Brandy based Cocktails
The Spirit of Heroes
French Brandy
French Brandy Continuing our venture into the world of brandy, it's time to consider the gold standard. For centuries it has been conventional wisdom that the best brandy in the world is French. And it is Cognac. Whether this is *actually* true or not is, as usual,...
Brandy Crusta
The Brandy Crusta is an extremely important classic cocktail. For it is an early evolutionary stage of the cocktail. It was one of the first ever cocktails to move away from the classic cocktail formula, which we now call Old Fashioned. And one of the first to...
Brandy
It's time to take a closer look at one of the main spirits used in cocktails. Brandy. Please note that the purpose of this post is to discuss the use of brandy in cocktails. Not to review individual brandies. I will give a quick overview of the greater world of...
Sazerac
The Sazerac is something of a grand old classic, hailing from 19th century New Orleans. It has a good claim to be one of the oldest cocktails in existence. But like any old cocktail it has had a rough ride. Over time not only has its popularity risen and fallen. ...
Old Fashioned Variants
Now that we've gone over both the classic Old Fashioned and the method we would use to make one, it's time to talk variants. There are two general groupings of Old Fashioned variants: First are the named, classic variants which typically arise solely from altering...
Old Fashioned Method
This post is part of a multi post treatment of the Old Fashioned - one of the greatest of all classic cocktails. A previous post looks at the cocktail itself in the traditional way I cover all cocktails. Another covers the creation of Old Fashioned Variants. But...
Sidecar
The Sidecar is an elegant and excellent brandy based classic from one of the golden eras of the cocktail world - the Roaring Twenties. It is an incredibly tasty and multifaceted cocktail which remains almost criminally underappreciated in the modern day. Indeed, I...