Pro Chefs Make Their Favorite Cocktails (10 Recipes)

It has a lot of tequila in it though, so be careful.

Priya, this might be your best work!

[Priya laughs]

It is truly good!

[percussion music]

[blender grinds]

[laughing]

We're here in the Test Kitchen,

and we are making our favorite cocktails.

[percussion music]

I am going to make a cocktail that's called

The Lil' Ripper.

I invented the Lil' Ripper,

so don't anyone on the internet, try and steal this from me.

I'm doing dry January right now

so I can't drink this, which is pretty [beep] up.

The Lil' Ripper is kind of a play on Amaro and soda.

It's kind of a play on an Americano.

I call it the literally anytime drink.

It's super simple.

It takes you like two minutes to make,

and it's low ABV, so you can drink about 48 of them.

It kinda tastes like,

if you took flat root beer, and flat Coca Cola,

and injected it with a little bit more bitterness

and some heavy like kind of honey,

and brown sugar sweetness.

Soda, Amaro, lemon, olive, ice that's it.

I'm using Averna.

Averna is like for me, kind of the all purpose.

Averna and China are my two all purpose dark Amari.

I'm also very particular about my ice,

just stacking ice cubes like this, in a Collins glass,

is my ultimate pet peeve.

I hate it, I think it just looks terrible.

When I make this at home, I take ice cubes,

and I just crack them up a little bit

with the back of a spoon.

The ratio of what you put in here is super simple.

So I'm doing three ounces of soda,

two ounces of a Averna, and that is beautiful.

I love watching the Amaro move down through the side,

I think it's hypnotizing.

So then a little bit of lemon peel,

and then, we're gonna spritz a little bit of juice on top.

This along with club soda

kind of brightens the whole thing up.

And then I'm gonna do two olives that act

just like a little bit of salt, a little bit of brininess.

You know what?

Living on the edge, I'm not drinking this,

so we're doing three olives.

And also it gives you a snack at the bottom.

So then colorful side out,

you wanna put your fingers like that.

Gently crimp it over the top of the glass,

rub it on the rim.

This just releases the oils in the citrus,

and that kind of like perfumes the top of your glass,

so when you pull your cocktail up,

you're smelling like this bright, wonderful lemony drink.

I will always go diagonally,

with the glass little bit peeking above the rim.

And that is the Lil' Ripper.

Pre-dinner, after dinner.

Pre-lunch, after lunch, rip it whenever you wanna rip it.

[Man] I wanna drink that so bad. [laughs]

[percussion music]

I'm gonna make my favorite cocktail.

An Old Fashioned, a Rye Old-Fashioned, that's the key.

This is the cocktail I make most nights, after work,

to drown my sorrows in, and it does a good job.

I like these raw sugar cubes,

just 'cause they have a little molasses flavor.

It is typically two ounces of whiskey,

and a couple dashes of bitters, but I like a lot of bitters.

I like to soak my cube, like really get in there.

I'm gonna muddle the cube.

Some people put fruit in here, but I just want bitters.

The key to a good Old Fashioned,

is you wanna muddle the sugar

in the glass, you're gonna drink it out of

instead of doing it in a mixing glass,

'cause you really want like a little bit

of sugar residue at the bottom.

That's kind of like the signature of the drink.

And then pour in as much whiskey as you feel good about.

That feels good to me, right?

It's after five, is it after five?

It's almost after five. [laughing]

You need a giant ice cube,

'cause it makes you feel like you're fancy,

and you wanna stir it until you feel

the glass has become cold.

And I like to finish it with a really fat twist

and you really want it to be pretty thick.

So you get nice spurts.

We did it.

This is what keeps me warm at night.

So, I really like this more than regular Old Fashioned,

which is usually bourbon,

'cause the Rittenhouse Rye's really spicy,

it's spicier than the average Rye even.

So it can really hold up to that sugar cube.

So this still has a really nice kick.

It's perfect, it's the best drink.

I'm gonna drink this whole thing.

Are we done?

[percussion music]

A year, or so ago,

I started to make my own Old Fashions at home.

I'm not really a cocktail person.

If you know me, you know I usually go for wine or beer.

I came up with this special way of doing it,

with other ingredients.

Little that I knew, I showed up here the next day.

And I told Card Bee, one of our dear co-workers,

that I made these drink with lemon, ginger and honey,

and she is like, That called Penicillin.

And I didn't know. [chuckles]

So will help you kill your heart, and the flu.

[Man] So, what do you call it?

Gaby Feel Better Drink. [laughing]

So the first thing I do is I get a lemon

and do a big, as long as I can, for my garnish,

then I'm gonna cut this in half, cut this guy in pieces.

Then I get a nice enough of ginger, wash it, done peeling,

two ounces of water, that I already mentioned.

A good amount of honey, you'll be the judge.

And then I put two ounces of whisky.

So now, you can get the strongest person

around you to do this job.

Smells good.

'Cause I believe that for an Old Fashion,

you need just one ice cube, you don't need more than that.

This is already muddled, I'm gonna put the whiskey in.

Don't laugh of me shaking skills. [laughing]

Oh, the honey bear.

So I'm gonna put a little bit in the bottom,

then I'm gonna squeeze a little more lemon in there.

There comes a big ice cube.

I like to use the strainer,

but I like to pretend that I know what I'm doing.

Be careful, don't poke your finger.

So this is candy ginger.

I just wanted to dress it up.

That's it, Gaby Feel Better Drink.

Bon Appetit.

[percussion music]

So, Shikanji is a drink that I grew up having,

and it's basically just like a salt and pepper limeade.

My dad grew up having it in really,

really scorching hot Indian summers.

It kind of has this electrolyte-y jolt,

that you get from Gatorade.

It makes a really, really, good large batch summer cocktail,

which we're gonna to make in January.

So we're not really measures, in the Krishna family.

We're more like pourers, just pour enough tequila,

in accordance to what kind of party you wanna have.

Let's just let's do something,

maybe a little squash mark.

Maybe that's a lot of tequila.

I'm just gonna, 2:00 p.m. on a work day.

Okay, pour the party back in,

then you're gonna add the juice of like six limes,

two cups of water, quarter cup of sugar.

This is sugar, right?

Yes. Some salt,

and about three quarter teaspoon of black pepper.

The pepper is kind of what brings this to life,

and then, our ice.

Wow, that is potent.

[blender grinds]

You're just looking for it to froth up.

It's nice.

No joke, my dad drinks us out of beer steins.

And you can totally do that if you want,

but I'm choosing a more reasonable option

and then you're just gonna garnish it with a little pepper.

And just like that Spiked Shikanji.

That's the good stuff.

It's like everything I want a sports drink to be,

maybe I should just be putting pepper in my Gatorade.

Sohla, you wanna try a sip of my Spiked Shikanji?

All right, this is, seems like so crazy to me,

so very excited-- Its really good.

It's really frothy and pretty though.

It has a lot of tequila in it though, so be careful.

Priya, this might be your best work.

[Priya laughs]

This is really good, I like all that pepper in there.

Yeah, and you know, you don't even know feel bad

about the tequila 'cause, the pepper's like cleansing.

That's so true, why wasn't it in our healthy issue?

Thank you.

It's a pepper cleanser.

[percussion music]

I am going to be making a White Negroni.

It's one of the easiest cocktails to make of all time,

because it is, there's nothing really to remember.

It's just a one, to one, to one ratio.

The first ingredient is gin.

Today we're using Tanqueray, which is a London dry gin,

which is the purest form of gin you can find.

And this is Billet, it's made from white grapes,

and it has these really great like,

warm honey and citrusy notes to it.

It's also very sweet.

The last ingredient is Suze, which is extremely potent,

it is very medicinal.

So we're just gonna use a tiny bit of this,

and it's gonna anchor the drink,

and give it this like backbone.

I have my shaker, just gonna dump some ice right to the top.

I'm gonna do one and a half ounces of gin,

an equal part of Lullet.

And then I'm just gonna do a half ounce of Suze.

And then I am gonna take a long handed bar spoon.

You want the ice to properly dilute the drink,

so it's not so strong and like burning.

The outside of it will frost up, it'll just feel chilled.

I'm gonna use a large ice cube to put into my rocks glass,

and then, I'm just gonna strain this.

Finally, traditional Negroni you finish it off

with an orange peel.

For this one, I'm gonna finish off some lemon.

The outside of the citrus peel

has all these really aromatic oils

that you can kind of hold it a few inches away

from the glass, and just give it a squeeze.

So drop it in and there you go find White Negroni.

Did you make it all for me?

I made it all for you!

Oh, that's so quick.

Never had a White Negroni.

Are you fan of regular Negronis?

Mmmh!

Tastes good! Yeah.

I like the little, it's like way more floral,

I feel like in the regular Negroni.

Like everything's super botanical?

Ah, yes.

So it feels, you know, kind of like

you're drinking Negroni.

Yeah, its like the Negroni put on a nice pretty dress.

Yeah, Negroni is going out tonight.

All right, can I go back and pound some meat now?

[percussion music]

Okay folks, today I'm going to make my favorite cocktail

in the whole wide world, which is the Pina Colada.

This is about a half of a fresh pineapple

that's been cut up into chunks, and then frozen.

Good to use a high-powered blender

if you have one because the stuff's very hard.

This is six ounces of cream of coconut,

Cocoa Lopez, is the brand of choice very, very, very sweet.

Also in this recipe, we have a couple

of ounces of unsweetened coconut milk,

a couple table spoons of fresh lime juice,

to cut through all of the sweetness,

six ounces of white rum.

Some ice, 'cause it wouldn't be a recipe by me

if it didn't have a little salt in it.

[blender grinds]

Once you've blended all of your ingredients,

you then throw the Pina Colada back into the freezer,

in the blender so that it gets super nice and cold again,

and can sort of recrystallize, come on.

Great Andy. And they went very well

when you whispered in the,

I loved Pina Coladas,

it's the only kind of frozen drink that I love.

I mean FroMarg?

No I don't do that.

You just do frozen Margarita pie.

I just don't do frozen Margarita pie. [laughs]

I just want my Margarita on the rocks.

Oh, yeah, same but occasionally.

Time to place, here's little lime juice.

So this has been in the freezer for like 30 minutes,

and I'm gonna reblend, and then we're gonna serve it up.

[blender grinding]

I'm gonna add some extra rum in here.

Are we rolling?

Right now, I don't know like what's going on

and the most exciting part of all,

we have a hollowed out pineapple.

And in we go.

Some garnishes.

These are fancy maraschinos,

I guess we're fancy like that at BA.

And this is for whoever wants to join me.

I'm gonna do a flow of dark rum,

which is like a bit more aged and more flavorful

than the white rum that's in it.

Double down on the booze.

Okay, I'm ready.

You can tell I'm so excited,

okay, now we're having a good time.

Here, everyone can have a straw.

Everyone's gonna go in down at the same time,

I made us females.

You're so very welcome.

Its very good. Delicious.

One of the greatest cocktails in the world!

[percussion music]

I have a lot of favorite cocktails.

My favorite cocktail to drink during the wintertime

is a classic Daiquiri.

That's really bright, and refreshing,

and makes me feel like the sun is shining.

It's my favorite sick day cocktail.

That's not a thing that most people have.

But I do have a sick day cocktail.

Any drink that has, is not just booze has to be shaken.

So like a Martini you stir because it's just booze on booze,

but because we have have lime juice

and rum in the same cocktail, we're gonna shake it.

So we've got some white rum.

I'm gonna take two ounces of that.

I love these little mini graduated measuring cups,

'cause it's so much easier than a jigger.

I'm not being paid to say this.

We're gonna juice some limes,

we need one ounce of lime juice.

Some people add a little bit less, I like it pretty tart.

And then we're gonna add three quarters

of an ounce of simple syrup,

which is just one to one sugar to water.

We're gonna add plenty of ice to our shaker.

A lot of people serve it in a coupe,

I like it in a stemless glass,

so if you like it, wants to be drinking kind of quickly.

That's a Daiquiri.

[Man] Do you consider yourself a big drinker.

Is this an intervention?

Like are all my friends, and family gonna come out?

Yeah, you know, I enjoy.

I enjoy alcoholic beverages responsibly and often.

[percussion music]

One of my absolute favorite cocktails,

which is an Americano.

You have to be careful when you order it,

because some bars, you could go in and ask for an Americano,

and they think that you mean the espresso and hot water.

Definitely got served coffee once or twice.

It's very similar to like a Campari and soda,

with something you would have like before,

maybe having a glass of wine or getting into it.

It's a really easy cocktail,

because it's equal amounts of a red bitter like Campari.

Today I'm using this Forthave spirit,

which is similar to Campari.

So it's got those bitter kind of botanical qualities,

and it's a little bit sweet.

And then with that, you use equal amounts

of red vermouth or sweet vermouth.

So I'm just gonna eyeball,

the lines on the glass are really handy.

So you're getting like a bitter, sweet kind of vibe,

and then it's this great color too.

This is the Antica Formula One,

but like a Dolan sweet vermouth,

or any sweet vermouth will work.

You could also do it in like a big wineglass.

And normally it would be more than one rock,

but these are such big rocks.

So let's just do that one and then you top it off.

[laughs]

Classic, that is so like classic, did any get in there?

A little bit, I just don't do that again.

Just top it off with a little spritz.

Little stirry stir, got a little orange.

Oh, she's pithy.

I like a little bit of green olive,

which sometimes you'll get in like Aperol Spritz,

or Campari Spritz, I love that.

And that's the drink.

Mmh, mmh.

[percussion music]

I love Mezcal, it's my favorite spirit.

I will drink it on its own, just sipped,

which is the proper way.

But I kind of do like a little kind of paired

with some of my favorite ingredients.

So the first thing that I do

is kind of make the salt mixture.

I just use about like, equal parts,

I'm just gonna use my fingers.

Equal parts flaky salt, two Chilis,

and I just kind of make like a chili salt.

I'm gonna grab a mortar and pestle.

I just broke down the flaky cell, and the chilies,

you saw I was like on the core side, now it's quite fine.

That's actually probably not only gonna help it stick

to the glass, but it's also really kind of extracting

the oils from the chilies.

And then I'm gonna cut the grapefruit.

I just like to remove the center membrane.

And then from here, I kind of go and make a few slices.

Now I'm just getting more chili salt on the grapefruit,

and you could serve this on the side.

I like the glass of ice.

And then I'm gonna do a nice pour of Mezcal,

I'd say about almost halfway.

What I'll do is I'll take a sip just as is.

You don't, so delicious.

Just drinking it deep, sometimes too much for me,

but drinking with a little bit of ice

and then kind of going and taking a bite

of the bitter grapefruit,

with the Chilean salt and just like you get this rush

of flavor and my mouth is starting to salivate.

Just try that.

I don't actually drink that many cocktails anymore.

Like my children have sort of taken that part

of my life away.

Back in the day, Margarita was my drink of choice, for sure.

There's just something about how simple,

and clean it is.

Anything frankly that hues to that sour formula,

like that is my jam, just like simple but bright.

You can use simple syrup, you know for this recipe.

But you can also use Cointreau.

So Cointreau is a kind of a sweet sour orange,

base liqueur for from France.

Then I'm gonna put ice in here first.

Three quarters of an ounce of lime juice.

Three quarters of an ounce of Cointreau.

I like to do the most expensive alcohol last,

just because if you screw up,

one of the other ingredients, we don't have to start over.

I like to do a half gram of salt.

Sometimes you're just not feeling you know,

that much salt but it least this gives you the option.

Boom.

Its damn good, it's a little sharp.

Anyway that's all folks, thank you.

Nice.

Anybody want a one Pinea?

I got lots of Pineas!