Cocktail Hour Threesomes

[Dave the Cook]

(Get your mind out of the gutter.)

I'll be heading down to the beach for a family reunion later this week, and I volunteered to host a daily cocktail hour. Of the 20 people who will be there, 18 are of legal drinking age, but few are what you might call cocktail enthusiasts. I hope to convert a few. Rather than just pour by request, I'm thinking of programming each day with three libations: a sour, a tall drink, and whatever you call drinks in the category that would include Negronis as well as Manhattans and Old Fashioneds -- short drinks that aren't sours, in other words.

So what I need are five or six sets of gateway-style drinks; it would be cool if each set could be thematically related in some way. Who wants to start?

[KD1191]

Seems like the simplest theme would be base spirit.

Tequila: Margarita, Paloma, Old Fashioned

Rum: (Hemingway) Daiquiri, Cuba Libre, El Presidente

Gin: Southside, Collins, Martinez

Brandy: Sidecar, Roffignac, Crusta

Rye: Daisy, Smash, Sazerac

[nikkib]

sounds gooooood!

[KatieLoeb]

KD1191 has distilled this down to the easiest approach. I like the list, too!

Another idea might be to find a common added ingredient like the bitters and riff from there. Or perhaps use mint as an example:

Mojito, Gin-Gin Mule, Julep.

[MikeInSacto]

Agree strongly with the Gin-Gin Mule. You could also use the ginger ale in Horse's Necks and/or Dark and Stormy's. The rye from the Horse's Necks could go into Manhattans as well. Sazeracs seem a little advanced for gateway drinks but I guess it depends on the crowd. Maybe you could serve them on the final evening as a "graduation drink"?

And I definitely have a soft spot for the Sidecar as a gateway beverage as that was my first-ever cocktail.

[Dave the Cook]

Great input; thanks. It'd be helpful not to have to replicate my home bar in a vacation home, so extra credit goes to deft repeated deployment of ingredients, like Mike suggests.

Taking Katie's approach, but with Maraschino:

Aviation

John Collins

Fancy Free

Are there other ways to link drinks? What would you match with a Ward 8, or a French Pearl?

[KatieLoeb]

The French Pearl can go into the mint rotation. Ward Eight re-uses the rye and I suspect you'll have OJ in the fridge for breakfast, no? No need to bring something extra.

If you're indeed planning on bringing some grenadine anyway (homemade only please!) you could make Ward Eights, Jack Roses and Monkey Glands. Now that you have applejack in the mix you can make Applecarts as Sidecar variants to illustrate that point.

There are many many ways to skin this cat. You do realize that we now expect a fully annotated photo documentary of your cocktail seminars while on vacation.