We'll Give You the Cocktail, You Tell Us What's in It

Some people choose to use soda instead of tonic water in their gin and tonic, making it not a REAL gin and tonic. By using either bought tonic water or a mix of tonic syrup and soda water, you get the bitter addition that every cocktail should have. A highball glass or a rocks glass is used for serving the gin and tonic.

The mint julep bears a close association to the Kentucky Derby. In fact, it is a common cocktail in many regions of the southern USA where it originated in the 18th century. The mint julep is served in a highball glass.

The martini is served in a stemmed cocktail glass and may be garnished with a twist of lemon instead of the olive. This popular drink is also sometimes served in a Champagne glass, which has narrower rim. It's also sometimes made with vodka, which is incorrect.

Angostura bitters is the one to use if you want to make an official Champagne cocktail, according to the International Bartenders Association (IBA). A cherry and an orange slice can both be used as garnishes.

While several other glasses are acceptable, the classic way to serve a margarita is in the distinctly shaped margarita glass. Regardless of which glass is chosen, it is common to salt the rim before pouring in the drink.

The invention of the Old Fashioned is said to have taken place in 19th century Kentucky, USA, at a club in the town of Louisville. The town has since named the Old Fashioned its official drink and dedicates the first two weeks of June every year to celebrating it.

The egg white in a whiskey sour is optional, and some people refer to the drink as a Boston sour when the egg white is used. Suggested garnishes for a whiskey sour are half an orange slice and a maraschino cherry.

The recommended serving vessel for a daiquiri is a chilled cocktail glass. The daiquiri should be served straight up (that is, no ice). The daiquiri is classified as a “before dinner” cocktail and it should be shaken, not stirred.

Each of New York City’s five boroughs has a cocktail named after it. The Manhattan is one of the more famous among them. Angostura bitters and American rye whiskey are often the preferred ingredients to use.

While there is no doubt which ingredient is “Dark” and which is “Stormy,” some people may not know that the name is actually a trademark. It is owned by the distilled beverages company Gosling Brothers Limited of Bermuda.

The Bloody Mary has long been considered the perfect cure for a hangover. There are a wide variety of spices and flavorings which can be added, including hot sauces, horseradish, herbs, garlic, celery, salt, celery salt, black pepper, olives, lemon juice and lime juice. Worcestershire sauce is also almost always added and gives the drink an excellent umami flavor.

Despite its simplicity (or maybe because of it) the screwdriver is one of the most popular cocktails. It requires 2 parts orange juice to 1 part vodka. If amounts are doubled to 4 parts orange juice and 2 parts vodka, and 1 part Galliano herbal liqueur is added, it becomes the well-known Harvey Wallbanger.

The piña colada (Spanish for “strained pineapple”) has its origins rooted in Puerto Rico and has been the country’s national drink since 1978. It gained worldwide attention thanks to the 1979 song “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes.

The gimlet is often said to be named after Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Desmond Gimlette of the British Navy. He reportedly invented the citrus-rich drink as a way to help his sailors ward of the effect of scurvy – a vitamin C deficiency disease.

The White Russian gets its name from the cream (or milk) which is added. Without this ingredient, the cocktail is a Black Russian. The White Russian is also called a Belarussian.

The lemon drop is traditionally served in a martini glass. It is served straight up by shaking or stirring the ingredients with ice and straining out the ice as the drink is served.

The Americano is served on the rocks in an Old Fashioned glass and garnished with a half an orange slice. Interestingly, the Americano is featured in Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, as the very first drink ordered by the British Secret Service agent.

The Black Russian is typically served in a rocks glass, but when ginger ale is added the drink becomes a Brown Russian and is served in a highball glass. The White Russian has cream as the third ingredient and a rocks glass is used. Making Black Magic requires adding a dash of lemon juice to your Black Russian and garnishing it with a twist of lemon.

The green ghost usually has much more gin in it than either the green Chartreuse herbal liqueur or the lime juice. That’s because both of these two ingredients have strong, hard-to-miss flavors. Some sources recommend the VEP version of green Chartreuse, which is aged for an extended period of time and has an extraordinary flavor.

The Rob Roy is traditionally made with sweet vermouth but this can be substituted with dry vermouth, if desired. A “perfect” Rob Roy includes equal amounts of both sweet and dry vermouth.

The sidecar’s ingredients are shaken with ice and strained into a cocktail glass. The rim of the glass should be sugared and the drink can be garnished with a wedge of lemon or a piece orange peel. The invention of the sidecar is sometimes credited to the Ritz Hotel in Paris.

This is one of the 5 cocktails named after the New York City boroughs. Its ingredients and the ratio in which they are used make the Queens similar to both the Bronx cocktail and a “perfect” martini.

A Collins glass is the preferred serving glass for a mojito. This cocktail from Havana, Cuba, uses a good deal of mint (6 sprigs according to the International Bartenders Association) and is typically served with a straw. Apart from the mint, a lemon slice can be added as garnish

The whiskey smash is sometimes described as a citrus-flavored mint julep or as a cross between a mint julep and a whiskey sour. Crushed ice is often added to the whiskey smash after it is poured into a rocks glass.

The Negroni is, perhaps, the best-known Italian cocktail. It is named after its inventor, Count Camillo Negroni, whose family went on to produce a bottled version of the cocktail. The Negroni is a variation of the Americano, while both the white Negroni and the boulevardier are variations of the Negroni.

The Mai Tai’s name is said to come from the Tahitian word for “good.” It uses both a white and a dark rum, typically from either Jamaica or Martinique.

The Jack Rose has been around from at least the early 1900s and enjoyed a surge a of popularity during the 1920s and 1930s. After having fallen into obscurity, the Jack Rose (and applejack) are again gaining prominence. The drink is considered to be one of the classic cocktails.

The woo woo’s taste is as fruity as its name is catchy. Some recipes call for fruit-flavored vodka, to pump up the fruit flavors even more. There is also the option of muddling (lightly smashing) fresh fruit in the glass before adding the drink.

The Irish coffee is served warm by heating both the whiskey and coffee before mixing. The thick cream is added to float on the top after the rest of the ingredients have been prepared and poured into an Irish coffee mug.

There are two versions of the fluffy duck cocktail. This particular one is served over ice with the cream floating on top. In the other variation, the cream in the ingredients list is replaced by orange liqueur, orange juice and soda. The soda is added after mixing and floats on top of the drink.

This is one of the more popular cocktails out of the 5 cocktails named for the New York City boroughs. It proportions are the same as a “perfect” martini to which orange juice is added.

The white Negroni is one version of the well-known Italian cocktail usually served before a meal as an apéritif. It replaces the Negroni’s Italian-based vermouth and Campari with French Lillet blanc and Swiss Suze bitters.

The boulevardier is essentially a Negroni in which you substitute whiskey for the Negroni’s gin. It is served in a cocktail glass and garnished with an orange slice, lemon twist or cherry.

The French 75 which uses gin is one of the classic cocktails. In modern versions, however, there is a tendency to use cognac instead of gin. It is typically served in a champagne flute.

Absinthe has a high alcohol content and is typically diluted with some water whenever it is to be consumed. In the case of making a Sazerac (a classic from New Orleans), a chilled Old Fashioned glass is rinsed with the absinthe, crushed ice is added and the mixture discarded after a short while. The rest of the ingredients are mixed and added to the absinthe-stained glass.

The Moscow mule is an acidic drink and is typically served in a copper mug. The acid, however, dissolves the copper and this proves harmful to the drinker. As stipulated by the USFDA, a copper mug used to serve acidic drinks, like the Moscow mule, should be lined inside and around the rim with a non-reactive metal.

A Brooklyn is one of the five New York City boroughs cocktails. Apart from the Queens, Bronx and Manhattan, there is also the Staten Island Ferry (actually named for the ferry and not the borough, itself).

The cosmopolitan is usually served in a cocktail glass or the similar-looking martini glass. This adds to it commonly being referred to as a type of martini. The drink saw a surge in popularity when it was routinely featured on the HBO series "Sex and the City."

A Tom Collins is (as the name suggests) served in a Collins glass. There is a version of the drink called the Juan Collins, its name referencing the fact that tequila is used instead of gin.

The Last Word was invented just before the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 1930s. It virtually disappeared, and resurfaced in 2004 to rave reviews among cocktail lovers. The unlikely combination of strong flavors in the Last Word has plenty to do with how well-liked it is.