Jesus, I haven’t done one of these in a while! Previously, this series died because I was living with my parents and this series was a way to vicariously pretend I was hip and urban. Now that I am urban and… hip, we are restarting it as a way to remind us all that someday we will be able to afford more than PBR.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 ounces gin
5 ounces ginger ale
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
Lemon peel, to garnish
Directions
Build the ingredients in a highball glass over ice. Stir and garnish with a lemon peel.
A highball is one of the simplest drinks you can make. Its basic ingredients are a spirit and a nonalcoholic mixer over ice. You can garnish it or add a splash of flavoring (like the bitters that this drink uses). You have probably already mixed a highball before in a red plastic cup and don’t even know it. Jack and Cokes, gin and tonics, one unfortunate night junior year when all that was left was Jose Cuervo and Crystal Light – all of these are highballs.
Thought it is more of a summer drink, the bitters and the softness of the ginger ale rounds it enough to keep it from being too “refreshing” when it is 30 degrees out. Try one or five and have a happy Halloween!
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons superfine sugar
1 1/2 ounces (1 jigger) gin
club soda or seltzer water
1 lemon slice for garnish
Directions:
In a tall glass stir together the lemon juice and the sugar until the sugar is dissolved, add the gin and enough ice cubes to fill the glass, and stir the drink well. Top off the drink with the club soda or the seltzer water, stir it well, and garnish it with the lemon slice.
Superfine sugar can be made by running regular sugar through a blender. Instead of superfine sugar, you can use simple syrup (boil 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar).
The kind of glass used in this drink (and pictured on the right) is called a Tom Collins glass and is named after the drink. The name for the drink itself comes from Old Tom Gin, which was a popular Gin brand form the middle of the 19th Century. The drink is essentially the same as a Gin Fizz but Tom Collins is a cooler name.
This is a clip from the 1995 movie Rob Rob and features a pre-Jedi Liam Neeson pwning some British guy. Go to the 7:00 mark and watch it to the end. After a few of this week’s cocktails, you will be ready to do that. Making a Rob Roy
Ingredients:
3 ounces Scotch whisky
1 ounce sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura bitters
5 or 6 ice cubes
Twist orange or lemon peel
Recipe:
Combine all ingredients except the peel in a mixing glass and stir gently to chill as well as dilute the drink. Strain into a cocktail glass. Twist the peel over the drink to release the oil and then drop it in. For a weaker drink, reduce the Scotch to 1 1/2 ounces and the vermouth to 1/2 ounce. In some recipes the bitters are omitted or replaced with orange bitters (editors note: Only chumps omit bitters).
This drink is very similar to a Manhattan, another classic drink, except it uses scotch whiskey instead of rye whiskey. For those curious, for a whiskey to be called scotch it has to be made in Scotland. The drink and the movie are named after Scottish folk hero Robert Roy MacGregor.
