The Golden Ratio: Your Cocktail Cheat Code
Welcome to the online home of my cocktail adventures and alcohol musings. Pour yourself a glass – stay awhile. I was recently asked to teach a cocktail class aimed at the average cocktail drinker. Something simple and easy that wouldn’t be too complicated or overwhelming. As I thought through all the things about cocktails that can be hard – measurements, sorting recipes, finding ingredients, and memorizing stuff – I realized, no wonder a lot of people would rather just grab a drink at a bar. Cocktails can be a hassle. But they don’t have to be.
If you’re on my website, there’s a chance you’re a cocktail junky like me, spending your days trying to source unicorn tears from a certain Tibetan monk because you heard they offer the perfect salinity to a cocktail. Or, there’s a chance you just want to learn the basics. So, if you’re a unicorn-tear-hunter, you can look away now – this blog post isn’t for you. Go back to your Google search for sustainably harvested chinchona bark for your handmade tonic water. This post is for the rest of you.
Making cocktails at home doesn’t have to be complicated. There is a bartender’s secret called the Golden Ratio which allows you to memorize one formula and use it again and again to make dozens of different cocktails. As long as you stick to the formula, you almost can’t make a mistake. You can not only make standard cocktails, but also create some of your own with very little risk of failure.
The Golden Ratio is just this simple recipe:
2 parts spirit (rum, tequila, vodka, whiskey, gin, cognac, etc.)
1 part sweet (honey, simple syrup, agave syrup, triple sec, liqueur, fruit syrups, etc.)
1 part tart (lemon, lime, grapefruit, etc.)
If you convert it to actual measurements, it could look like:
2 ounces (60mL) Spirit
1 ounce (30mL) Sweet
1 ounce (30mL) Tart
So, to make a simple margarita by this recipe, you’d use 2 parts Tequila, 1 part Agave syrup, 1 part Lime juice. Swapping out the lime juice for grapefruit makes it a Paloma. Just like that, 2 cocktails, and you have nothing else to memorize.
Let’s keep going. 2 parts rum, 1 part simple syrup, 1 part lime juice – this is a simple Daiquiri recipe. If I swap out the rum for Gin, I now have a basic Gimlet. If I swap out the Rum for the Brazilian cane spirit Cachaça, I have the popular South American drink called a Caipirinha. Same sweet and tart ingredients for all three – I just did a spirits swap, and I made three distinctively different cocktails.
For sweet ingredients, consider expanding to liqueurs like Chambord, Grand Marnier, Maraschino, or Domain de Canton sweet vermouth. Anything sweet will work. Just remember these have alcohol in them, so you may want to make a smaller drink or share it with a friend. You have endless combinations at your fingertips.
It’s easy to make drinks for a crowd if you use the same ratio every time. You can also make large batches or smaller cocktails just by reducing or increasing the amount of the ingredients, keeping the ratio the same.
Download the image at the top of this article and print it out or save it to your phone. It’s 10 quick and easy drink recipes that will give you the basics to make several simple cocktails. Give it a try, and comment below your favorite combinations or entirely new ones that you have discovered!
Mastering the Classics: The Negroni
For starters, don’t rub the orange peel on the rim. As an Associate Food Editor, Bridget Hallinan primarily focuses on home cooking content for Food & Wine.com. She writes and edits recipe content, interviews chefs for helpful tips and tricks, and works on franchises such as cookbook roundups and taste tests.
I can remember my first Negroni clearly – February 2018, gleaming on the bar in front of me at Morrisseys Lounge in the Adelphi Hotel, Saratoga Springs. I’d been listening to my coworkers evangelize about this drink for months, watching them order it over and over again at company events and happy hours. The dark amber-orange cocktail always made me curious, but I’d inevitably resort to a Gin and Tonic at the last moment – or whatever the cocktail special of the night was. Spritzes. It was always spritzes.
However, as the weeks went on, I gave in and decided I owed it to myself to at least try it – after all, I loved the orange essence in Aperol Spritzes, so why not Negronis? With the first cool sip, I knew I’d found my new aperitif. It was bitter but also sweet, with strong herbaceous undertones and orange laced throughout. The finish was smooth and refreshing, the large ice cube keeping everything perfectly chilled. I finished it quickly, immediately understanding why people couldn’t get enough – granted, I wasn’t prepared for how strong it was. There’s no mixer, just gin, Campari, and sweet red vermouth. But as a now-seasoned Negroni drinker, I’ve come to appreciate savoring it over time, the Italian way. It’s become my own regular order whenever I’m at a cocktail bar, but I hadn’t learned how to make a Negroni at home – until now.
Late June is Negroni Week, an annual event when bars around the world serve the cocktails and donate a portion of the proceeds to a charity of their choice. In 2019, Negroni Week was extra special as the cocktail turned 100 – believed to have been invented in Florence in 1919 when Count Negroni ordered an Americano (Campari, vermouth, soda water) with gin instead of soda water. So when I heard that Campari would be hosting a Negroni class to celebrate, I eagerly signed up.
Perfecting the Negroni at Home
Led by Stacey Swenson, an expert bartender from New York’s Dante – once named the Best American Restaurant Bar – we worked our way through the Negroni’s history, first making an Americano, followed by a classic Negroni, and finally a Negroni Sbagliato (more on that in a minute). Along the way, I picked up some key tips for executing the cocktail at home and walked away a far more confident bartender. Here’s what Swenson taught us:
The basic makeup of a Negroni is one part gin, one part Campari, and one part sweet vermouth – we used one ounce of each to mix ours, plus ice and an orange peel.
Campari has a strong taste, so you’ll need a bold gin to compete with it. Swenson likes to use a London dry-style.
Swenson reminded us during the class that vermouth is wine, and wine has a shelf life – so make sure you refrigerate it. Sweet vermouth will keep in the fridge for three months, she says, as it’s fortified. Campari, on the other hand, has no shelf life, so you don’t have to worry about it.
Depending on your ice situation, you might want to create your Negroni in a mixer glass first and then strain it into your glass to dilute it a bit. If you’re using small ice that melts faster, it’s not necessary.
Swenson recommends using one big ice cube – the cool square or spherical ones you’ll often see at cocktail bars – or three to four draft-sized ice cubes, the kind you’d normally find in freezers. Whichever ice you use, make sure it’s not dripping wet.
After your Negroni is ready to go, grab an orange peel for garnish. First, you’ll want to express (aka twist) the peel over the glass to release oils into the drink. Then, place it in the Negroni standing up so that the outer side or orange side of the peel is facing you. This will create the most aromatic drinking experience.
While you might be tempted to swipe the peel around the rim for added flavor, Swenson advises against it. The residue will cause a slight numbing effect when you sip, which alters your drinking experience.
There are plenty of Negroni iterations out there – an Americano uses club soda instead of gin, while a Sbagliato (Italian for “mistake”) swaps in Prosecco. You can play around with rye, bourbon, mezcal, rum, and other spirits to create your own Negroni riff. Just remember the drink’s three components: bitter, sweet, and strong.
The Negroni Sbagliato was created by mistake after all – since the drink is made with equal parts, don’t stress too much while you’re making it.
Elevating the Old Fashioned
Back in the day, it was just referred to as a cocktail consisting of some sort of spirit, sugar, water, and bitters. As drinking culture developed, the word “cocktail” came to refer to any sort of mixed drink. To get this now-classic concoction, people had to ask their bartender specifically for an “old fashioned cocktail.”
Nowadays, if you walk into a bar or restaurant and order an Old Fashioned, it’s reasonable to expect a drink made from whiskey, sugar, and bitters, served in a rocks glass and garnished with an orange peel and sometimes a cherry. However, depending on where you go, the drink you receive will vary wildly in terms of quality. In actuality, an Old Fashioned is an incredibly simple drink to make, but apparently, it’s also pretty easy to make horribly wrong.
Before I was all that into cocktails, I remember trying my first Old Fashioned, and it was a good one. Naturally, the next time I was out somewhere, I ordered one, but the drink I received was far from my previous experience. I couldn’t really tell you why at the time – it just wasn’t nearly as good. With this revered classic that is far too often adulterated, it’s probably best to first learn how NOT to make an Old Fashioned.
According to the High-Proof Preacher, it’s a great drink to get creative with and can be the perfect starting point for developing your own unique recipes. But there are several things you just shouldn’t do to an Old Fashioned.
For starters, don’t throw the ice into the glass like the above photo – you’ll waste a lot of good whiskey. Also, do NOT shake an Old Fashioned – always stir it. This has nothing to do with temperature but everything to do with texture. Shaking it will add air and water, diluting the cocktail too quickly. Since the drink is primarily spirit, all you have to do is gently stir with ice, allowing for a smooth, velvety texture.
Do NOT muddle a maraschino cherry in your drink. I don’t know when this started or why people think you’re supposed to do it. Nobody wants little pieces of sugary cherry floating around in their drink. Yuck.
Do NOT use a cheap spirit and expect amazingness. This might be obvious, but with a cocktail that is mostly made up of one spirit, you’ll want to choose at least a semi-decent one. If you don’t like a spirit on its own, then you definitely won’t like it in an Old Fashioned.
And for goodness sake, do NOT add soda water. This is another weird one where I’m not sure why people started throwing this into Old Fashioneds in the first place. Ideally, you’re using a high-quality spirit here, so why water it down with bubbles?
Only simple ingredients and simple tools are needed here. You can technically get away without a mixing vessel or strainer and build the cocktail directly in a rocks glass if you prefer. You might notice that I didn’t suggest a muddler. There’s nothing wrong with muddling a sugar cube with a small splash of water (not soda water), which really is the old-school way of doing it. I just prefer making a simple syrup beforehand because it more easily incorporates into the rest of your drink.
Here’s what you’ll need:
* Spirit – Usually whiskey, but go with your spirit of choice
* Sugar – Preferably made into a syrup for easier mixing
* Bitters – Aromatic, 4-6 dashes
* Orange – For expressing the peel
* Mixing glass
* Bar spoon
* Strainer
* Jigger
* Citrus peeler
Add 4-6 dashes of aromatic bitters. Bitters are a bartender’s spices – a little goes a long way, so it’s best to not overdo it. But hey, it’s up to you. If you prefer to be more heavy-handed on the bitters, I won’t get mad at you. Try making an Old Fashioned without bitters, though, and you just have a glass of whiskey with some sugar in it – who wants that? It’s a small ingredient in terms of proportion, but bitters essentially make an Old Fashioned an Old Fashioned. I usually opt for the tried-and-true Angostura Bitters. You can order them online or find them at most any grocery or liquor store.
Add 1 teaspoon of Demerara syrup. As previously mentioned, you may see Old Fashioned recipes call for using a sugar cube, then muddling it in the bitters and a splash of water. That works, I guess, but what you’re doing is essentially making a sugar syrup, so might as well make a syrup ahead of time. For Old Fashioneds, a 2:1 simple syrup is recommended, meaning 2 parts sugar to 1 part water. Simply measure out the sugar and water, combine in a pan over heat, and stir until the sugar is dissolved. The type of sugar isn’t a huge deal, but for best results, use raw cane sugar or Demerara – my personal favorite. These types of sweeteners provide a much richer texture than your typical white granulated sugar.
Pour 2 ounces of whiskey or any other spirit you like. Old Fashioneds are typically made with some sort of whiskey, but the earliest recipes for the Old Fashioned simply call for spirit of any kind. I generally opt for using aged spirits, but an Old Fashioned made with Gin and St-Germain Elderflower liqueur is pretty spectacular. Lately, I’ve really been into making OFs with añejo tequila, molé bitters, and agave nectar. It’s an easy drink to make your own, so start by swapping out the base spirit and see what you like.
If you insist on whiskey, I recommend using one that is at least 100 proof. My personal preference is rye, so here are a few specific bottle recommendations, all of which are in the $20-$25 per bottle range:
* Old Overholt Bonded Rye
* Wild Turkey Rye 101
* Old Forester Straight Rye
* Rittenhouse Rye
Stir with ice until chilled. At home, I like mixing with 1″ cubes that I make using silicone molds. Due to the size and shape, they don’t break down very quickly, so they don’t over-dilute your drink, and they have a large surface area to more easily chill your cocktail. Insert your bar spoon into the mixture and gently move the spoon around the sides of your mixing glass in a smooth, rotating motion. There’s no need to agitate the ice much, which would just cause it to break down faster and add air bubbles – remember, you’re going for a velvety texture here. Your objective is to chill the cocktail as well as to slightly dilute it. With good ice, I’ll usually stir for about 20-25 seconds. If you’re using bagged grocery store ice, only stir briefly – this sort of ice melts quick and will more easily water down your beverage.
Strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice. Using a large ice cube has become the standard for serving an Old Fashioned. You can easily make 2 cubes at home using silicone molds, but if you want to take it up a notch, go for clear ice. Making clear cubes can be a bit more involved, but
