EASY COCKTAIL RECIPES Archives - 1st Principles Distilleries

Pink Gin

Elmien — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 13:11:49 +0000

Pink Gin Cocktail

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Gin generally tastes and smells strongly of citrus seeing as citrus peels are frequently added to the production of gin. The majority of gins will have a zesty taste and hints of other aromatics and herbs.

Gin is said to have originated in Holland, assuming you exclude the Italian monks who are believed to have utilized juniper berries as flavourings in distilled beverages back in the 11th century.

Franciscus Sylvius, a professor of medicine who practised in the 17th century used spirits to distil juniper berries to create a cheap medication with juniper berry oil’s diuretic qualities. Hence the first creation of gin as we know it today.

One of the healthier spirits ever invented, gin is created with juniper berries, a kind of “wonder fruit.” Gin is beneficial for many reasons, including the reduced calorie content and the botanical elements that remain after distillation.

PREP TIME: ± 5min

YIELDS: 1 serving

EQUIPMENT

Cocktail glass

INGREDIENTS

1-4 drops of bitters
1 tot 1st Principles Cocktail or Classic gin
Iced water

DIRECTIONS

Shake the bitters into a cocktail glass and roll it around until the sides are well coated. Add gin, then iced water to taste.

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

Garnish with lime slices and fresh mint sprigs

Why add bitters to my gin?

According to Bitterman, bitters are to beverages what salt is to cuisine. “They serve to highlight the flavour and they contribute their own aromas; they enhance and harmonize flavours just like salt does.”

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Bloody Mary

Elmien — Sun, 27 Nov 2022 12:21:28 +0000

Bloody Mary

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Typically known to be a quick cure for having a glass of wine too many the previous night, the Bloody Mary is actually so much more. Those who prefer a salty drink over a sweet cocktail will enjoy its spicy, salty, and savoury flavours.

A Bloody Mary is a cocktail made with vodka, fresh tomato juice, and other seasonings and flavours, such as celery, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauces, salt, and black pepper.

According to some legends, a waiter at a well-known saloon bar in Chicago inspired the creation of the Bloody Mary cocktail. Others believe that it was named for England’s Queen Mary Tudor. Nobody is certain, but once the beverage gained popularity the name stuck. Whichever tale you decide to believe, the facts remain the same, the Bloody Mary cocktail is one bloody delicious blend.

PREP TIME: ± 5min

YIELDS: 1 serving

EQUIPMENT

Strainer

INGREDIENTS

2 tots 1st Principles Tomato Vodka
4 tots of Tomato juice
1/2 tot Lemon juice
1/2 tsp Bliksemstraal Worcester Sauce
Salt & Pepper to taste
Celery Stalk
Lime Wedge

DIRECTIONS

Add all ingredients besides the Celery & lime wedge to a mixing glass with ice, roll back and forth, and strain into an ice-filled glass.

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

Garnish with the celery & lime wedge.

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Dry Martini

Elmien — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 17:49:43 +0000

Dry Martini

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A dry martini tastes primarily of gin with a little splash of vermouth. If you don’t like drinking cocktails that are overly sweet, this one is for you.

INGREDIENTS

1/3 – 1/2 tot Dry Vermouth
2 tots 1st Principles Gin of Choice

PREP TIME: ± 5min

YIELDS: 1 serving

One of the most popular claims is that the drink was created at the popular Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, possibly in the late 1850s or early 1860s, by Jerry Thomas, a well-known and renowned 19th-century bartender.

The martini is a gin and vermouth-based cocktail that is typically served with an olive or a fresh lemon twist as garnish. As time has passed, the martini has become more and more popular. Unlike gin-based martinis, vodka martinis are popular versions that substitute vodka for the gin base.

The term “dry” signifies the amount of vermouth that is added to the drink, putting the emphasis mostly on the gin. A dry martini will have very little vermouth. A very dry martini will have only a slight dash of vermouth.

DIRECTIONS

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass with ice, stir well and strain into a chilled martini glass.

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

Garnish with an olive or lemon peel.

TIP!

For a sweeter Dry martini, see Honeybush Martini. Squeeze the oil from the lemon peel onto the drink.

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Caipirinha Cocktail

Elmien — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 04:36:01 +0000

Caipirinha Cocktail

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Caipirinha (pronounced kai-purr-REEN-yah) is a traditional Brazilian cocktail that is made with cachaça, sugar and lime.

Did you know that the Caipirinha is the national cocktail of Brazil – who said that couldn’t be a thing? Fresh and bright, it’s known for its sweet lime taste and sugary punch. It’s also synonymous with Portuguese festivals like Lusito Landheld every Easter in Johannesburg.

If you’d like to know how to make the perfect caipirinha blend at home, follow our simple recipe.

PREP TIME: ± 5min

YIELDS: 1 serving

EQUIPMENT

Muddler (or wooden spoon)

INGREDIENTS

½ lime cut into 4 wedges
2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 tots (50ml) of cachaça (distilled spirit from sugarcane juice)
1 cup of ice
Garnish: lime wheel

DIRECTIONS

Place the lime and sugar into an old fashioned glass and muddle (gently bruise) the ingredients.

Now fill the glass with crushed ice, add the cachaça and stir briefly.

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

Garnish with a lime wheel over the glass edge.

TIP!

Substitute the cachaça with rum or 1st Principles Organic Vodka for a unique taste.

The Caipirinha is best enjoyed while listening to David Carreira or an Ana Moura classic.

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Negroni Cocktail

Elmien — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 12:42:14 +0000

Negroni Cocktail

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Negroni is an Italian cocktail made of Vermouth, Campari and gin, and garnished with an orange peel.

PREP TIME: ± 5min

YIELDS: 1 serving

INGREDIENTS

1 tot (25ml) 1st Principles Classic / Cocktail Gin
1 tot Campari
1 tot Sweet Vermouth
orange peel
1 cup of ice

DIRECTIONS

Pour the gin, Vermouth and Campari into an old-fashioned glass filled with ice.

Stir gently and serve chilled.

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

Garnish with ½ orange slice or peel in true Italian style.

TIP!

You can also achieve a variety of flavours by adding different elements when making your Negroni. You can add interesting bitters such as cinnamon or maple for a stronger spicier cocktail. Other variations include the Orange, White and Mezcal Negroni.

For a more classic approach, you can simplify your Negroni by using other citrus fruits such as kumquat, a sprig of rosemary or add a gentle fizz by adding 30 ml of sparkling wine.

1st Principles offers a variety of unique handcrafted gins perfectly attuned to turn your Negroni into a memorable affair!

The Negroni is a fashionable cafe favourite that has taken the world by storm. Hailing from 1920s Italy, the stylish cocktail is a light and easy to drink aperitif with a distinctive red colour. It is made from equal parts of three simple ingredients, meaning it is easy to prepare and just as easy to customise according to your preference.

A key element of the Negroni cocktail is gin which is used as the base for the drink. Gin is the most full flavoured of all clear spirits and is distilled from mixed grains and infused with a variety of flavours, and as such, it has a distinctive taste that comes from traditional botanicals such as juniper berries, citrus peel, and coriander.

Modern day distillers make use of more complex botanicals such as Rooibos and Honeybush, or what is available in a particular region, and produces a variety of new flavours and creative tastes to infuse local crafted gins and to give your Negroni cocktail extra flair, ideal for the warmer summer months.

Let’s take a look at some of the different key elements when making a Negroni.

Negronis work best with mild gin, or for a more intense taste use botanical varieties of gin. Campari possesses bitter notes, but if you dislike the flavour consider Cynar, Cardamaro or Aperol. The vermouth gives the cocktail a sweet and rounded edge which you exchange for a fortified wine such as sherry or port.

But exactly how do you make a Negroni? For a start, you will need the following ingredients:

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Black Russian Cocktail

Elmien — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 11:31:05 +0000

Black Russian Cocktail

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Black Russian is a simple cocktail that combines vodka and coffee liqueur for a decadent after-dinner drink.

PREP TIME: ± 3min

YIELDS: 1 serving

INGREDIENTS

2 tots (50ml) 1st Principles Organic Vodka
1 tot (25ml) coffee liqueur
1 cup of ice
Garnish: Maraschino cherry

DIRECTIONS

Add the vodka and liqueur into a mixing glass with ice and stir until chilled.

Strain into a rocks glass over ice.

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

Add a Maraschino cherry for flair.

Some other interesting variations of the Black Russian include:

Dirty Black Russian / Tall Black Russian / Australian Black Russian / Colorado Bulldog: Served in a highball glass and topped with cola.
Black Magic: Served with a dash of lemon juice and a lemon twist to garnish.
Irish Russian or Smooth Black Russian: Served with a head of Guinness.
Mind Eraser: Served with coffee liqueur and sparkling water.
Brown Russian: Served in a highball glass and topped with ginger ale.

The Black Russian cocktail has a fascinating history. It was invented in 1949 at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels by Belgian barman Gustave Tops. Tops created the drink to salute the achievements of his regular patron Perle Mesta, then United States Ambassador to Luxembourg.

Mesta was the inspiration for Sally Adams, the lead character in Irving Berlin’s Call Me Madam when the show opened on Broadway in 1950. President Harry Truman played the piano at one of her parties, while General Dwight Eisenhower apparently sang “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes” at another. There’s no record of what she was serving at these parties, but the Black Russian must have been a strong contender (pun intended)!

The Black Russian cocktail owes its name to the use of vodka, a Russian spirit, and the blackness of coffee liqueur, a combination which appeared in 1949 at the start of the Cold War. Creating a mysterious dark drink by mixing it with a Russian spirit was appropriate to the times.

It’s not clear who decided to add milk or cream to turn it into a White Russian, the drink immortalised in 1998 when Jeff Bridges, aka The Dude in The Big Lebowski, chugged down eight of them during the movie.

In 1974, when Baileys Irish Cream was launched, yet another bright spark decided to use it as a substitute for the dairy cream in a White Russian, and I am willing to bet that Tops could not have foreseen what he started in 1949.

So how does one make the mysterious Black Russian cocktail? Follow our delicious recipe.

TIP!

For further reading, interesting stories and more creative cocktail recipes, take a look at 1st Principles’ comprehensive list of cocktail recipes.

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Tequila Sunrise Cocktail

Elmien — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 06:04:14 +0000

Tequila Sunrise Cocktail

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Tequila Sunrise is served unmixed on the rocks by first blending Tequila and orange juice, and then pouring grenadine syrup on top.

Fresh and fruity, the Tequila Sunrise dates back to the 1930s when Gene Sulit of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel first combined Tequila, soda water, lime juice and liqueur. Later perfected in Sausalito, California, this citrusy ombre cocktail’s gradation in colour resembles a sunrise with the bottom red seemingly disappearing into the yellow sunrise over the horizon.

Make your own Tequila Sunrise cocktail complete with its signature red sunrise effect by following our easy recipe.

PREP TIME: ± 5min

YIELDS: 1 serving

INGREDIENTS

3 tots (75ml) Tequila (we recommend Leonista)
6 tots (150ml) orange juice
1 tot (25ml) grenadine syrup
1 cup of ice
Garnish: cherry and orange slice

DIRECTIONS

Pour the orange juice and Tequila in a glass over ice.

Add the grenadine cocktail syrup. (Do not mix the syrup with the rest of the blend as this will spoil the sunrise look.)

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

Garnish with a cherry and slice of orange.

TIP!

Tequila is an acquired taste. For a more delicate alternative, substitute the Tequila with 1st Principles Organic Vodka.

Make sure you keep the doctor at bay and boost your vitamin C levels with a Tequila Sunrise enjoyed responsibly.

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Manhattan Cocktail

Elmien — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 11:39:10 +0000

Manhattan Cocktail

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Manhattan is a strong cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth and bitters for a multi-dimensional taste with little sweetness.

The Manhattan cocktail was one of the first cocktails to combine rye with vermouth. Once considered the most masculine of drinks, the boozy New York cocktail appeals to a wider audience today. It has enjoyed a welcome revival thanks to a renewed focus on handcrafted spirits and other creative ideas from craft spirit enthusiasts.

It is said that the drink originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the mid-1870s, where it was invented by Iain Marshall for a banquet hosted by Lady Randolph Churchill, mother of Winston. The success of the banquet made the drink fashionable with several people requesting the drink by referring to the name of the club where it originated. Rumour has it that Lady Randolph was pregnant and in France at the time, so this story might be questionable at best.

While rye is the traditional choice, other whiskies include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey and Tennessee whiskey. The cocktail is usually stirred, then strained into a cocktail glass, and traditionally garnished with a maraschino cherry. The drink can also be served on the rocks in a lowball glass.

How do you make a Manhattan cocktail? Follow this easy recipe.

PREP TIME: ± 5min

YIELDS: 1 serving

INGREDIENTS

2 tots (50ml) bourbon – SA substitute is Bain’s Single Grain Whisky
1 tot (25ml) sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
1 dash 1st Principles Naval Bitters
1 cup of ice
Garnish: brandied cherry

DIRECTIONS

Add the bourbon, sweet vermouth and bitters all into a mixing glass with ice.

Stir until it’s well chilled. Strain the mixture into a chilled coupe/martini glass.

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

Garnish with the cherry and enjoy.

Nowadays Manhattans are made with nearly any spirit on the market. Some work better than others of course, but if you have a favourite spirit, try giving it one of the following variations:

Tequila Manhattan: Combine the tequila, vermouth and bitters. Add ice cubes and stir until chilled. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a cherry and serve.
Cuban Manhattan: Combine the rum, vermouth, and bitters. Add ice cubes and stir until chilled. Strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with an orange twist and serve.
Brandy Manhattan: Combine the Brandy, vermouth, juice, and butters. At ice cubes and stir until chilled. Place a cherry into a martini glass. Strained over the mixture. Topped with lemon and serve.

TIP!

For further reading, interesting stories and more creative cocktail recipes, take a look at 1st Principles’ comprehensive list of cocktail recipes.

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Whisky Sour Cocktail

Elmien — Sun, 14 Nov 2021 07:52:23 +0000

Whisky Sour Cocktail

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Whisky Sours is a sour cocktail mix that perfectly balances the bitter flavour of lemon with sugar for a less sweet alternative.

Blending whisky, lemon juice and syrup, the Whisky Sour is all about flavour balance. What started out as a popular drink among sailors in the 1800s has since become a sophisticated drink and less-sweet alternative.

The citrus flavor perfectly complements the whisky, making for a great drink to enjoy as you unwind after a long day. You can also substitute the simple syrup with a packet of natural sweetener for a low-sugar, low-calorie Whisky Sour cocktail.

Make your own Whisky Sour cocktail and get the balance just right by following this easy recipe.

PREP TIME: ± 5min

YIELDS: 1 serving

EQUIPMENT

Shaker
Strainer

INGREDIENTS

2 tots (50ml) whisky
1 tot (25ml) fresh lemon juice
1 tot simple syrup
1 cup ice
Garnish: orange wheel and Maraschino cherry

DIRECTIONS

Add your favourite whiskey to a cocktail mixer.

Fill the shaker with a handful of ice and add the fresh lemon juice and simply syrup.

Shake and strain the mix into an old fashioned glass over ice.

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

For the final touch, garnish your drink with the orange wheel and cherry.

TIP!

Transform your Whisky Sour into a Boston Sour by adding a dash of egg white or cocktails foamer.

When life gives you lemons, make whiskey sours.

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Cosmopolitan Cocktail

Elmien — Sat, 13 Nov 2021 11:21:38 +0000

COSMOPOLITAN COCKTAIL

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Cosmopolitan is a sweet-and-sour cocktail made with vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and freshly squeezed or sweetened lime juice.

The Cosmopolitan or Cosmo, was first served in the 1970s. However, it wasn’t until the TV show Sex and The Cityfeatured the cocktail in the 1990s that the Cosmo entered the global lexicon. Love it or loathe it, this easy to drink and vibrant mixture appeals to fans of smooth and sweet cocktails. The classic is the perfect choice for craft reinvention.

The key ingredient of the Cosmopolitan is vodka. Ideally balanced, vodka is a clean spirit with subtle characteristics ranging from herbal and grassy, to sweet and spicy. Originally made in Poland and Russia and produced from grains or potatoes, new conventions are turning the spirit on its head by distilling grapes, honey, whey and many more. It provides a blank canvas for experimentation with infusions and a variety of cocktails.

A true Cosmo must feature sweet notes, but mixologists often introduce a spicy or sour component or natural fruit flavouring to the mix. Variations such as the Sour Apple Cosmo, the Creamy Peach Cosmo and the Spicy Pineapple Cosmo offer a variety of fruity alternatives, irresistible delights for Cosmopolitan drinkers.

Let’s take a look at some of the different key elements when making a Cosmopolitan.

The Cosmopolitan is a layered cocktail comprising vodka, triple sec, cranberry juice and fresh lime juice. Ideally opt for a craft vodka which packs flavour along with a punch and is a great base for many flavour moods as it mixes well with orange, berry, lemon and lime juices, and even Ginger Beer.

But let’s look at how exactly you make a Cosmopolitan? Follow our easy cocktail recipe to make your own.

PREP TIME: ± 5min

YIELDS: 1 serving

EQUIPMENT

Shaker

INGREDIENTS

2 tots (50ml) 1st Principles Organic Vodka
1 tot (25ml) triple sec
1 tot cranberry juice
1 tot fresh lime juice
1 cup of ice
Garnish: orange peel

DIRECTIONS

Add to a cocktail shaker with ice and shake until chilled.

Pour into a coupe or martini glass and garnish with an orange peel.

GARNISH SUGGESTIONS

Place a delicate orange peel in the cocktail glass.

TIP!

You can also make your Cosmopolitan in a way that produces diverse flavours and tastes by adding different elements. For example, you may wish to add a few dashes of bitters. These range of flavour from lightly botanical to strong and bold. Traditional Cosmo’s often feature artificial colours and flavourings. Go the craft route by choosing new garnishes such as dehydrated lime powder or frozen cranberries for a more modern flair.

1st Principles offers a variety of unique handcrafted vodkas perfectly attuned to turn your Cosmopolitan into a memorable affair!

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