Cocktails

Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails was my first cocktail book, and I’ve poured over it a dozen times to try to internalize the core concepts. Where I struggled, though, was that it felt as if I needed the right brand of a given liquor, which meant getting 20-30 different bottles to be able to make the drinks I was after. Instead, I wanted to be able to take what was in my cabinet, riff something together, and understand what I was doing.

The book Cocktail Codex: Fundamentals, Formulas, Evolutions by the same authors took me across the line and helped me begin my journey towards exactly that. It’s arguably my favorite cocktail book, to the extent that I’ve gifted copies of it to fellow cocktail enthusiasts.

Leaning on the Cocktail Codex model of categorization, I’ve created an inventory starting with the core templates. Branching off from these are variants, all of which are connected in the Relationship Visualization section in the sidebar. As this inventory expands, I may have some without relationships, though they can still be found in the full index of recipes below.

Core Templates

The Daiquiri

Defining characteristics: Sweetener | Lime Juice | Rum
Tasting notes: Sharp, bright, slightly viscous mouthfeel

The Flip

Defining characteristics: Spice | Egg | Sherry
Tasting notes: Rich, creamy / velvety, sweet, with a dense frothy head
Personal notes: As someone who can’t have egg, I miss out on a lot of the mouthfeel on this one, except for the one whiskey sour I got in Dublin where the bartender just made it happen by, and I quote, “shaking the fuck out of it.”

The Gin Martini

Defining characteristics: Vermouth | Bitter | Gin
Tasting notes: Bitter, smooth, slick/oily mouthfeel, herbal
Personal notes: I must confess, I don’t have much love of gin, so the traditional martini gets away from me knowledge-wise.

The Old Fashioned

Defining characteristics: Sweetener | Bitters | Bourbon
Tasting notes: Sweet, spirit-forward, carmel-like stickiness

The Sidecar

Defining characteristics: Sweetener | Lemon Juice | Curaçao | Cognac
Tasting notes: Tart / sour, dry, oaky, citrus

The Whiskey Highball

Defining characteristics: Seltzer | Whiskey
Tasting notes: Spirit-forward, crisp, effervescent

The Collection

The below graph will take you to any of the recipes directly, as well as show you the relationships across them. Go explore!