Summer Herb Bouquet
I’ve had Aperol cocktails on the back of my mind since I was asked about them not terribly long ago. That, combined with leftover freshly-squeezed orange juice from this past weekend’s party and a curiosity to play with basil flowers as a garnish begot this. I think there’s too much Aperol in this recipe (drop it to ¾ oz, but that may require an adjustment of either the gin or the St. Germain, and I haven’t remade it yet), but it’s on the verge of being a lovely summer drink.

1½ oz Hayman’s Old Tom gin (if you don’t have Old Tom, use 1¼ oz of a plymouth-style—including Plymouth brand—gin and ¼ oz simple syrup)
½ oz fresh orange juice
½ oz St. Germain
2 dashes aromatic bitters (I used Bitter Truth, Angostura might actually be better)
2 leaves fresh basil (I used the cinnamon basil from my back yard, same for the flowers below, but I expect any variety will work, if slightly differently)

Shake all of the above on ice, double-strain (the second strainer should be mesh, not just a julep: it’s catching the herb bits) into a Collins glass filled with crushed ice, garnish with a couple of basil flowers.

Attention

As before, but this time with basil flowers as a garnish. (Guess why those were floating around…)

Old Fashioned
Jacob Briars and Sebastian Reaburn have a lot to say about the proper ways to make an Old Fashioned. This isn’t their way, it’s my way.

3 oz Rittenhouse 100 Rye
1 sugar cube
liberal dashes Angostura bitters

Drop the sugar cube in a mixing glass, soak it with Angostura bitters, add one barspoon room temperature to warm water, muddle the sugar cube into the bitters. Add the rye, fill the glass halfway with ice, and stir assertively but not aggressively for at least 90 seconds. Strain (use a julep, please) into an Old Fashioned glass with a couple of good ice cubes in it. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Toronto
I learned this at Deep Ellum (the bar in Boston with the US East Coast’s best Manhattan variation list, rather than the city in Texas for which the former is named), and I’m pretty sure what I do is closer to what I had there than Jamie Boudreau’s recipe of the same name, which has both too much sugar and too little Fernet for my palate.

3 oz Old Overholt Rye
1 oz Fernet-Branca

Stir on ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with a smacked mint leaf (I used spearmint from the back yard, but any old thing will do, the larger the leaf the better—I picked the one pictured here without light).

Margarita (1 L)
This is a shameless rip from Mr. Regan’s recipe, but it is 1.5 times the volume.
12 oz white tequila (preferably 100% agave; Cuervo actually makes a decent one, the Tradicionale)
9 oz Cointreau (or triple sec, but I only bother keeping the former around)
4.5 oz lime juice
7.5 oz filtered / bottled water

Fish House Punch (1 L)
There are various, relatively divergent, recipes for this out there in the world, and this is cobbled together from several. Apologies for the ⅓ measures: it took that to hit the right balance in 1 L. Obviously, I just eyeball it between ¼s.
500 mL dark rum (I use Gosling’s)
6 oz brandy (not really worth using cognac or armagnac here)
2⅔ oz peach brandy or crème de pêche
2⅔ oz simple syrup
3⅓ oz fresh lime juice
3⅓ oz fresh lemon juice
fill with filtered / bottled water (if there’s any space left)

Bottled Stiles (1 L)
This isn’t enormously clever, but it is something that I came up with when I first had a bottle of St-Germain. (It’s named for a street on which I’ve lived.)
300 mL gin (I use either Plymouth or Bluecoat usually)
150 mL St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
150 mL Lillet Blonde
fill to 1 L with filtered / bottled water

The Attention
(See also. Thanks to Plymouth Gin, Apothecary, and Nicholas Jarrett for introducing me to this wonderful waypoint between the Martini and the Aviation.)

2½ oz Plymouth Gin
½ oz Crème de Violette (Rothman & Winter)
½ Noilly Prat dry vermouth
½ barspoon Philly Distilling Vieux Carré
2 dashes Fee’s orange bitters

Stir on ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with either a lemon or orange twist (to taste).

The Chaplin
(For introduction to which, thanks Rodolphe.)

¾ oz Eagle Rare bourbon
¾ oz Williams & Humbert Dry Sack sherry
¾ oz Ramazzotti Amaro
⅛ oz Cointreau
2 dashes orange bitters

Stir on ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a (flamed, in this case) orange twist.

La Louisiane
(See also.)

¾ oz Old Overholt Rye
¾ oz Punt e Mes rosso vermouth
¾ oz Benedictine
1 barspoon Pernod
3 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

Stir on ice, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a (again flamed: I’m using it up and practicing) orange twist.

Blood & Sand
1½ oz Ardbeg 10 Scotch
¾ oz Cherry Heering
½ oz Cinzano rosso vermouth
½ oz fresh orange juice

Shake all ingredients on ice, strain into a cocktail glass. What the hell, flame an orange peel on it.

Dark & Stormy
2 oz Gosling’s Black Seal dark rum
~3 oz home-made ginger “beer” (no fermentation, just CO² charging)

Build in a Collins glass over ice, top with ginger beer.

Moscow Mule
(You may notice something of a pattern here. I was on the phone with my parents.)

2 oz Svedka vodka (Yeah, really. I’m trying to kill it.)
~3 oz ginger beer (as above)

Build in a Collins glass over ice, top with ginger beer.

an interlude
A glass of wine with dinner. It was opened during a cocktail party I threw a couple of days ago, so it needs to be used up.

Trinidad Sour
1 oz Angostura Bitters
1 oz Fiume Sciroppa di Orzata (If you’ve only had Fee’s Orgeat before, you’re missing out)
1 oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz Rittenhouse 100

Shake on ice, strain into a cocktail glass.

Lagavulin 16 year
1 shot. Neat.