This is probably the drink that first comes to mind when you think of juleps (unless your brain is stuck in the 19th century like me)! The bourbon-based julep is the one that has survived into the modern age, thanks in no small part to its connection with the Kentucky Derby. For this recipe, I wanted it to be exceedingly elemental. Since we’ve combined the sugar and mint in our mint syrup already, this julep requires but two ingredients (plus a big bouquet of mint, of course). It is simplicity at its finest!

The Whiskey Sour was one of the vestiges of nineteenth-century mixology to survive Prohibition and experience broad popularity during the postwar period. This is my take on what a really good bourbon-based sour reflective of that period should be with the iconic orange-and-cherry garnish. If you make it with vanilla syrup, it’s got a really nice, subtle creamsicle flavor; egg white advised.

I developed this stirred cocktail recipe for a class I taught online back in March of 2022. Its flavor profile–smoky, honeyed, and bitter–was inspired by those first grilling sessions of spring. It’s strong enough to stand up to a cool evening but fits in well on a warm day, too.

I got the idea for this odd-but-delightful deconstructed drink from “Cocktail Bill” Boothby’s 1890s book, American Bar-Tender. Though this source comes over forty years after the gold rush began, it’s a testament to how San Francisco remained a locus of cocktail culture and has remained so, though not necessarily continually, to this day. I based this on Boothby’s Dude Cocktail, which is a simple sweet soda or lemon soda laced with lime juice and crème de vanille.

The California gold rush created an incredible demand for all kinds of goods that the Bay area didn’t yet have the infrastructure and stock to provide. Coffee was one such commodity and its price skyrocketed as coffee merchants sought to make big profits off the miners’ newfound wealth. I imagine that the miners would have spiked their expensive coffee with a bit of whiskey and sweetened it with pricey sugar and vanilla, too.

When, in the post-Civil War era, Fancy & Improved Cocktails came on the scene followed by the Vermouth Cocktail and Manhattan, people needed a way to order the more elemental Cocktail and the term “Old-Fashioned” was applied to the simple spirits-sugar-water-bitters formula. This version is an attempt to capture what happened to the Cocktail during the twentieth century–we stop short of muddling fruit but cherry syrup and stirring with an expressed orange peel give it a subtly similar effect. Rye and bourbon are both popular bases for this iteration of the drink.

The Garibaldi–a simple but sublime mixture of fluffy orange juice and Campari–has skyrocketed to fame in recent years as part of the aperitivo craze. I was inspired to use pineapple juice by my friend Ned King’s Charles de Gaulle, which combines it with Suze, Amaro Alta Verde, and a little salt. Here, I fortified the mixture of the carciofo Cynar and pineapple with overproof bourbon for a very easy-drinking take on the template.

This is our take on the Amaretto Sour, which was invented in the mid-1970s. The cocktail is an example of how major templates from the American cocktail canon were adapted to employ popular liqueurs of the day, especially those from Italy, like Frangelico, Galliano and various amaretto products. Our version layers peach liqueur over bourbon, amaretto, lemon, and bitters (plus optional egg white for texture), to create a sour that tastes like a peach crisp with a nutty topping.

A big theme in 1960s and ‘70s singles bars was the offering of sweeter drinks that would supposedly appeal more to women. This drink is based on the Bushwacker, which originated on the Gulf Coast. Its inclusion in this month’s group of recipes is meant to represent the creamy, coffee-laced category that includes such famous cocktails as the White Russian and Mudslide.

This drink’s appearance in our ‘70s singles bar theme is meant to represent a whole slew of tropical drinks that were popular such establishments. The main inspiration was the Goombay Smash, which originated in the Bahamas and typically features aged rum, coconut and apricot liqueurs, fruit juices, and bitters. Our take Americanizes the formula a bit, building on a base of overproof bourbon. I named it after the street on which the original T.G.I. Friday’s was located.

I’m challenging you all to come up with your own house Manhattan; or a new favorite Manhattan; or your fall 2021 Manhattan! Whatever you’re seeking, I hope these guidelines help you find it.

The Manhattan was a disparate, but powerful, force for the first thirty or so years of its existence. In the years just before Prohibition, and through the ‘30s, the recipe begins to solidify its 2:1 ratio, the bitters overwhelmingly Angostura, and the garnish is usually a cherry.

The earliest versions of the Manhattan resemble quite closely the original Cocktail (spirits, sugar, water, bitters) and feature a split base of rye and Italian (sweet) vermouth. This is an excellent example, taken from the second edition of Harry Johnson’s Bartenders’ Manual.

Tom Bullock features quite a few fizzy cocktails in his book, but I particularly love the Twilight Cocktail, which is an unsweetened mixture of Bourbon, Italian vermouth, lime and seltzer. I take the edge off the sour notes with our cordial, sink the vermouth to the bottom, and insist on Club soda over seltzer here—the hint of salt is just what this drink needs.

When I was a young art history student, I ran into a lot of works marked “in the style of” or “a painting after” so and so. Bullock was one of the great figures of the pre- Prohibition era and I felt this naming trope appropriate. He typically served cocktails like this up, a refined presentation we honor here.

This Stinger riff more closely resembles the Prince and Brant cocktails, both of which call for bitters to be added to the Stinger’s simple combination of Cognac and crème de menthe. Ours switches out the French brandy in favor of bourbon and adds gentian liqueur and a little salinity, all served over crushed ice, a popular presentation during the postwar period.

This is a take on one of the Old-Fashioned, one of the midcentury period’s favorite cocktails. I have this sense that people of the greatest generation were often ordering “their” drink, with notes to the waiter on how sweet or sour, a splash of this or that. Here, I channel that energy (and a little Midwestern style) with this campy, Coca-Cola-laced riff on the original Cocktail.

This one’s based on the Coronation from the Waldorf-Astoria book (1935), which calls for applejack, sweet and dry vermouths and apricot brandy. This version tastes really bourbon-forward despite its low-ABV build.