I’m getting quite used to combining apricot brandy with bourbon, cointreau, Applejack and other brown liquors, so when I see a drink calling for it with a gin or vodka, I get interested. I really believe it’s the small addition of bitters that pulls this one all together.
I use Orange bitters in this one and I love it. Try this one it goes down easy.

Here we go –

• 1 oz Gin
• ½ oz Apricot Brandy
• 3 dashes Bitters (try orange)
• Dash or 2 of Lemon Juice

Shake in shaker with cracked ice, strain into cocktail glass,, garnish with a lemon peel.

Next time you have a friend over who requests a Screwdriver or some other orange-juicy cocktail, offer them an Abbey Cocktail instead. Consider this drink as the beginning of the slow conversion of your guest into a more accepting and experimental drinker. The orange juice component will lull them into a sense of security, a bit of familiar ground. The other ingredients will kick their experience up a notch, hopefully opening up a new dimension of drinking pleasure…(cue Twilight Zone music).

Here we go –

• 2 oz Gin
• 1 oz orange juice
• 2 dashes of Angostura Bitters
• 3-4 dashes of sweet vermouth

Shake with ice in a cocktail shaker, strain into cocktail glass, garnish with a cherry.

Found in a 1949 Esquire cocktail book, this turns out to be a great drink for the cold months with short days. Like a Brandy Alexander, this is a sweet-sided, creamy drink, perfect, if you’re just having one or three. Why not, when it’s cold outside, crack out the backgammon board, put on the Dave Brubeck records, and take a dive Between Sheets?

Here we go –

• 1 oz Cognac or Brandy
• 1 oz Crème de Cacao (light or dark)
• 1 oz cream
• Dash or two of bitters
• 1 tsp sugar

Shake well with plenty of cracked ice. Strain into a martini or cocktail glass, garnish with a lemon or orange peel.

Picked this one up from a book by Beach Bum Berry who learned the recipe from Hawaiian Bartender, Harry Yee. The drink dates to around 1957. I whipped up a batch for a backyard barbeque this past summer. Ended up burning the chicken, but thanks to this drink, my guests loved it. One of those drinks you really should be sitting down and buckled up to enjoy.

Here we go –

• 8 oz passion fruit juice
• 1 ½ Bacardi 151 Rum
• ½ oz Orange Curacao
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• 1 oz dark Rum
• 1 oz Bourbon

Fill a large glass or Tiki Mug with crushed ice, add all the ingredients and stir well. Garnish with pineapple, mint (add an orchid and a wooden back-scratcher if handy).

You all know that on this site, Mr. Booze leans heavily towards seasonal drinks and drinking.   There’s a time and place for many cocktails, and this one’s absolutely a cool- weather drink. I flipped upon it in a 1912 recipe book, and she drinks wonderfully. It calls for a flannel shirt and the promise of a steaming bowl of chili after.

Here we go –

• 3 oz Applejack
• 3-4 dashes Angostura bitters
• Apple Cider

Fill tall glass or mug with ice, add Applejack and bitters and stir, then fill glass with Apple Cider.

This is a nice drink to mix up in a cocktail pitcher and serve to just a few close friends over for dinner. It’s an intimate drink that, for some reason, doesn’t mix well with larger parties or a night of heavy boozing. I think it’s the cognac. The spirit demands too much attention to just swallow on down with a handful of nuts. It goes better with candlelight, jazz and old friends.

Here we go –

• 1 ½ oz Cognac or Brandy
• ½ oz Curacao
• ½ oz pineapple juice
• couple dashes bitters

Mix above ingredients with ice in mixing glass or glass cocktail pitcher. Strain into cocktail glass.

Not a huge fan of the sweet, but the gin & bitters in this drink peck hard enough to make its taste worth your while plus, it does have the “ooooh, pretty” factor of being blue and all. Not part of the 90’s tartini craze and the newer version, this drink has some decades in its nest. I found it in an old bar bible.

Here we go –

• 3 oz Gin
• ½ tsp. Blue Curacao
• 4 dashes Angostura Bitters

Shake ingredients softly but long enough to really get the cold going in a nice shaker, strain into a cocktail glass with a lemon peel or Maraschino cherry on the lip of the glass. (Don’t shoot me, but they even make blue Maraschino cherries if you want to make some sort of statement).

I’ll just go ahead and warn you, this classic American cocktail requires a little bit of building, so if you think you and your guest may want a second or fourth, I suggest the pitcher. Just multiply my recipe by 8 and you should be all set. They’re delicious and make the summer a little less hot.

Here we go –

• 3 oz Rum
• 3 tablespoons Limejuice
• 2 tablespoons powdered or confection sugar
• 3 dashes Bitters
• Club Soda

In a separate glass mix sugar and limejuice ‘til sugar’s dissolved.

Fill a hi-ball glass 2/3rds of the way with crushed ice add the lime/sugar mix, rum and bitters and stir. Fill the rest of the glass up with club soda, stir lightly to mix. Dust with a little extra powdered sugar. Garnish with an orange slice, a pineapple spear and a cherry.

Yum.

I don’t need much of an excuse to enjoy Apple Jack. It’s an apple-based brandy that’s available in most liquor stores. If you don’t have a bottle, you should. Many of the old-school cocktails call for it, and besides the Jack Rose cocktail, the recipe for which you can find on this site, the Jack-In-The-Box is a fantastic, old flavored drink.

Here we go –

• 1.5 oz of Apple Jack
• ¾ oz Pineapple Juice
• 2 tablespoons Lemon Juice
• 2 Dashes Bitters

Shake with ice ‘til freezing in a shaker. Strain into a cocktail glass.

I love Rye, and really enjoy it when mixed in cocktails. Here’s another excuse to do just that. The Fox River calls for peach bitters, which, I’ll admit are a tough find. I have a bottle of Fee Brother’s Peach Bitters. Here’s a link although they are available in many liquor and gourmet stores. Feebrothers.com

This drink is a real combination of flavors, one of the hidden gems.

Here we go –

• 1.5 oz Rye Whiskey
• half an oz of Cointreau
• 4 dashes Peach Bitters

Stir above ingredients with cracked ice in a glass pitcher or large glass ‘til cold. Strain drink into cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of lemon peel.

 
Basically, a Scotch Manhattan, the Rob Roy is as classic as an argyle sweater on a grandfather. My dad will still shakily enjoy one on Thanksgiving, pre turkey.

Not everyone is a Bourbon drinker, no matter how hard I try…and the Rob Roy is a nice alternative for the Scotch drinker tired of a 12 year old glen-something, neat. Sometimes, pretentious college professors and lawyers want a cocktail too (just kidding).

Here we go – 

• 2 oz Scotch (the peatier the better)
• Half an oz of Sweet Vermouth
• Dash or two of Orange Bitters 

Shake with ice in a shaker, strain, ice-cold into a martini or cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

• You can really dress a Rob Roy up by adding a tsp. of Drambuie and a tsp of the maraschino cherry juice.