Old-school drinks...what do you remember?

Question

Now-a-days it's all about the fruit-infused, muddled this-n-that, specialty cocktail (or what some people refer to as "martinis", glorified cocktails shaken and strained into a martini glass...yet they are still only cocktails)...

I want to remember (and bring back) those old-time standards:

The Side Car
The Rob Roy
The Stinger

Just to name a few...what can you remember (and do you know the ingredients?!?!)

Answer

Grasshopper. green creme de menthe, creme de cacao, cream. Shake with ice, strain and pour. Dessert in a glass from the art deco era.

Answer

How about an Old Fashioned? 

bourbon
sugar
bitters
muddled orange and cherry
soda water

Answer

I dunno, "old school drinks" reminds me of those little cartons of milk I'd get in the cafeteria . . .

Answer

Any drink made with egg white- sadly egg whites have lost their place at the bar.

Answer

How about a Harvey Wallbanger, or a Freddie Fudpucker

Answer

French 75:

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 oz Gin
- 2 oz Lemon Juice
- 2 tsp Superfine Sugar
- Champagne
- Garnish: Cherry
- Glassware: Collins Glass

Shake all the ingredients in a shaker, except champagne, with ice and strain into a collins glass. Top with champagne and stir. Garnish with cherry.

Answer

Aviation
Sazerac
Vieux Carre
Pink Lady
Clover Club
Gin Sling
Gin Rickey
Corpse Reviver #2

Give me one of those any day.

Answer

My drinks of choice back in my college days included: sloe gin fizz, pink squirrel, brandy alexander, and grasshopper.

Answer

Negroni, up with a twist.

1/3 Gin
1/3 Campari
1/3 Sweet Vermouth

I love the bitter/sweetness...I usually opt for Beefeater's.

Answer

Singapore Slings and Whiskey Sours...I still like a great Whiskey Sour...just hard to find a good one!

Answer

Hot drinks. I recall family members talking about Tom and Jerrys and the hot toddy. I have never known anyone who makes them or for that matter, knows what goes in them.

Answer

Golden Cadillac

White creme de cacao
Galliano
milk or cream (Mmmm. Cream, I was thinner then...)
And garnished with a cherry. Always a cherry.

Answer

My dad was a martini man. Gin. And scotch after dinner. My mom liked a light rum sour. Sometimes I'll make them in the summer. Quite refreshing. None of that sweet and sour mix though. Real lemon juice and simple syrup.

I also like a Tom Collins - except prefer vodka.

Answer

Did Bermuda Rum Swizzles ever really make it off that island? Were they big years ago? (I adore them.)

Answer

- The sidecar is our house drink chez Rabbitz (sometimes we like to switch it up and make bourbon cars, which are lovely and nutty). For a special treat, Mr. Rabbit will even do the sugar rim
- Yes! to Gio for voting French 75

But many of my earliest cocktail memories come from those 70's style placemats (often found in the chicken-balls-and-redsauce Chinese joint where the parents would take us) that showed pictures of glam drinks like the grasshopper, the pink lady and mai tai. These are not certainly not elegant, prohibition-style cocktails, but perhaps others recall looking at those mats and fantasizing about how sophisticated it would be to drink grasshoppers.

I actually love the grasshopper. Have still never had a Pink Lady.

Answer

The Sazerac:
A sugar cube, a few dashes of Peychaud's Bitters (Angostura doesn't do it here), a couple of ounces of Rye (Sazerac itself being my choice for Rye), a bit of absinthe or pernod, up wtih a twist.

Answer

Gibsons. They never seem to be popular, and I don't know why not. It's just a martini with those little pickled onions in it instead of an olive.

Answer

Amaretto Sours....whew, now those made for some hangovers when they were the drink special! They tasted so good (to my college palate) but made you feel so so horrible!

Answer

VODKA GIMLET---my very favorite drink, though I like to let it sit and mellow for a few minutes before drinking.
Think it is meant to be equal parts vodka and Rose's Lime, in an old fashioned glass over ice with a lime wedge. I tend to like a little less of the Rose's Lime, as it is pretty sweet. Great drink!

Answer

I love the "old" classic cocktails. Last Christmas I ordered from www.half.com several copies of the Mr Boston Cocktail Book for stocking stuffers., The older printing the better. They cost .75 to $2.00. They were a tremendous hit with all of my family and friends. Also got one for my local neighborhood lounge bartender. It has the classic recipes for cocktails. The newer printings also have newer cocktails. 
If you are a lover of Old Fashions try a Southern Comfort Old Fashion.

Answer

There was an article in the Wall Street Journal recently about drinks Mark Twain mentioned in Innocents Abroad. They had a great list: Stone Fence, Sherry Cobbler, Earthquake, Brandy Smash, Santa Cruz Punch and Eye Opener. We had the Stone Fence (scotch, peychaud's bitters, cider) last week and we'll try the Earthquake (gin, rye, pastis) tonight. We love the old cocktails.

Answer

second the amaretto/whiskey sours -- and talk about old school: we used to be able to go thru the drive thru (beach town in FL) to request the drink and they'd hand you the glass of ice with mixer in it and the miniature fulling expecting you to be drinking it while you drove.

not very safe for sure, very old school.

Answer

My favorite "old school" cocktail comes from the 1935 edition of the Old Mr. Boston guide that I have laying around somewhere ...

The COWBOY COCKTAIL
2/3 Old Mr. Boston Rye or Bourbon Whiskey
1/3 Cream

Shake well with cracked ice and strain into 3 oz. cocktail glass.

Doesn't that sound wonderful???

Answer

Well, always in the summer we'd drink gin & tonic (and lime of course). Now if we have that it's Tanqueray and tonic. H still drinks gibsons -- he loves those little onions and buys them by the jarfull. My parents used to drink Tom Collins. I have no idea what was in those but they were always happy. :) As another poster wrote, brandy alexanders happened alot too. We went to a wedding about 10 yrs ago where all that was served during the cocktail hour were gin gimlets, passed around on huge trays like hors d'oeuvres. They were delicious.

Answer

I would like to be able to walk into a bar, any bar, order a martini, and be served a martini. 

A martini is gin, dry vermouth, and an olive. It is NOT just gin. It is NOT served with a twist. It does NOT have pickled tomatoes, or onions or watermelon rinds. AND IT IS NOT MADE WITH VODKA. THAT may be a vodka martini, but it needs to be specified.

Answer

I love Side Cars. I ordered one a few years ago and was really surprised. The bartender was clueless, served it in a cocckrail glass (okay) the rim was salted like a Margarita. That was an eye opener!

Answer

How about a good old fashion High Ball--any kind of whiskey will do and gingerale

Answer

I am not quite sure if either would "qualify" as old school, but what about the traditional daquiri or pina colada?? I don't know how old, or where they originated from, but they seem to have been around for awhile.

Answer

Negroni: equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. I like it served over lots of ice in a tall glass, but some people serve it "up."

Answer

How about the Rusty Nail? That was scotch and Drambuie. I used to love them!!

Answer

I remember the Tom and Jerry:

"Now one time it comes on Christmas, and in fact it is the evening before Christmas, and I am in Good Time Charley Bernstein's little speakeasy in West Forty-seventh Street, wishing Charley a Merry Christmas and having a few hot Tom and Jerrys with him.

This hot Tom and Jerry is an old time drink that is once used by one and all in this country to celebrate Christmas with, and in fact it is once so popular that many people think Christmas is invented only to furnish an excuse for hot Tom and Jerry, although of course this is by no means true.

But anybody will tell you that there is nothing that brings out the true holiday spirit like hot Tom and Jerry, and I hear that since Tom and Jerry goes out of style in the United States, the holiday spirit is never quite the same."

That's from "Dancing Dan's Christmas" by Damon Runyon. Here is the recipe:

http://drinkoftheweek.com/archive/t/tomjerry.htm

It's served best in a Tom and Jerry mug, black on the outside, white on the inside.

(What did you think the cartoon cat and mouse were named after?)

Answer

Negroni
Szazerac
Ramos Gin fizz
Tom Collins and the old standby,
Old Fashioned 
Manhattans(sweet and dry) see my post above

Answer

Bronx Cocktail
2 oz gin
1 oz orange juice
1/4 oz dry vermouth
1/4 oz sweet vermouth
Shake with ice and strain into a martini glass
dave

Answer

Just discovered this one and it is a winner.

Lawhill
1.5 oz Rittenhouse "Bonded" (100 proof) rye
3/4 oz Vya dry vermouth
1/2 oz freshly squeezed OJ
1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino
1/4 oz green Chartreuse (subbed for pastis)
Dash Angostura bitters

Very aromatic and complex, a bit spicy, tangy, a touch sweet, nicely bitter. Rye really stands up to the liqueurs and tells them who's boss. This drink is sort of like a psychedelic Manhattan. I googled and found many sites with Lawhill recipes but no history of the drink.

The Lawhill was a four-masted sailing ship built in 1892 that was immortalized when Richard Cookson spent time aboard it in the 1930s and wrote about it for the Anatomy of the Ship book series. At some point somebody seems to have named this awesome cocktail after it. The ship had "a donkey boiler for heavy jobs."

Answer

In my opinion there are 3 that reign supreme:

1. Old Fashioned (original way, without the muddled cherry and orange)
2. ORIGINAL Mai Tai - Hardly anyone can make these, but they're AMAZING. No pineapple, grenadine, or malibu here, just lime, aged rum, orgeat, and orange. A seriously outstanding cocktail. Look it up!
3. My absolute favorite drink: The Penicillin. This is super old and most people have never heard of it:

Muddled ginger root
1 oz lemon juice
3/4 oz honey (or simple) syrup
2 oz blended scotch
*shake and fine strain onto ice)
Float and Islay scotch on top and garnish with a shaving of ginger

It's both smooth and spicy, the best! : )

Answer

My Mom used to drink something called One, two,threes. It was one part honey, two parts gin and three parts pineapple juice!!!

Answer

Sloe Gin Fizz
Red Eye (beer with a shot of tomato juice)
Black Russian
Tequila Sunrise
Strip and Go Naked (frozen lemonade from concentrate where you use vodka in place of water when following the instructions on the can). Only medical anesthesia works faster.

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Old-school drinks...what do you remember?

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