Here are some great cocktail recipes from top USA Bartenders to enjoy at home or at friends and family gatherings that are sure to impress.
Disco Punch Cocktail
At Jack Rose in New Orleans’ Lower Garden District, a celebration is a vibe no matter what day or time you visit. The large format Disco Punch features vodka, fiero vermouth, pineapple, orange lime, and sparkling wine, served in a shimmery disco ball with floating flowers.
One punch bowl serves 8-12 people
Ingredients:
10 oz Mt. Gay Eclipse Rum
10 oz Bigallet China-China Liqueur
5 oz Suze Liqueur
5 oz Falernum Syrup
10 oz lime juice
15 oz pineapple juice
5 oz 1:1 simple syrup
1 bottle prosecco
Methods:
– Combine the first 7 ingredients in a punch bowl.
– Give it a good stir, then top it with a full bottle of Prosecco.
Theobrama Cacao
At the recently-opened urban cocktail retreat, Higher Ground, Bar Lab Hospitality Beverage Director Christine Wiseman creates libations to evoke the spirituality, sights, colors, and sense of wonder in Latin America’s jungles. The Theobrama Cacao is a clarified milk punch with Aberfeldy, Fino, strawberry, raspberry, and rose tea, complete with dried rose petals a personal white sage smudge meant to spiritually promote healing and wisdom. | Beverage Director: Christine Wiseman
Ingredients:
Aberfeldy
Fino Sherry
Batavia Arrak
Tempus Fugit Cacao
Bittermans Scarborough Bitters
Ango cacao bitters
Rose tea
Sage
Strawberries
Raspberries
Methods:
– Pour 3.5 oz of milk punch into a mixing glass and strain into a large snifter.
– Add a large cube and place it on a serving tray with dried roses.
– Light a piece of dried sage.
First Step:
Add 2lbs demerara to 22qt Cambro
Zest of 4 lemons (keep to juice)
Zest of 2 oranges-hand squeeze oranges into a mixture
1 cup cacao nibs
4oz fresh sage (stems and all ripped up)
3 pints raspberries
2 pints strawberries destemmed and cut
– Mash mixture up and let sit in the walk-in for 3 days.
– Mix daily.
Second Step:
30g dried roses
10g Morning After Jojo black tea
84z water to brew tea-74oz of tea water needed for mixture
– Bring to a low boil and remove from heat.
– Let steep for 30 min and strain off tea.
– 24oz fresh lemon juice-strained.
– Once cooled, add 2btls Aberfeldy, 1btl Batavia Arak, 1btl Lustau Fino and 6oz Tempus Fugit Cacao, 1oz Bittermans Scarborough Bitters, 1oz Ango Cacao bitters and let sit for 1 night.
Third Step:
– Strain mixture through Chinois.
– Juice 12oz of fresh lemon juice- do not add to mixture yet.
– 64oz of whole milk and heat slowly- do not let boil!
– Once there is movement, slight bubbles remove from the heat.
– Pour lemon juice into the tea and alcohol mixture.
– Next, add hot milk – this should make the mixture curdle.
– Get chinois ready with 4 pieces of cheesecloth going in separate directions.
– Place inside of chinois and make sure there are no creases.
– Run water of the cheesecloth and chinois and make sure it is soaking wet.
– Place chinois in 22qt Cambro and pour the mixture through the cheesecloth.
– The first run will not clarify it, you are creating the next for it to clarify through.
– Do this a couple of times with the mixture (you will need another Cambro to transfer back and forth) until it begins to drip through clearly.
– This process will take about 4-5 hours.
– Continue straining through slowly never allowing the mixture to be poured over the top of the nest.
Spring Elderflower Punch
At New Orleans’ culinary darling, The Bower, field-to-glass libations are created with the freshest produce and ingredients from a partner farm, Sugar Roots. Beverage Director Mickey Mullins’ gorgeous Spring Elderflower Punch features fresh cut flowers from the farm along with rum, elderflower, grapefruit, and rosé. | Beverage Director: Mickey Mullins
Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
1.5oz Denizen rum
0.5oz elderflower liquor
0.5oz fresh Grapefruit juice
1oz Rose Wine
Methods:
– Combine all ingredients with ice in a cocktail shaker
– Shake thoroughly
– Pour over ice into a rock glass
– Garnish with fresh farm flowers
Cacao Old Fashioned
Experience laidback luxury at Soffs the elevated lobby bar and lounge at JW Marriott Miami Turnberry Resort & Spa, where guests can enjoy meticulously crafted cocktails reflective of Turnberry’s storied history. Highlights include its Cacao Old Fashioned featuring a large ice cube, Brugal 1888 Rum, orange bitters, angostura bitters, Godiva chocolate liqueur, simple syrup, and topped with an orange peel garnish.
Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients
2oz Brugal 1888 Rum
2 dashes of Orange bitters
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
0.25oz Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
0.25oz of Simple syrup
1 Orange peel twist
1 Ice cube
Method
– Pour ingredients into a glass with one large ice cube
– Stir gently
– Garnish with orange peel
Five-Star Gold Martini
In honor of its 9th consecutive year as a Forbes five-star rated property, The Setai Miami Beach launched the decadent five-star gold martini. Made with Remy Martin Louis XIII Cognac, Grand Marnier Centenaire, and more, it’s then strained into a Riedel crystal coupe glass and showered with 24-karat gold flakes. Priced at $125, this luxurious cocktail will make you the talk of the town.
Ingredients:
2oz Inniskillin Ice Wine
1oz Beluga Gold Vodka
0.5oz Grand Marnier Centenaire
0.25oz Remy Martin Louis XIII Cognac
24 Karat Gold Flake
… “Like any classic cocktail that consists of all spirits the Five-Star Gold Martini is stirred. We pour all ingredients except for the flake into a mixing glass, pack it with ice, and stir for 20 seconds. The cocktail is then strained into a Riedel crystal coupe glass and showered with 24-karat gold flakes.”-Hakan Balkuvvar, Wine Director / HeadSommelier
Tamarindo Fresca
At Fort Lauderdale’s sultry cocktail parlor, No Man’s Land, from Big Brother star and hospitality guru, Memphis Garrett, cocktails take center stage. The Tamarindo Fresca combines reposado, tamarind-ginger syrup, and lime and is garnished with a tajin-crusted tamarind straw. | Beverage Director: Chevy Farrell
Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
1.5oz Espolon Reposado
0.5oz Campari
1oz Tamarind Syrup*
0.75oz Lime Juice
Tajin Spice
Method:
– Shake all ingredients.
– Pour in Tajin-rimmed Old Fashioned glass and top with fresh ice.
Garnish with Tamarind/Chili Straw (Mexican Candy).
* Tamarind Syrup Recipe
15oz Tamarind puree
2 1/4C White Sugar
1-1/2Tbsp Ginger Juice
1tsp Cinnamon
Place all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring up to temperature until all ingredients are dissolved, then let cool. Store in the fridge for about a week.
Aromas of Lavender
At R House, located in Miami’s Wynwood Arts and Entertainment District, the beverage program is just as stimulating and extravagant as the Drag show performances. The high-energy R House Wynwood restaurant is known for bringing fun-loving vibes and fierceness to the spotlight. This sophisticated yet playfully gorgeous martini is made with Hendricks Gin, cucumber, lavender, and lemon.
Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
2oz Gin
2oz Cucumber Juice
1oz Lavender syrup
1oz Lemon juice
Garnish lavender flower cucumber slice skewered
Method:
– Place all ingredients in a tin shake
– Pour into Martini glass neat
Grasshopper
Tujague’s is the second oldest restaurant in New Orleans and the third oldest continuously operating restaurant in the U.S. In 1918, on the eve of Prohibition, Philip Guichet created the Grasshopper cocktail, the green frothy drink that to this day, remains the restaurant’s signature libation.
Yield: 1 cocktail
Ingredients:
0.75oz green creme de menthe
0.75oz creme de cacao
0.75oz white creme de menthe
0.5oz Brandy
0.75oz Heavy cream
0.75oz Whole milk
0.5 tsp Brandy for topper
Method:
– Combine all ingredients (except for 0.5 tsp of Brandy) in a cocktail shaker filled with ice.
– Shake vigorously.
– Strain into a champagne flute.
– Top with Brandy.
This story originally appeared on Upscalelivingmag
