6 bloody lovely lesser-known cocktails
The sheer volume of cocktail recipes out there is staggering. From the classics through to the modern day, it’s easy to feel like you’re drowning in a viscous liquid of tinctures, freeze-dried fruits and infused spirits.
Somewhere beneath the enduring popularity of old classics like Martinis and Manhattans lie a whole bunch of cocktail recipes that are yet to be discovered. They range from forgotten gems of the 1800s, precursors to drinks you’ve definitely heard of, as well as modern classics which (for some reason) haven’t gained the universal popularity of their contemporaries.
They probably didn’t post enough reels or something.
In the interests of giving all drinks an equal opportunity, I have taken it upon myself to try out a whole host of random recipes that I’ve encountered over the years, and would encourage you to do the same with these 6 lesser-known cocktails from the depths of human creativity.
It’s worth noting that I am an un-fussy drinker, and I’m usually put off by a drink if it has more than four ingredients. When I’m at home, I don’t want to be fannying around making reductions or spending money on bizarre products, so I try to keep it simple.
With that in mind, you’ll be pleased to know that all of these drinks can be made with easily accessible ingredients and home bar staples, many of which you probably already have.
Gold Rush
Sasha Petraske’s legendary speakeasy spot ‘Milk & Honey’ in New York has come up with its fair share of modern classics, including this incredibly tasty whiskey cocktail which, if a gun was put to my balls, I would say is my favourite drink on this list.
However, the Gold Rush tends to fall into the shadows behind its more famous alternative, the Penicillin. Whilst that is also an incredible drink, I feel like the Gold Rush offers a slightly cleaner flavour and deserves to be in everyone’s cocktail arsenal.
This is the perfect opportunity for me to state that I love honey syrup. It gives cocktails a beautiful golden hue and a delicate froth when shaken, and it tastes bloody sublime. If you’re starting to plateau on your road to cocktail making, start substituting sugar syrup for honey syrup in your recipes.
The Gold Rush is everything I could want in a drink. It’s balanced, beautiful and straightforward. I’ve made this drink for a number of guests at my house and could put money on them loving it every time.
The original recipe calls for bourbon, which isn’t my favourite, so use any blended whiskey you like. I tend to reach for Johnnie Walker Red Label.
50ml Whisky
20ml Lemon Juice
20ml Honey syrup (3 parts honey to one part hot water from the kettle, dissolved and bottled)Shake ingredients with ice and strain into an ice-filled tumbler.
Similar to: a Whiskey Sour without the need to faff around cracking eggs.
Caipirovska
This is a refreshing summer drink made in the style of a Caipirinha, the national drink of Brazil.
The original Caipirinha recipe calls for a spirit called Cachaça, made from fermented sugarcane, which you can find online or in specialist liquor stores. However, aside from that drink, I haven’t really found another cocktail that it’s useful for.
Thankfully, there are some slightly more accessible variations of this drink using base spirits. The Caipirovska uses vodka, or there is also a Caipirissima which uses rum and is great fun to pronounce.
The nice thing about all of these aforementioned drinks is that they’re proper party cocktails. You get to show off by muddling ingredients (of which there are only 3) and you don’t even need to strain it. Just shake it all up and chuck it into a tumbler. It’s a good time in a glass.
1 lime, chopped into wedges
50ml Vodka (or rum, for a Caipirissima)
10ml sugar syrup (2 parts white sugar to one part hot water from the kettle, dissolved and bottled)
Muddle the lime wedges and sugar syrup in a shaker, using a muddler, bar spoon, rolling pin or any other suitable object. Add vodka, shake to buggery with ice and pour everything into a tumbler without straining.
Similar to: a Caipirinha, obviously, which is somewhere between a Daquiri and a Mojito.
Gin Cocktail
Let’s go back in time to the early 1800’s, shall we?
There’s a few cocktails from this period of history involving gin and bitters, such as the Gin Pahit, Pink Gin, and this: the infamous ‘Gin Cocktail’. To have a name as unimaginative as that, it has to have been around for a long time.
Whereas the Gin Pahit (it’s pronounced ‘fight’, by the way, don’t ask me why) and Pink Gin were concocted by sailors who were rationed gin and bitters for long voyages, the Gin Cocktail is the slightly more upmarket version. They reckon it’s been around since 1824, the same year that Angostura bitters were invented, which doesn’t mean anything as they’re not even used in this recipe.
This is a drink with a kick, so exercise caution. Also, be very frugal with the sugar syrup or it verges on being too sweet - I’m of the mind to omit the sugar syrup completely, but I’m clearly a renegade.
50ml Gin
10ml Orange Curaçao (I use Cointreau)
1 barspoon sugar syrup
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lemon peel.
Similar to: a Martini with added fruitiness and a rich colour.
Wash House
If you spend too long on Instagram like I do, you’ll eventually come across cocktail recipes that border on the clinically insane, desperate ploys for views which combine all sorts of completely batshit flavour combinations to create mixology monstrosities.
You should not take these things seriously. They’re not made by people who like drinking, they’re made by people who get off on the algorithms, which is a shame because loads of people seem to watch them.
The two oddest reels I saw involved Espresso Martinis - a lovely drink in its own right, though one person would have me believe that I could make it out of used coffee grounds. The end result looked like day-old dishwater and probably tasted like it came out of a drain.
Another guy made a perfectly good looking cocktail, then proceeded to grate parmesan on top. All the while, he’s maniacally trying to persuade us that ‘it’s actually really good’ and ‘you’ll be surprised’, buzzword-this and verbal clickbait-that.
I don’t need to wear leather underpants in summer to know that they’re probably not that comfortable, just like I don’t need to grate a bunch of cheese on my drink to know that it’ll taste like someone’s scraped a bunch of callouses from their feet onto my cocktail.
If you want to mix things up a bit, do so with class, like this next drink on my legless list of lesser known drinks: the Wash House.
The use of basil in a drink is just enough of an unexpected ingredient to make someone prick their ears, but not too far beyond the realms of taste that it makes them run a mile. This recipe was a pleasant discovery; it smells great, tastes wonderful and is easy to make at home.
Quick note on using basil, or any other leafy herbs in your drinks: don’t go mad with the muddler. If you mash it too hard it’ll release chlorophyll into the drink, turn a horrible shade of brown and taste bitter. A couple of gentle presses with the muddler will do.
4 fresh basil leaves
50ml Vodka
10ml fresh lime juice
10ml sugar syrup
Gently muddle your basil leaves in the base of a shaker. Add the rest of the ingredients, shake with ice, and fine strain into a Martini glass. Garnish with a basil leaf, tentatively spanked to release its aroma.
Similar to: a Mojito without tasting like a night at All Bar One.
Canchànchara
I almost had an aneurysm trying to read the name of this cocktail when I first found it, which is pronounced can-CHAN-cha-ra (at least, that’s how everyone else says it).
Historically, this is the predecessor to every bartender’s favourite drink, the Daiquiri. Supposedly drunk by Cuban revolutionaries in the Ten Years War (three guesses as to how long that went on for), it’s a simple combination of rum, lime and honey which come together to make something spectacular.
There’s a ridiculous amount of rum available out there. I quite like it with an aged rum like Havana Club (which is also very affordable), but try it with whatever rum you like drinking and I’m sure it’ll still be lush.
Like any drink with minimal ingredients, the success of your Canchànchara lies in the balance between the sweetness of the honey and sourness of lime, so pay attention to your measurements and use loads of ice when shaking. Similar to the Caipirovska, you can totally just dump it all into a glass without straining. The Cubans didn’t even use ice.
50ml Rum
15ml lime juice
20ml honey syrup
Pour all ingredients into a shaker and shake with ice. Strain (or don’t) into a tumbler filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge. Viva la revolución!
Similar to: a classic Daiquiri, which was invented about 30 years later.
Estilo Viejo
Tequila!
‘Estilo Viejo’ is Spanish for ‘Old Style’, which may give you a clue as to the influence behind this one.
During the Covid lockdown, I was turned onto Tequila by my friends at London’s Henrietta Hotel, who were running online tastings to help us all cope - god bless. Before then, my experience with it was pretty much the same as everyone else’s: it reminded me of being blackout-drunk at University, the cause of many poor decisions and even worse headaches.
But oh, how my eyes were opened. Good Tequila, i.e. not the kind which is so unpalatable that you have to bookend it with salt and lime, is a truly beautiful thing, and it became one of my favourite drinks to use in cocktails like the Tommy’s Margarita and Paloma.
Reposado is a style of Tequila which is aged, giving it a light bronze colour, which stands up very well in mixed drinks by adding a slightly more complex flavour than Bianco. Añejo, meanwhile, is the mac daddy, aged from 1-3 years and is best enjoyed neat.
Well, that’s what I thought, until I listened to the words of Julio Bermejo, head bartender at Tommy’s Bar, and then stumbled upon this drink, the Estilo Viejo. This is a truly outstanding late-night sip for Tequila lovers, heightening the flavours of your chosen spirit regardless of its age or expense.
75ml Reposado or Añejo Tequila
15ml Agave syrup
3 dashes Angostura bitters
Stir half of the Tequila in a rocks glass with some ice cubes. Add the rest of the ingredients and Tequila and stir until cold, adding more ice as you go. Garnish with a slice of lime.
Similar to: an Old Fashioned with Tequila. Get in me.
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There we have it, the results of about 3 years flipping through the pages of Difford’s Guide and stumbling upon some lesser-known but incredibly tasty drinks.
However, I’m not done yet. If you’ve made it this far and have any other obscure cocktails you think I should try, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to contact me and send over your suggestions!
