#courvioisier

[jollybartender]

Diana

I know I did this drink back in December, but a recent search for it turned up empty. I found it on one of my Instagram posts, however, and tracked it down from there. The Diana really is a tingly and strong mint drink that is very suited to winter drinking like when I first tried it. I remember the experience well. It is all about the mint and crushed ice. The cognac float comes through as well. The whole experience is like a snow globe, which I think is the intention. Frosty on the glass, round, and very minty. I don't have white creme de menthe, but a cheap substitute (especially when cheap white creme de menthe is concerned) is peppermint schnapps. The point is that the drink can't be green.

See the recipe on my website.

[jollybartender]

Classic Cocktail

You read the name right: this is the original classic cocktail. Well, at least it purports to be classic. If you think about it, this drinks is somewhat modern. It brings together liqueurs and brandy in ways that taste familiar to brandy cocktail drinkers of the 19th century. Lemon and lemon zest keep it tart while a sugar rim means you can choose how sweet each sip will be. The look and feel of the drink are certainly classic; the crust of sugar and three parts of lemon (the juice, the wedge and the peel) reminds me of last century architecture that possesses such ornate beauty for no other reason than appearing beautiful or prestigious. That's this drinks to a tee. So I did a few unusual things with my liquor choices here. First, cognac please. You don't use ordinary brandy when you are making a classic drink. Use cognac. Next, I thought a half ounce of maraschino liqueur (which tastes like bitter marzipan) would be too intense, so I cut the proportion of it in the drink down and replaced that portion with Cherry Heering, which darkened the drink and made it sweeter with a more rich dark cherry flavor. Finally I chose Vitae orange liqueur because of its rum base. It is much closer to real Curacao, which is rum based, than cheap triple sec.

See the recipe here.

[jollybartender]

Brandy Gump

This cocktail a dry, tart drink that really shows off your brandy. I opted for cognac here, because if you are going to be drinking a lot of brandy it might as well be cognac.

Now "gump" has no meaning in terms of cocktail recipes. As far as I know, it is the only use of this term in the name of a cocktail. It does, however, mean a dim-witted person in Scottish, so there's that. With three ounces of brandy, this drink will make a gump of anyone.

3 oz. brandy (cognac please)

1/2 oz. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. grenadine

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.