Spring Drinking Refresher: Cocktails
You Drink: A vodka tonic
Photo: albertosristorante.com
Try: A Moscow mule
Sometimes a cocktail is so much more than the sum of its parts. A Moscow mule is just vodka, ginger beer, and lime. But made right, it’s the imbibable equivalent of partying on a yacht with 50 of your favorite people. And it’s a way more original order that a vodka tonic.
You drink: An old fashioned with bourbon or rye.
Photo: Wikipedia
Try: An old fashioned with rum
Even whiskey lovers can appreciate the value of switching to rum in spring. Rum is the ultimate warm weather spirit. Ask your bartender to sub Appleton Estates 12-Year-Old Jamaican Rum or another aged rum for whiskey.
Photo: Fatty Crab
You drink: A gin martini
Try: A gin ricky
Some people consider martinis to be a year-round drink, but there’s something so indoor about them. Come spring, you might want something more fizzy, and more limey than briney. You might want a drink that allows you to say the word "ricky" while drinking al fresco with your friends. A gin ricky is nothing all that exotic, just gin, limes, and a little carbonated water to top served on the rocks in a highball glass. But it’s way more refreshing than a martini.
Photo: bebidasycocteles.com
You drink: An Irish coffee
Photo: Mycocktailconnection.com
Try: A cold coffee cocktail.
You may have experienced a bad coffee cocktail—they are legion—but I promise there is such thing as good, cold java drinks.
The (perhaps reluctant) king of coffee drinks as far as I’m concerned is Erik Hakkinen at Zig Zag. Tell him you want a coffee cocktail that’s suitable for spring and see what happens. Extra points if there is Irish Mist involved. Also, Anu Apte of Rob Roy once won a competition for a Zaya rum-based drink called the Colombia Coffee Fizz. Get her to make you that, if you can.
Good to know: If you’re in a craft cocktail bar and you order a coffee cocktail, your drink will probably not have any coffee in it. What? Well, there is a 19th century drink made of brandy, ruby port, egg, and sugar called a "coffee cocktail," so named because it looks like a cup of coffee when composed.
