Classics
Classic cocktail recipe cards
One card per drink. The spec is the widely used modern version, not the only one; the notes under each card say where people disagree and what to change if you do. Every card prints at 4×6, or grab the whole set as one PDF.
Old Fashioned
Whiskey, sugar, bitters, and a big piece of ice. The drink every other cocktail is a variation of, and the card most worth getting right.
stirred · whiskeyManhattan
Rye, sweet vermouth, and bitters, stirred cold. Two-to-one is the spec; the vermouth you choose is the recipe.
stirred · ginNegroni
Equal parts gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. The easiest classic to remember and the hardest to get wrong, which is why it's on every home bar.
shaken · rumDaiquiri
Rum, lime, sugar. Three ingredients, one ratio argument, and the best test of whether your citrus is fresh.
shaken · tequilaMargarita
Blanco tequila, lime, and orange liqueur, shaken. The most-ordered cocktail in America and the one most often made badly at home.
shaken · whiskeyWhiskey Sour
Bourbon, lemon, sugar, and optionally an egg white for the silk. The template every shaken sour is built on.
stirred · ginMartini
Gin and dry vermouth, stirred very cold. The ratio is the whole argument, so the card carries the one you actually like.
shaken · ginGimlet
Gin, lime, and sugar, shaken. The fresh-lime version has replaced the Rose's original almost everywhere, and this card is the fresh one.
shaken · ginTom Collins
Gin, lemon, sugar, and soda over ice in a tall glass. The long drink that's really just a sour with bubbles, which makes it the easiest one to scale.
built · rumMojito
White rum, lime, sugar, mint, and soda, built in the glass. The card that stops you over-muddling the mint.
stirred · whiskeyBoulevardier
A Negroni with bourbon in the gin's place, and slightly more of it. Richer, warmer, and the better of the two in winter.
shaken · whiskeyPaper Plane
Equal parts bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and lemon, shaken. The modern classic that proves a four-ingredient drink can be memorised in one go.