up so it doesn’t dilute too much.

Absolute favorite is the Sazerac. Any recipe you find use less sugar.

Rye Manhattan up. Rye old fashioned if you want rocks and sweeter profile. But always rye.

The Dude was on to something, white russian all the way.

The Last Word is my favorite, but I rarely have the ingredients on hand. The Bees Knees is a more common go-to.

Penicillin. Honey, bourbon, scotch, ginger, and lemon, all in one.

I dunno about favorite, but my go-tos are an Old Fashioned in the fall and winter, and a Tom Collins in spring and summer.

Those become a Manhattan or an Aviation if I’m feeling fancy or just want to mix it up.

For a cocktail, I'll take a well executed Mojito 9/10 times. That other 1/10 is often a White Russian.

Else a gin & tonic as a long drink, as long as they got decent stuff.

These days I have maybe 2-3 drinks a year at most, so I'm not willing to settle for inferior ingredients.

Mai Tai. All the joy of vacationing on a beach, without the beach.

Rarely drink cocktails, but Long Island Ice Tea is probably my go-to.

I like tiki drinks.

Painkillers are incredible. I'll take 12.

measurements:

• 2 oz Dark Rum (preferably Pusser's Rum, as it's the traditional choice)
• 4 oz Pineapple Juice
• 1 oz Orange Juice
• 1 oz Cream of Coconut *Garnish: Grated Nutmeg and optionally a pineapple wedge or cherry

Instructions:

• Combine Ingredients: In a shaker, add the dark rum, pineapple juice, orange juice, and cream of coconut with ice.
• Shake Well: Shake vigorously until well chilled.
• Strain: Strain the mixture into a hurricane glass or large snifter filled with ice.
• Garnish: Generously grate fresh nutmeg on top of the drink and, if you like, add a pineapple wedge or cherry for decoration.

I'm sober now, but back when I drank I always loved a martini made with equal parts gin and sweet vermouth with a splash of grenadine and a maraschino cherry.

I like the sound of that. Needs to be bitter, otherwise I chug them !

I quite like salty margaritas and dirty martinis.

Gin and Tonic is my go-to.

The one that catches people off guard, but people generally seem to enjoy once they try is dark rum and orange juice (but the OJ has to be good, the kind thats pulpy / thick).

Is the sun up? Bloody Mary

Is the sun down? Extra dirty gin martini. Preferably Hendricks or Botanist.

I don't drink hard liquor any more, but even when I did, I didn't drink cocktails, but did get a tiny bit fancy on straight whiskey.

Rye, mid or top shelf. Chilled glass with a whiskey stone. Sometimes with a beer.

Caipiroska, a Caipirinha variant with Vodka instead of cachaça

https://iba-world.com/caipirinha/

I have multiple - it depends on the occasion:

• illegal (I love mezcal)
• moscow mule
• bloody mary
• piña colada

Daytime: Caeser

Nighttime: Negroni or Manhattan

Dark, unspiced rum and any of the fruit juice monsters mixed 1:1 in a big gulp.

Keeps my heart on it's toes.

An Old Pal - which is a minor variation of a Boulevardier

• 1 ounce Rye
• 1 ounce Campari
• 1 ounce dry Vermouth
• Served straight up garnished with a twist of lemon

If I can find it, Time Release is fantastic and should be on everyone's must try list

• 1.5 ounces Dry Gin
• 1 ounce White Port
• 0.5 ounce Sloe Gin
• 0.25 ounce Yellow Chartreuse
• Stirred not shaken, served straight up, garnished with a cherry

Great sipper that changes in flavor significantly as it warms up. Most places don't have White Port on hand and few have Sloe Gin on hand so can be difficult to get at a bar.

Replace the Grapefruit from your Paloma with some Japaleno brine and it's my current go to

Salmiakki, keep it classic.

Negronis, I love campari and gin

I also love coming up with cocktails so I'd love to share one of my favorites, the Fire Eater

• Dried whole chili peppers, broken in half
• Fireball
• Maraschino cherries and syrup
• Fill with coke and serve over ice, alternatively use cherry coke

The drink gets spicier as you drink. For the full fire eater experience eat the chilis at the end.

Painkiller, which is piña colada for grown-ups

Whiskey Sour, skip the egg

Classic Daiquiri (not the slush one)

Division Bell! It's punchy and tart with the citrus and slightly bitter aperol, and the mezcal gives a really welcome smoky flavor. I add just a quarter oz simple to the standard recipe, otherwise I find it a little dry.

-1 ounce mezcal -3/4 ounce Aperol -1/4 ounce Luxardo maraschino liqueur -3/4 ounce lime juice, freshly squeezed -1/4 ounce simple syrup

-Add ingredients to a shaker with ice, shake well before straining into a coupe and garnishing with a grapefruit twist

Sazerac - basically a Louisiana old fashioned

• 2 oz Rye whiskey
• 1/4 oz dark simple syrup ( like Turbinado, Demerara, etc)
• 5ish dashes of Peychaud’s bitters
• rinse glass with absinthe (I swear it doesn’t taste like anise/licorice at all in the end)
• lemon twist
• serve straight up

I'm partial to the New Orleans cocktails. If I'm making a Sazerac, I like this variation.

On the whole, though, my favorite has to be the Vieux Carré

• 3/4 oz rye
• 3/4 oz cognac
• 3/4 oz sweet vermouth
• 1/3 oz Bénédictine D.O.M
• 2 dashes Peychaud's bitters
• 1 dash Angostura bitters
• Optional absinthe rinse (I usually keep some absinthe in an atomizer because I refuse to throw out perfectly good absinthe)

Serve in a rocks glass with a lemon twist

At the same time, though, my love for bitter sometimes draws me to a Bonsoni:

• 2 oz Carpano Antica vermouth
• 1/2 oz Fernet Branca