How to Make Cocktails

Transcript Hi, I’m Tom Macy. I bar tend at the Clover Club in Brooklyn. It’s a cocktail bar that specializes in pre-Prohibition cocktails. I’m really passionate about classic cocktails, not just because they happened a long time ago, and it’s really interesting to learn the history about them, but also because when all those classic …

Transcript I like to think of the White Russian as the ultimate gateway cocktail. It certainly was for me, anyway. The White Russian was invented in the 1970’s when liqueur’s were very popular, like coffee liqueur, and of course as we all know, it was immortalized in the 1990’s by Jeff Bridges. And even though …

Transcript The Cosmopolitan is the only classic cocktail that was invented in the last 20 years, but it has suffered a little bit of a negative connotation lately, and I think that’s due to a certain HBO show about four women going to brunch. But I’m going to go out on limb and defend the …

Transcript To make great cocktails you need the proper equipment. Nothing fancy, just the basics to cover all your bases. Let’s talk about some of them. First, your shaker, the one probably everyone is familiar with. There’s two types. There’s the two-piece shaker and then there’s the three-piece shaker. I like this one just because …

Transcript I’m going to show you how to make a cocktail called the Green Giant. This is a drink that I developed for a Clover Club in Brooklyn for our spring menu last year. I was trying to think of some ingredients that were bright, and just evocative of spring and I was in the …

Transcript I’m going to show you a drink I created called Port of Call. I wanted this drink to evoke the holiday season, but also be something really refreshing and easy to drink, because I feel like during the colder months people tend to reach for really stiff brown liquor and I didn’t think that …

Transcript The martini is pretty much the most famous cocktail ever, it needs no introduction. However even though everybody knows it, there are about a million different ways to drink them. People like them shaken, stirred, up, on the rocks, olives, twist, dirty, dry. Just like a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup, there’s no wrong way …

Transcript When we think about cocktails in the summer, we often think about something with fruit, something really refreshing, delicious. Because really, what’s better than sitting on the beach with your John Grisham novel and a delicious watermelon margarita. So that’s what I’m going to show you how to make right now. The best way …

Transcript There’s no city that’s more synonymous with cocktails than New Orleans, but only one cocktail is the official cocktail of New Orleans and that cocktail is the Sazerac. It’s extremely easy to make, extremely delicious, here’s how. We’re going to start with two ounces of rye whiskey. Originally it was actually made with cognac, …

Transcript The Old-Fashioned cocktail is so old that 100 years ago they still called it an Old-Fashioned. A lot of classic cocktails were invented in the 19th century. We’re talking 18th century. So it’s definitely earned its name. We’re going to start with two ounces of rye whiskey, rye not bourbon, in this case. Because …

Transcript A Negroni is a great option for a cocktail before a really big meal. It comes from the Latin word which means to open. So it’s really something to stimulate the appetite. It comes from Italy and it utilizes Campari as one of its major ingredients, which is a bitter liqueur. So I’ll get …

Transcript A Mojito is a cocktail that everyone is familiar with. It’s become on of the most popular drinks of the last 10-15 years. I think one of the main reasons for that is that a lot of bars have been using fresh mint when they’re making their Mojito, imagine that. So people are having …

Transcript So it’s really great if you know how to make all these classic cocktails one at a time, but what if you want to have a group of people over and share all these great cocktails you’re making with your friends? It’s actually really easy to do that. All you have to do is …

Transcript When we stir a cocktail, we’re stirring something that’s going to be all-alcohol. When we shake it, it’s going to have some juice or non-alcoholic ingredient and that’s why we want to force it together by shaking it. When you’re stirring, you’re just gently trying to get the ingredients to mingle; they’ll mix pretty …

Transcript The Mai Tai is the flagship cocktail of all Tiki drinks. Tiki culture is something that became really popular in the 1950’s when people would want to travel to somewhere really exotic, but didn’t exactly want to spend the money or go through the trouble of getting there. So instead they would just go …

Transcript A highball is a cocktail that refers to the type of glass that you use, a highball glass. It’s similar to a Collin’s glass, just a little bit smaller. The other nice thing about highballs is that the name of the cocktail is also the recipe, generally. Examples are the gin and tonic or …

Transcript Whiskey sour is a cocktail that does not have the greatest reputation. I think the reason for that is that sour makes people think of sour mix, which is this disgusting, processed fake ingredient. But you really shouldn’t be afraid, because sour is actually just a style of cocktail. Back in the 19th century …

Transcript The Sidecar is a classic cocktail that a lot of people have heard of, but few people actually know how to make, or have even tasted when made properly. The cocktail was invented in the 1920’s in France. You’ll notice that a lot of classic cocktails start to be invented in Europe in the …

Transcript A Collins is a style of cocktail that is made in, as you might imagine, a Collin’s glass. I’m going to show you how to make the king of all Collin’s cocktails, Tom Collin’s. The Tom Collins is basically a gin sour that is topped with soda water. So we’re going to start with …

Transcript The daiquiri; everyone’s favorite cocktail that they’ve never actually had. Apologies to that neon-colored substance that you got from the machine when someone pulled a lever; I’m sure it was delicious, but that was not a daiquiri. A daiquiri could not be simpler. It’s the first cocktail invented outside of the United States. Made …

Transcript You’ll find in most cocktail recipes, the sweetener ingredient is simple syrup. Simple syrup is just a mixture of sugar and water, equal parts; 1 part water to 1 part sugar. It’s extremely easy to make. It keeps for almost up to a month. You can store it in your fridge. It’s also good …

Transcript Let’s talk about how to shake a cocktail. You probably have an idea of how, you know, just going back and forth and you’re just chilling the ice. There actually is some techniques that are a good idea to master. I’ve already built my cocktail in here. Now, this is a two piece tin. …

Transcript I’m going to show you how to make a drink that’s about as classic as classic can get, the Manhattan. Manhattan dates back to about the 1860’s a long time ago when it was invented; when vermouth came over from Europe to America and then American’s being the cocktail innovators that they were, decided …

Transcript We all know and love a margarita. If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably had your fair share. If you have, you’re probably noticed that margaritas can vary from incredible to ‘ugh’. I’m going to show you how to make one of those incredibly fresh and delicious margaritas. There are 3 key steps you …

Transcript We all wish that we can be in Bermuda all the time. But for most of us it’s just not possible. However, it is possible to drink like we’re in Bermuda and to do that you want to be drinking a Dark and Stormy. Really simple to make, it follows the basic principles of …

Transcript Your probably very well acquainted with the Mint Julep if you’ve ever been to a Kentucky Derby party, and if you’ve been to more than one Kentucky Derby party, you’ve probably noticed that those Mint Juleps tend to vary quite a great deal in terms of quality. I’m going to show you how to …

Transcript I’m going to show you how to make one of the best, most versatile, and most delicious ingredients for cocktails, ginger syrup. It’s not nearly as hard as you think. So we’re going to take a nice, big piece of ginger. I’m not even going to use all of it, just half of it …

Transcript One of the most important steps to making great cocktails is using fresh juice. That plastic lime stuff that you get at the supermarket, you don’t want that, it’s full of preservatives and it tastes totally different. Fresh is so much better. Just like it is when cooking regular food; fresh equals better. We’re …

Transcript The classic Brazilian drink the Caipirinha has a lot in common with the Daiquiri. It has pretty much all the same ingredients, it’s just mainly the methodology that’s different. So here’s how it differs. Instead of juicing the lime the way we do with the Daiquiri, we’re actually going to muddle the whole lime …

Transcript My friend likes to say that if we all were honest with ourselves and actually drank what we really wanted, we’d be drinking strawberry daiquiris all the time. It might be true. So let’s learn how to make one. All this really is, is adding a strawberry to your daiquiri. You just going to …