Last week we did the Mint Julep in honor of the big horse race in Kentucky. This weekend we’re doing it Cuban style with the Mojito!

Hopefully you still have some Mint left over from last week, because the Mojito is very similar to the Mint Julep. Here’s what you will need:

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ oz Light Rum
• 6 Mint Leaves
• 1 Lime
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 4 oz Club Soda

Cut the lime into quarters and sqeeze the juice from each into a tall glass. Mix the sugar and lime juice then toss in the mint leaves.

GENTLY muddle the mint leaves against the side of the glass with a spoon. Don’t damage them too much. You don’t want small bits of mint leaf floating in your drink; you want to keep them whole.

Next, fill the glass almost to the top with ice; add the rum and Club Soda and stir. Garnish with a lime slice and sprig of mint. Delicious!

Remember, there are thousands of Cocktail Recipes on DrunkMansGuide.com!

A few weeks ago we did a feature on the Tequila Sunrise. That was a fun article because the drink has these three great layers. The drink starts off sour with the lemon juice on top, then it becomes tangy with the orange juice, and then sweet and fruity with the Grenadine. Yum!

But there is one great way to improve the Tequila Sunrise; in fact, this can improve many of your mixed drinks. You can make your own Grenadine.

Real Grenadine is made from Pomegranates, but the stuff you buy in a bottle at the liquor store doesn’t have any pomegranate juice in it – which is why it isn’t nearly as good as homemade. Also, as with everything else, when you make your own, you can control the flavor. And in the case of making Grenadine, that means really pumping up the pomegranate flavor.

Here’s how to make it:

• 4 cups of Pomegranate Juice (you can find it on the juice aisle at your grocery store)
• ½ cup of Sugar
• 2 tbsp Lemon Juice

Stir all the ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to a boil for about 45 - 55 minutes. You’ll want to test the consistency to make sure it doesn’t get too thick. Here’s how:

As you approach 45 minutes, use a spoon to get a little bit of the grenadine out. You only need a couple teaspoons to do the test. Put it on a plate and let it cool for a minute or so.

Once it is cool to room temperature, tip the plate and watch what it does. It should leave a nice coat of syrup as it easily slides down the plate. If it just sits there in a pile of purple goo, then it is way too thick. If it runs like water, then it’s still too thin.

A great comparison is to just use a little bit of the bottled Grenadine to see how the correct consistency looks. Although the bottled stuff doesn’t taste so great, it is the correct consistency.

The reason you need to get the consistency correct is that if the syrup is too thick then it will just pool at the bottom of all your drinks. Instead you want it to float on the bottom like a cloud.

You will notice that homemade grenadine is dark purple in color. It isn’t red like the junk in the bottle. It also tastes amazing!

Oh, and the other great way to improve your Tequila Sunrise is to squeeze your own orange and lemon juices. Simply outstanding.

There are over 9,000 Mixed Drinks and Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man’s Guide

You’re going to need a bottle of Light Rum, a small pile of lemons and some Creme de Menthe. That’s because this week’s Friday 5 o’Clock Cocktail is the Miami Cocktail. A delicious drink that goes well with Spring.

Here’s how to make a Miami Cocktail:

• 1 1/2 oz Light Rum
• 1/2 oz Creme de Menthe
• 1 dash Lemon Juice

Directions: Making this drink is easy. Just put all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake it, strain it, and serve it in a cocktail glass. Fresh Lemon Juice is always best, but we’re drunks so we use whatever we have available.

More Drink Recipes available at the Drunk Man’s Guide.

Minty and sweet - that’s what we’re looking forward to this evening. The perfect drink to sip as you gaze out at your yard and think about all that mowing you are going to be doing tomorrow morning. Yeah, it’s spring alright. The yard work, the pollen, the Rum drinks!

Here’s how to make a Mint Daiquiri:

• 2 oz of Light Rum
• 1/4 oz of Triple Sec (or another kind of Orange Liquour)
• 4 Mint Leaves
• 1/2 oz Lime Juice
• 1 tsp Powdered Sugar
• 1 cup of ice

Add all ingredients into a blender and blend it until it’s smooth. Keep in mind a couple of tips:

1. Try and get as much of the stems off the mint leaves as possible. They can make the drink a little bitter. It doesn’t hurt to use a knife to cut the spines out of the leaves.
2. Make sure you blend it enough to really pulverize those mint leaves down so that they are just specks of green in the drink. If you don’t blend them enough they will get little green flakes caught in your teeth, and that isn’t cute.

More Mixed Drinks and Cocktail Recipes at the Drunk Man’s Guide

Our friend the Cigar Smoking Man suggested a drink this week that deserves a Friday in the spotlight: The Tequini.

As the name suggests, this is a Martini that is made with Tequila. With Martinis, the supporting ingredients are there to bring out the taste of the primary liquor more than they are to make an impression of themselves.

The Cigar Smoking Man points out on his blog the importance of using bitters (sparingly) in this drink. He also makes a good point about bitters – that bitters are to cocktails as salt is to food.

True enough. Bitters do bring out an extra element in many drinks. Like salt, a little goes a long way. If you’ve put enough in your drink to be able to taste it, then you’ve probably used too much.

Here’s how to make a Tequini:

• 1 ½ oz of Tequila
• ½ oz of Dry Vermouth
• 1 Dash of Bitters (I used Angostura)

Directions: As with all martinis, the method of mixing is to STIR the ingredients gently with ice so you don’t bruise the liquor. Then strain the clear drink into a cocktail glass and garnish with lemon peel.

Also, when you get a chance, you should visit the Cigar Smoking Man’s blog. It’s a great read, even for non-smokers like me.

It turns out that this question has interested scientists and philosophers for thousands of years.

For most of human history, people thought that “spirits” inhabited the wine or beer. This is why we call alcoholic drinks “spirits” today.

However Louis Pasteur discovered yeast around the mid 1800’s, and that’s how we learned that actually it was the by-product of yeast cells that put the “spirit” (ethanol) into the drink.

Even so, it wasn’t until relatively recently that scientists learned how ethanol actually causes drunkenness. By understanding this, we have a better idea of how alcohol affects our health and steps we can take to enjoy alcohol with minimal risk.

If you consume alcohol regularly, then it is probably a good idea for you to learn a little bit about how it affects your body. Our article “What Causes Drunkenness” will give you a brief overview.

Maybe it’s because Spring is in the air. Maybe I’m just low on Vitamin C, but I have to admit I’ve been drinking these all week
The Orange Juice and Pommegranet flavor in the Grenadine goes well with the silky smoothness of the Tequila. A little squirt of lime juice really finishes the drink off nicely.

Here’s how I make mine:

• 1 1/2 oz Tequila
• 3 oz Orange Juice
• Splash of Grenadine
• 1 slice of lime

Directions:
Combine first three ingredients in a rocks or highball glass with ice. Squeeze the lime slice over the drink and then drop it in. Stir gently. Enjoy.

More Mixed Drink Recipes

You probably order highball drinks all the time without realizing it. In fact, although most people don’t think much about it, a great percentage of bar drinks fall into the category of “Highball”. Which is not only a description of the drink itself, but also the glass it is typically served in.

A highball is generally defined as a shot of a single type of liquor added to a larger portion of non-alcoholic mixer with ice. The drink is served in a “Highball” glass. Which is a straight-sided glass that holds about 10 – 12 oz.

Highball drinks, like Lowball drinks, are designed to be made quickly. Their popularity at bars is as much a result of bartenders needing to make the best use of their time as it is of consumer demand.

For many of us, the beauty of highballs is their simplicity.

To give you a quick overview of Highball drinks, we created our Highball Cocktail page. Check it out: www.drunkmansguide.com/articles/highball.php

Some noteworthy highballs:

• Jack and Coke
• Scotch and Soda
• Seven and Seven
• Gin and Tonic
• Vodka Tonic
• Screwdriver
• Captain and Coke
• Fuzzy Navel

More Mixed Drink Recipes

There are about a ton of ways to make an Apple Martini. The method below works well for me, although sometimes I just leave out the Vodka and double-up on the Gin.

This is a very strong drink, so don’t even consider operating heavy machinery like a car or a speedboat, or a catapult after you’ve had one of these.

You’ll also have to have a large martini glass. This thing ain’t suitable for the little dainty kind. You need one of those super-sized martini glasses!

Ingredients:

• 2 Ounces Good Quality Gin
• 2 Ounces Vodka
• 2 Ounces Apple Pucker
• 1 Ounce Triple Sec
• 1 Splash of Sweet ‘n Sour Mix
• Garnish with Apple Slice (optional)

Directions:
Combine ingredients into a shaker and shake. Serve in a BIG Martini Glass.

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Want a refreshing drink you can make with stuff you probably already have in the kitchen? Try a Tom Collins. The drink is sweet and tart from the sugar and lemon juice. It’s best to use fresh lemons to make this drink. But if all you have is bottled lemon juice, then that works too.

This recipe calls for simple syrup, which is easy enough to make. Just combine two parts sugar to one part water. It helps to heat the water up to dissolve the sugar, but you can make up a cup or two of this and keep it in the fridge. It is used in a lot of different recipes, so it’s a good idea to keep some on hand.

How to make a Tom Collins

• 2 oz Gin
• 1 oz Fresh Lemon Juice
• 1/2 oz Simple Syrup
• 3 oz chilled Club Soda
• Lemon Slice
• Maraschino Cherry

Directions
Add the first three ingredients to a mixing glass and stir with ice. Strain into a rocks glass, add the soda and garnish with the lemon slice and the cherry.

More Mixed Drink Recipes >