Many of us aren’t used to working from home or staying indoors for long periods of time. If you have the luxury of quarantining yourself inside your home, first of all, be grateful. Second, make a cocktail. Because no one wants to get through quarantine completely sober.
These are a few classic cocktail recipes that are easy to make at home. You probably have some of these liquor bottles already on your shelves from that manic Target trip you had over the weekend.
Martini
Standard Recipe: 2 1/2 oz gin, 1/2 oz dry vermouth, 1 dash of orange bitters, garnish with a lemon twist
This might seem like a no-brainer, but there are actually about a million ways to make a martini, and your mom probably enjoys hers differently than you do. The classic martini is made with gin, but you can swap for vodka. Next up is a good dry vermouth, and then the question of shaken or stirred. We recommend stirring, as shaking can often damage the liquor you’ve just poured. Add some bitters, then decide if you’d like lemons or olives to top off your drink. Why not make one of each? You have all the time in the world.
Margarita
Standard Recipe: 3 oz tequila, 2 oz lime juice, 1 oz simple syrup (optional), 1/2 – 1 tsp orange liqueur, 2 tbs kosher salt and/or sugar (for the rim), garnish with a lime
If you don’t know how to make a margarita, there’s no better time to start. This is kind of a quintessential drink to know, perfect for parties, beach days, and self-quarantines alike! First, rub the rim of your glass with lime juice so that the salt or sugar sticks to it. Then it’s time to add the other ingredients. Shake up your other ingredients in a separate glass and then pour them into your glass when ready.
Mojito
Standard Recipe: 6 oz light rum, 12 mint springs or spearmint, 6 tbs lime juice, 4 tbs sugar, club soda, garnish with lime slices
This one is really easy—unless you’re going the frozen route, in which case you have to pick up a blender. All you have to do is toss your ingredients into a glass, shake it up really good, and pour into your glass. Then garnish with some lime slices. Easy peasy, Mojito squeezy.
Manhattan
Standard Recipe: 2 oz whiskey, 1 oz sweet vermouth, 1 – 2 dashes of bitters, moisten the rim with an orange peel and garnish with cherries
Our train of M cocktails comes to an end with the classic Manhattan, another relatively easy cocktail recipe to procure. Shake up the liquor and bitters and pour it into the recommended glass shape, pictured above. The orange peel is really only to get the flavor on the rim of your glass, but no one is stopping you from plopping it into the drink along with some cherries.
Daiquiri
Standard Recipe: 2 oz light rum, 1 oz lime juice, 3/4 oz sugar syrup, garnish with a lime twist
This one tends to get a bad rep. What was once a glorious drink to have in hand has since been subdued to a sugary menace that induces a splitting hangover. Daiquiris are shaken and then garnished with a lime twist. Or just a wedge if you aren’t that fancy.
Long Island Iced Tea
Standard Recipe: 1 oz vodka, 1 oz gin, 1 oz white rum, 1 oz white tequila, 1/2 oz triple sec, 2 tbs lemon juice, garnish with lemon wedges
A hangover waiting to happen, this is not for the faint of heart and everybody knows it. Though not the prettiest of drinks, just one of these hard iced teas will have you stumbling, two will have you dancing on bar tables, and three… if you know, you know. Shake your ingredients, water it down with a half-cup of Coca Cola, or brave the full force of your Long Island Iced Tea.
Whiskey Sour
Standard Recipe: 2 oz bourbon or whiskey, 3/4 oz lemon juice, 1/2 oz simple syrup, 1/2 egg white (optional), garnish with bitters, cherry, and lemon wedge
This one is a personal favorite, and an easy cocktail recipe to learn. Crack an egg, even though they’re running out of ’em at the grocery stores, and learn this blended cocktail in a flash. Shake up all those ingredients and top your whiskey sour off with a dash of bitters. Garnish with cherry or lemon slices as you wish.
Bloody Mary
Standard Recipe: 2 oz vodka, 4 oz tomato juice, 2 dashes of Tabasco sauce, 2 tsp of horseradish, 2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce, 1 pinch of celery salt, 1 pinch of ground black pepper, 1 pinch of smoked paprika, garnish options: lime wedge, green olives, parsley sprig, celery stalk, shrimp, a cheeseburger, bacon, a shishkabob, you name it!
Okay, so when we said ‘easy,’ we meant relative to how badly you want to drink any of these cocktails. The Bloody Mary is sought after by almost everyone, so it’s safe to say you kinda have to learn how to make one, even if it’s not necessarily an easy cocktail recipe. The best part is, once you’ve made it, you can garnish it with just about anything. It’s not as complicated as you think to put everything together. We recommend following these simple steps for the perfect Bloody Mary.
Moscow Mule
Standard Recipe: 2 oz vodka, 3 oz ginger beer, half a lime, garnish with a lime wheel
That’s it? That’s it. There’s that mug we all know and love, that shiny copper, almost rose-gold glow from the vessel that holds our beloved Moscow Mules. And now you know how little is in them. Congrats, you’re a cheap date.
At UrbanMatter, U Matter. And we think this matters.
Tell us what you think matters in your neighborhood and what we should write about next in the comments below!
Read More
Leave a comment