Up to this point, most of the drinks I’ve provided have been pretty simple and straightforward.  The recipes here will start getting a bit more complicated, and include one easy to find, but not usual ingredient: egg whites.  If you’re making drinks for the elderly, the young, or those with compromised immune systems, spend a little extra and grab pasteurized eggs.  Otherwise, be aware that there’s a risk with raw egg whites (you didn’t think we would be cooking them, did you?).

Since we’ll be working with egg whites, you’ll need to know how to separate your egg whites (I use the third option shown in the video).  Save the yolks for some other purpose (perhaps a good lemon curd?).  To make things more complicated, we’ll be adding a technique called dry shaking, even though it’s all liquid.  Even though I disagree with the name, it’s a simple technique.  It’s adding the ingredients to a cocktail shaker with no ice, and then later adding ice to the shaker to chill the drink (be aware of splashing when adding ice).

But enough about ingredients and techniques, let’s get to the drinks.  We’re going to start off with the bane of college aged drinkers everywhere.  The whiskey sour.  Fear not, there will be no fluorescent yellow sour mix anywhere near this cocktail (unless that’s your preference).  There will also be no top shelf whiskey involved, go with a mixing whiskey (but one you still enjoy drinking).

Whiskey Sour

  • 2 part whiskey
  • ½ part lemon juice
  • ½ part lime juice
  • 1 part simple syrup
  • 1 egg white

Building the drink is easy, add the ingredients to your shaker, give it a vigorous dry shake for 10-15 seconds, add ice, and shake for another 7-10 seconds to chill it down.  Strain into your chilled glass, and garnish with a maraschino cherry (if you must).  If you want to simplify it more, drop out the lime juice, and just step up the lemon juice to compensate (the splitting up of the ingredients is something we’ll really get into when I talk about tiki drinks)..

The next drink is one that fits more to the theme of the holiday:

The White Lady

  • 2 part gin
  • 1 part triple sec/Cointreau/orange curacao
  • 1 part lemon juice
  • 1 egg white

Building this drink is the same as the Whiskey Sour, just with a different base liquor, and a different sweetening agent.  Traditional garnish for this is a lemon slice or a lemon twist.

Finally, one that has the color to match the holiday:

The Clover Club

  • 3 part gin
  • 1 part grenadine/raspberry syrup
  • 1 part lemon juice
  • 1 egg white

If you’ve been paying attention so far, you should know how to build this.  You can use either store bought grenadine or raspberry syrup, or make your own (that may be another column).  And if you’ve been really paying attention, you should be able to see a similarity between all of these recipes and the ratios I referenced last time.

That’s it for today.  Once again, I’ll open it up for what you lot want me to write about next time.  Either start diving into the mess that is the classic (and *spit* modern) martinis, or starting to branch into some of the more “exotic” bitters and liqueurs to make drinks with.