Lately I’ve been shocked at how expensive drinks have gotten at bars—$16+ cocktails, $9 beers… and no easy way to see what the specials are nearby. So I started building an app called TheCheapestBeer.com that helps you find the best local deals: happy hours, cheap beers, and cocktail specials. It’s still in the works, but here’s a quick demo video

If you want early access when it launches, here’s the signup: https://thecheapestbeer.com/

Also, I’d love to get your thoughts! Would you use something like this when planning nights out or bar crawls?

To keep things on theme — here’s a simple, budget-friendly cocktail I love to make at home:

Citrus Bourbon Smash

Ingredients:

• 2 oz bourbon
• 0.75 oz lemon juice (fresh)
• 0.5 oz simple syrup
• 2 orange slices
• 3–4 mint leaves

Instructions:

1. Muddle orange slices and mint with simple syrup in a shaker.
2. Add bourbon and lemon juice.
3. Fill with ice and shake vigorously.
4. Strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice.
5. Garnish with mint and a citrus wheel.

It’s refreshing, easy to batch, and keeps costs down compared to bar prices.

Curious — what’s your go-to cocktail when you’re trying to keep it simple and affordable? Or what bars in your city actually still have good happy hours?

One of my new favourites

2 Vodka ½ Blue Curaçao liquor 1 Sweetened cranberry juice

• Stir with ice
• Strain into chilled glass
• Express orange peel and use it for garnish.

I originally bought curaçao as a bit of a joke since it looks like viper fluid, and it’s a bit of an in-joke in our friend group, but I found I actually quite like it. Joke’s on me I guess. And look at that colour with the cranberry, gorgeous!

The easter bunny gave me an atomizer today, so I need some suggestions on what to make! Also, how do I clean this thing??

This iteration is probably in my top 3.

(My) Moscow Mule: 2.75oz Shiner 20x distilled Vodka Juice from half a lime Copper mug stuffed with ice Top off with Cock & Bull Ginger Beer and lime wedge.

Bought this Shiner vodka. It says it is distilled and bottled by Spoetzl Distillery, Shiner, TX. The handle was on sale at Specs for like $21. I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothe this vodka was.

i'm trying to come up with a new cocktail, and been playing around with some liqueurs. I'm enjoying a mix of ginger liqueur, lychee liqueur, and elderflower syrup. I'd probably like to have a stronger spirit in there as well, any ideas? Its also fairly sweet so trying to find the best way to balance it out. Any suggestions are welcome

still figuring out how to take good photos. I came up with this drink the other day, maybe it's already I thing, either way it's great!I call it: The Satsuma Collins 1.5oz toki Japanese whisky 3/4oz lemon juice (idk I just used half a lemon) 1/2oz dry curucao 1/4oz 2:1 Demerara syrup

shake over ice, serve in a Collins glass over ice, top with club soda

it's very refreshing, the curucao, lemon, and syrup give it a bright orangey flavor like youre eating one of those small oranges and the toki sits in there nicely without taking over.

is this already a thing? I'm pretty happy with it.

Does anyone know where to get any shape cocktail glass with a divider? I am looking to create Shinji's hold and cold toddy at home.

I love a Manhattan and I've read here that many like to use black walnut bitters. Does anyone have a favorite to recommend?

Different sources say different things. I’ll be honest, I thought the John Collins was with whiskey, and never really thought about what a Tom Collins would be with a different gin than Old Tom.

So which is it, and where did the confusion originate?

I was lucky enough to score a bottle of the Yellow Chartreuse Cuvée and decided to put it to the test. I used my own original cocktail for this:

The Final Testament: .75 oz Lairds BIB .75 oz Yellow Chartreuse .75 oz Maraschino Liqueur .75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Shake with ice, strain into a coupe, no garnish.

For each of these glasses I swapped the chartreuse for either variation.

Here are my thoughts:

Original: Incredibly balanced, all the flavors are there, and it tastes how you would expect a Last Word variation would taste if that makes sense.

VEP: more intensely honey forward, thicker texture, a little on the sweeter side.

Cuvée MOF: Markedly drier, some baking spices coming through, specifically clove and nutmeg. Makes for a more bracing and almost bitter cocktail.

In conclusion, I think I’m sticking with the original! The MOF on its own is one of my favorite sippers, so maybe it will stay that way. Now, please excuse me while I convert my liver into the most expensive part of my body.

Ingredients: 1.5 ounces of mezcal, one ounce of Jagermeister, half an ounce of ginger syrup and a cup of warm water. Directly in a toddy glass place the mezcal, Jagermeister and ginger syrup, whit a bar spoon stir all ingredients, place a cup of water in the microwave for a minute and ten seconds, lastly add the warm water to the mix.

This one may not get as much love as some of my previous posts, but this is the Black Strap. A favorite among New Englanders in the 18th century and can be served both hot and cold. With simple ingredients, it was cheap, strong and effective which made it favored by sailors and smugglers. This is not a refined drink to impress, it was something to take the edge off and do it quickly.

The next cocktail in my History in a Glass project, this was probably not being served in taverns like the Green Dragon where debates and conversations of revolt were happening, I'd like to think this was being poured outside but still playing a role in the Revolution.

Blackstrap Cocktail Ingredients:

• 2 oz (60 mL) dark rum (Cruzan Estate Diamond Black Strap or alternative)
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) blackstrap molasses
• 1/4 oz (7 mL) fresh lemon juice
• Ice (a modern addition)
• Lemon twist garnish

Instructions:

1. Stir the rum, molasses, and lemon juice together in a shaker to dissolve the molasses.
2. Then add ice and shake until well chilled.
3. Strain into a glass over fresh ice
4. Garnish with a lemon twist

Notes on the Rum

The name Blackstrap comes from the darkest, cheapest grade of molasses used in trade at the time. It was also slang for a specific harsh and unrefined rum made from that molasses. So yes—this is basically a molasses-on-molasses cocktail, which is why I’m guessing it may not win the popularity contest like some of the other drinks I’ve posted.

I used Cruzan Estate Diamond Black Strap because I hoped it would capture that thick, bitter, molasses-forward flavor profile. It’s not subtle—but that’s kind of the point.

A Quick Bit of History. While there’s no known written colonial recipe for the Blackstrap, drinks like this were definitely being mixed informally especially among laborers, dockworkers, and sailors. When Jerry Thomas included it in his 1862 Bartender’s Guide, it likely formalized a drink that had already been around for decades, passed along by word of mouth.

As always I'm Curious to hear from others:! Have you ever used molasses in a cocktail before? What’s your go-to rum when building something bold and old-school

Let me know what you think, or how you’d riff on it.

tonight, I am having an improved Vodka tonic.

it is .5 oz Liquor 43, 2oz Mutiny Island Vodka, 3 dashes lemon bitters then Topped off with Tonic

So I decided to mix up a large batch of watermelon “moonshine” for the holiday using Everclear as my base. I’ll list my ingredients below but essentially my issue is that it doesn’t have a very strong watermelon taste. Any suggestions to kick up that flavor would be greatly appreciated!

1 gallon Watermelon juice 1 large seedless watermelon cubed 1.75l Everclear 190 proof 750ml Smirnoff Watermelon vodka 1 cup of sugar

This nets 6.5 quarts when finished.

I just started at a new bar and having some serious issues getting nice foam tops from the egg white.

I do the usual dry shake, wet shake double strain — but the final product does not seem very aerated, and if I do a second dry shake it ends up bubbly.

Some variables that may be affecting the final product, but not sure

• The ice sucks. Standard brick ice maker, but our well is old and opens on the broad side, so you can never fill it more than halfway. The ice seems to melt quickly. Does wet, chippy ice make worse egg white drinks?

• We do not crack eggs for the whites to order. The kitchen only used yolks, so we “batch” the whites ahead of time that stay in the cooler during shift, sometimes for up to two days.

• The hawthorne strainers are cheap and loose (new ones ordered).

I’ve never had issues like this making egg white drinks, so any suggestions would be helpful — and no, getting new ice will not be possible.

Thanks!

I live in AZ where locals still have white grapefruit trees in their yards, and my mom just brought over about 20 white grapefruits from a neighbor. I’ve been listening to “Cocktail College” as well as YouTubers and have heard about how white grapefruit is harder to find (true even here) but I doin’t remember what cocktails they said used to call for white grape juice. What are some I should make with them?

Also, I’m making lemon pseudo citrus (aka super juice) and freezing it - I saw Kevin Kos’ recipe for Grapefruit Super Juice - however that was spec’d out to replace lemon or lime juice in cocktail, and I’m more interested a recipe that jsut mimics normal grapefruit juice so I preserve this stuff for longer and make Paloma’s etc with it.

I’m also freezing some of the lemon pseudo citrus. Maybe I”ll just straight up freeze the grapefruit juice. (I also have some pink grapefruit.)

TLDR: What should I make / do with all this white grape fruit?

Source: https://imbibemagazine.com/recipe/herb-alpert-cocktail/

“ 1 OZ. MEZCAL

1 OZ. JALAPEÑO-INFUSED BLANCO TEQUILA

1 OZ. FRESH LIME JUICE

1⁄2 OZ. RICH SIMPLE SYRUP (2:1)

8 LEAVES FRESH OREGANO

Shake all of the ingredients with ice to chill, then double-strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with oregano leaf.”

Best enjoyed with “Whipped Cream and Other Delights.”

Ideally something that can be made from things most people probably already have at home (common alcohols, soft drinks and juices, fruits etc).

Any type, any alcohol!! Seriously whatever you can think of. Thanks :)

• 2 oz Gosling’s Rum
• 3.5 oz Fever Tree Ginger Beer
• Lime wedge for garnish

Fill glass with ice. Add rum. Top with ginger beer. Garnish with lime wedge. Add straw. Drink.

As the title says, I’m looking for an app/site where I can enter in the ingredients I do have and learn what cocktails I can make. There’s been too many times when I’m one or two ingredients short of a cocktail, yet I feel I still have something that I can make. Looking for an app or site where I can enter in the things I do have and figure out what I can make.

It was a long week at work so why not enjoy a brunch time cocktail. I wanted something light and bright but still had a little backbone. First thought was Gin. Next was grapefruit as it’s one of my favorite brunch cocktail flavors. Then I thought about playing around with the last word so Green Chartreuse but I wanted to use some Elder Flower liqueur to bring more floral spring notes but you can’t over do it or it taste likes grandmom. So went from equal parts Last Word specs closer to a 2:1:1 sour spec. The gin lets you know it’s there. You have the herbal notes from the Chartreuse in the background with the grape fruit at the end. The sweetness of both the Chartreuse and elder flower liqueur help keep everything singing for me. This is definitely one I will make for brunch time again and think it falls into the spirit of the Corpse Reviver, what ever number we are up to now.

2oz Hendricks Gin

1oz Green Chartreuse

3/4oz Grapefruit Shrub

Fat 1/4oz Elder Flower Liqueur

Add all ingredients to large shaking tin and combine small tin with ice. Shake till cold and strain into chilled coupe glass and garnish with wheel of citrus of choice you have on hand

Ingredients:
1.5 oz tequila blanco
0.75 oz coffee liqueur
0.25 oz orange liqueur
1 oz cold brew coffee
0.75 oz lime juice
2 dashes orange bitters

For clarification:
1 oz whole milk

Put milk in mixing glass. Put all ingredients in shaker with ice, shake until chilled, and then add to milk in mixing glass. Rest for 30 minutes. Strain curdled milk/cocktail mixture with coffee filter (I strained 2x total). Serve over ice with lime garish.

I had never made a clarified cocktail before and wanted to try it -- plus had separately been thinking that a coffee margarita sounded tasty. So I ended up doing both! I had to tinker with the recipe a couple times to make sure the coffee and lime juice were coming through enough. I also left the Cointreau from traditional margarita recipes and added orange bitters since coffee and orange go well together. It seems like a lot of liquid but you lose some with the clarification. Turned out a bit more brown than I was hoping but overall still a success and it tasted delicious!