Have you ever wished there was a way to turn the crusts of your bread into a more delicious meal?
Well, Japanese whisky maker Nikka Whisky is here with a solution, and it’s so tasty and easy to make that we’ve added it straight to our roster of regular recipes.
Nikka Whisky first shared the recipe on its official Twitter account, and since then it’s gotten rave reviews from home cooks and whisky fans, so we decided to whip up a batch and share the recipe with you as well.
It’s called Guruguru Bacon French Toast, with guruguru meaning “round and round” or “in circles”, and all you need to get started is the following ingredients:
● Bread crusts – 8
● Bacon – 8 slices
● Egg yolk – 2, lightly beaten
● Milk – 1 cup
● Sugar – 1 tablespoon
● Butter – 1 tablespoon
You can also add black pepper or honey as optional toppings.
Step 1.
Cut the bacon to the same width as the bread crust and wrap it around the crust, as shown below.
Step 2.
Secure the roll with a toothpick
Repeat steps 1 and 2 for the remaining crusts.
Step 3.
Soak the rolls in the French toast liquid (made by mixing the yolk, milk and sugar) for about five minutes.
Step 4.
Heat the butter in a frypan and add the rolls. Fry both sides on medium heat until golden.
▼ And they’re done.
After letting them cool a little, you’ll be sinking your teeth into a round of sweet, buttery, salty heaven.
▼ The sweet and salty combination makes these bite-sized morsels incredibly addictive.
▼ Feel free to add toppings like honey and black pepper to add even more flavor to the mix.
The bacon adds a strong, salty taste to each bite, and Nikka says this combination makes for an ideal drinking partner, especially when enjoyed with a glass of their whisky on the side.
So next time you pour yourself a Japanese whisky, why not cut off some bread crusts and roll yourself a little piece of guruguru heaven?
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Calling all ginger beer lovers! Boy, do we have a treat for you? We’ve gone ahead and rounded up some of the Internet’s best ginger beer cocktail recipes so you can enjoy a refreshing can of your favourite drink but with a little twist.
We’ve got classics like Moscow Mules and Dark and Stormy’s as well as fresh takes like the Irish Mule and the Tropical Storm. We’ve found a little something for everyone, we’ve got vodka, whiskey, and dark and white rum-based recipes to choose from.
Scroll on for five of our favourite recipes.
1. Moscow Mule
Image: iStock
Moscow mules are a deliciously refreshing drink that really makes ginger beer sing.
You’ll need:
To make:
Fill a large glass with ice
Pour in the vodka and lime juice, then fill the glass with ginger beer and gently stir it with a spoon once to mix
Pop in a lime wedge to garnish, and you’re set to sip
If you’d really like to elevate your Moscow mule, it’s recommended that you drink it out of a copper cup. Copper
A Dark and Stormy is very similar to a Moscow Mule, only it features dark rum instead of vodka. Most people opt for a darker rum since it pairs better with ginger beer.
You’ll need:
To make:
Fill a tall glass with crushed ice
Cut a lime in half, then squeeze the juice over ice, dropping the lime wedges in the glass as garnish
Add ginger beer, almost to the rim
Top with 30ml of dark rum, and let the rum roll down through the ice
The history of cocktails is frequently divided into 3 distinct eras: the Golden Age, the Dark Ages and the Renaissance. But, as with any historical period, dig a very little deeper and you will uncover the complexities, nuances and subplots of a presented age. The cocktail renaissance, for occasion, is usually described by the revival of pre-Prohibition classics and their attendant approaches, but the interval concerning the late 1990s and early aughts also observed the delivery of a fewer heralded, but no significantly less influential, design of consume: the culinary cocktail.

Impressed by the Bay Place food movement, which was championing new and area components, the rise of the culinary cocktail introduced a equivalent farm-to-glass ethos to bartending, as novel then as when Don the Beachcomber initially released contemporary Southern California citrus into his tiki creations back again in the 1930s. This band of bartenders clustered in and about Sonoma County unlocked a more lively side to really serious cocktails, taking muddling to new heights as they integrated every little thing from kumquats to bell peppers immediately into the glass. Drawing from the bounty of California develop at their doorstep, these bartenders represented what came to be identified as West Coastline cocktails. Right here are four beverages that define the model.

Established in the early 1990s by Julio Bermejo of Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant in San Francisco, the Tommy’s Margarita omits orange liqueur altogether. The drink finds sweetness as an alternative in the normal honeyed taste of agave nectar, then an item that “was only applied by California wellbeing foodstuff producers,” according to Bermejo. Freshly squeezing the lime juice, even though conventional apply today, was a novelty and established this edition apart from the sour mix–laden solutions.

This buck-like cooler was established by Duggan McDonnell for San Francisco’s Cantina. Manufactured with San Francisco–born citron vodka, 5 spice–infused agave nectar, ginger, serrano chile peppers and lime, the planning of the Laughing Buddha emphasized the freshness of the elements by juicing the citrus to get. McDonnell even manufactured an effort and hard work to count on citrus foraged from friends and neighbors to maintain the radius of ingredients’ origins as little as possible.
Laughing Buddha
This Californian buck-like cooler has prolonged been the most preferred cocktail at San Francisco’s Cantina.
A sangria-encouraged punch from California’s Scott Beattie, labeled by writer Jordan Mackay as the “apotheosis of the West Coast bartender.” Beattie was the opening bar manager for the famed Sonoma County cafe Cyrus, and was recognised to repeated farmers markets for herbs, spices and develop to consist of in his recipes he even went so far as to deal farmers to plant crops exclusively for use in his culinary cocktails.
Painful Punch
A sangria-influenced punch by California bartender Scott Beattie.
Though it was developed all the way down in Los Angeles in 2009, Julian Cox’s Barbacoa belongs firmly to the West Coast design and style thanks to its inclusion of bell pepper and Fresno chile alongside two styles of citrus, ginger, agave nectar and mezcal. Savory, spicy and smoky, it assisted pave the way for the latest wave of contemporary cocktails that request to translate food into beverages.
Barbacoa
Muddled bell peppers and Fresno chiles embody the farm-to-glass ethos of early culinary cocktails.
A decade into writing about cocktails, more than that into drinking them, I usually can’t remember the first time I tried a specific drink. There are exceptions: I remember my first taste of Negroni, a bolt of crimson bitterness across my brain, requiring a second investigatory sip and then an order of another.
And I remember the first time I encountered the dirty martini. Mostly because I thought it would be the last.
In the early 2000s, I had weaned myself off the sweet fuzzy navels I’d enjoyed in college and was trying to appreciate IPAs, mostly to better navigate my first-real-job happy hours. Almost everyone drank beer, and I was trying to blend in and hold my own among the funny, flirty gang. I’d reached adulthood; my palate still needed to graduate.
One evening, into one of these happy hours strode another colleague: a raven-haired, curvy, slightly-older-than-me woman who waved the waiter off when he began reciting the beers on tap.
She asked for a dirty martini. “And I mean filthy,” she purred, to his delight. In my memory, she winked at our male colleagues as she said it. My recollection of their response — eyeballs telescoping out to knock over their pint glasses, a horn bellowing ah-OOOOO-gah! — is probably also somewhat exaggerated.
Marinating in my inadequacy in the face of this sophisticated, “adult” drink order, I had time before the drink arrived to imagine just how sexy this “dirty” martini would look. The Jessica Rabbit of drinks? A lacy garter in cocktail form?
What the waiter presented was murky with brine. A skewer of toadish olives slouched against the side of the glass, blue cheese innards oozing grease across the surface of the drink. It reminded me of nothing so much as the swampy vat of froglike critters that Jabba the Hutt kept nearby for snacking.
Envious as I was of this woman’s confidence, I had serious doubts about her judgment.
I went on to spend a good decade happily avoiding the dirty martini. If I found myself inexplicably in the mood for a pile of liquid salt glop, I’d order nachos.
When I got into cocktails, it was the crisp, clean martini I came to, de rigueur amongst cocktail cognoscenti: Gin (of course), a generous splash of vermouth, a dash of orange bitters, lemon peel. This is still my martini — ice cold, crystal clear, juniper-clean on the palate, lemon-oil aromatics as you raise it to your face. Perfection.
How to make a martini your guests will love — or at least love to argue about
But dirty martinis didn’t care. They went on their merry way, glugged down in vast quantities outside the cocktail-snob bubble. “The protests of the Martini purist did little to discourage orders for the drink,” wrote cocktail writer Robert Simonson in his book, “The Martini Cocktail.” “Eventually, some bartenders tried an if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em approach, electing to improve the unavoidable cocktail rather than banish it.”
I’ve kept an eye on bars and restaurants that have de-viled the dirty martini — not so much cleaning it up as dialing it in, keeping the salt and acid that drinkers love while tuning it to their particular frequencies. Fresher, brighter olives that haven’t been marinating in the sneeze-collection tray on the bar. Savory herbs and spices from various culinary traditions. Different wines, different savory ingredients infused into the spirit or added to the brine, or acid powders that add salinity and tartness without that swampy murk.
“People used to order dirty martinis sort of sheepishly, and now I feel like they’re more emboldened,” said Alexandra Bookless Turner, bar director at Albi in Washington. “It has had a little resurgence. People love to eat bar olives and a salty, savory flavor when you’re drinking. It makes sense that the drink is popular.”
Tom Sietsema review: At long last, Albi gets to the heart of Levantine cooking
Albi, which draws on culinary traditions of the Levant — the multi-country region around the eastern Mediterranean — serves a variation called the Za’atartini, in which vodka is first infused with the herb za’atar, combined with a blend of vermouths, and fat-washed with olive oil. It’s topped with a few drops of olive oil infused with a za’atar spice blend, which adds both nutty and herbal aromas and a creamier texture, and served with olives on the side.
At Bonnie’s, a Cantonese-American restaurant in Brooklyn, the MSG martini is the No. 1 drink. “I knew I had to have a martini on the menu,” says Calvin Eng, chef-owner. The restaurant’s head bartender, Channing Centeno, “knew that MSG was a big deal for me because it gets a bad rap. … It’s all over our menu, we talk about it, we’re proud to use it.”
Centeno replaced the classic vermouth with Shaoxing rice wine, and then “we take our olive brine and jack that up with MSG and whisk that together until it’s fully dissolved, and that’s our dirty brine. It’s super-packed with umami,” Eng says.
At Fiorella, Marc Vetri’s pasta restaurant in Philadelphia, the Dirty Pasta Water Martini has become a staple — the brine is made with a mixture that’s equal parts olive brine and the salty, starchy water leftover from the pasta pot. The brine adds both flavor and a thicker body to the drink. Customers can opt for gin or vodka, but “you taste the pasta more with vodka,” says Kyle O’Neill, the general manager. “We were going to call it the pasta ‘wooder’ martini, because that’s how you say ‘water’ in Philadelphia, but we decided not to be so tongue-in-cheek.”
Infusing parmesan rinds and thyme into a local Vancouver gin with sea kelp among its botanicals gave L’Abbatoir’s Martini Reggiano “these beautiful creamy, nutty flavors and textures,” says former bar manager Dave Bulters.
When I ran across a mention of that drink a couple years ago, I was intrigued enough that I found I could suppress the involuntary gag reflex I still experienced thinking of those blue cheese oil trails. Maybe that one Jabba-punchbowl didn’t represent the whole category. Maybe I should Jedi-mind-trick my way back to exploring the dirty martini.
I started wading in, splashing in the shallow end — a Castelvetrano olive here, a briny sherry there, and oh, what about preserved lemon? — getting more comfortable with the savory side of this cocktail.
Certain drinks become more than the sum of their parts. Drinks are loaded with signifiers. You drink them because your parents did or because they didn’t. You drink them because you like how they look or how someone else looks when she orders one. Drinks speak to us and for us. Never once, in book nor film, have I seen a hardboiled detective order a pumpkin spice latte, nor a kindly grandmother comfort someone with a shot of rye in a dirty glass. One need look no further than the peculiar anxiety some men still seem to have about ordering pink drinks or cocktails in coupes to know: Sometimes a cigar is more than a cigar.
But sometimes “filthy” just means a lot of brine. Now that I’ve been around the block a few times, I drink what I drink because I like it, be it an IPA, a fuzzy navel or a dialed-in dirty martini. I know that if I ever tried to pull off flirtation-by-drink-order, I would never stick the landing. But in my refrigerator now is a parmesan-infused dry vermouth mixed with Four Pillars olive leaf gin, and lemme tell you, it’s not half bad.
Rental Tux (a Dirty Martini)
Scale and get a printer-friendly version of the recipe here.
This is a dirtied riff on a super-dry early martini variation called the Tuxedo. The original Tuxedo can have some savory notes from the sherry, but the Rental Tux has gotten all schmutzed up, thanks to caperberries (subbing for olives) and a few drops of toasted sesame oil, which enhances the nutty tones in the wine. If you’re not afraid of a little texture in your drink, skip the double-straining — the seeds inside the caperberries are delicious and fun to crush with your teeth.
2 caperberries, divided
3 to 4 drops toasted sesame oil, plus more for topping
Ice
2 ounces London dry gin
1 ounce fino or manzanilla sherry
Make a slit at the base of one of the caperberries, wedge it onto the rim of a Nick and Nora glass, then place the glass in the freezer.
Drop the other caperberry at the bottom of a cocktail shaker and crush it with a muddler, so that it’s torn open and the inner seeds are well exposed. Add the toasted sesame oil. Fill the shaker halfway with ice. Add the gin and sherry and shake hard to chill, about 15 seconds.
Double-strain into the chilled glass. Top with a few more drops of the sesame oil, if you like and serve. You can drop the caperberry garnish into the drink to make it a little saltier as you sip, and finish it off at the end.
From Spirits columnist M. Carrie Allan.
Scale and get a printer-friendly version of the recipe here.
This salty-sweet martini marries preserved lemon, a pickled, salty-tart fermented citrus often used in Moroccan cuisine, with a citrus-forward gin (try Tanqueray No. 10, Citadelle’s Jardin D’Été or Malfy Con Limone). Note that the vermouth is blanc, not the standard dry, which makes for a slightly sweeter note that balances out the saltiness of the preserved lemon. If you like it drier, stick to dry vermouth; if you like a dirtier martini, add more lemon brine.
Where to Buy: Preserved lemon can be found at well-stocked supermarkets and online.
1 thin slice preserved lemon, for garnish
Ice
Dash of orange bitters
2 ounces gin
1 ounce bianco or blanc vermouth (such as Dolin)
1 to 2 teaspoons preserved lemon brine, to taste
1 strip fresh lemon peel
Thread the preserved lemon slice with a cocktail pick and set in a cocktail coupe or martini glass; transfer to the freezer.
Add ice to a mixing glass, followed by the bitters, gin, vermouth and lemon brine. Stir to dilute and chill, about 10 seconds.
Strain the drink into the chilled cocktail glass. Express the strip of fresh lemon peel over the surface of the drink, then discard the peel and serve.
From Spirits columnist M. Carrie Allan.
Scale and get a printer-friendly version of the recipe here.
A hit cocktail at Fiorella, Marc Vetri’s pasta restaurant in Philadelphia, this dirty-martini riff utilizes olive juice along with an ingredient the restaurant has plenty of — the salty, silky water left over from cooking its pasta. Customers pick gin or vodka for the base; the pasta flavor is more noticeable with neutral vodka. Fiorella uses whole, unpitted Castelvetrano and Galleta olives; we won’t tell if you use pitted ones, but make sure they’re good olives.
Total time: 5 mins, not counting the cooking of pasta
Make Ahead: You’ll want to have the pasta water cooled and preferably chilled before making the drink. Pasta water can be refrigerated for up to 48 hours; shake before using.
3 olives, for garnish (see headnote)
Ice
2 ounces vodka or gin
1/2 ounce pasta water
1/2 ounce olive brine
Chill a Nick and Nora glass or a small coupe in the freezer. Spear the olives on a cocktail pick.
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add the vodka or gin, pasta water, and olive brine and shake to chill, 10 seconds.
Double-strain into the chilled glass, garnish with the olives and serve.
From Fiorella restaurant in Philadelphia.
Recipes tested by M. Carrie Allan; email questions to voraciously@washpost.com.
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Celebrating the new season with a fresh and fizzy spring cocktail.
Spring is in the air, which means it’s time to start making the most of the longer days and warmer weather. Yes, we can finally put away those winter coats, sweaters and boots, but aside from switching up your wardrobe, what better way to welcome in the new season than by mixing up a refreshing cocktail that celebrates all things spring? It’s been a long, cold and grey winter, so let’s bid adieu to hot toddies, mulled wine and espresso martinis until next year, and embrace spring with a fresh and rejuvenating beverage.
While it’s always nice to head out to a favorite cocktail bar or lounge, there’s something special about testing out your own bartending skills right at home, whether you’re preparing a drink solo or mixing up a batch of refreshments for a celebratory springtime fête. From bubbly beverages and champagne cocktails to cheerful spritzers and mezcal libations, these are the best spring-ready cocktail recipes to whip up this season and buy some wholesale soft drinks.
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The Best Spring Cocktail Recipes to Sip This Season
The League Favorite.
The League Favorite
Ingredients:
2 oz The Botanist Islay Dry Gin
.75 oz fresh lemon juice
.25 oz simple syrup
1 bar spoon apricot preserves
Elderflower tonic water
Lemon wedge and sprig of thyme
Directions:
Add all ingredients, except tonic, to a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Fine strain over ice into a highball glass; top with elderflower tonic and garnish with a lemon wedge and fresh sprig of thyme and enjoy this gin cocktail.
Spring Garden.
Ketel One Spring Garden
Ingredients:
45 ml Ketel One Vodka
10 ml sugar syrup
20ml fresh lemon
65 ml fresh pressed apple juice
3 fresh raspberries
8 fresh mint leaves
Directions:
Combine all ingredients into a shaker and shake with ice. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Garnish with mint sprig and raspberry.
Peach Flower Power.
Peach Flower Power
Ingredients:
3 oz Rosa Regale Sparkling White Wine
1 oz gin
.5 oz elderflower liqueur
.5 oz peach puree
1 oz lemon juice
2 dashes lavender bitters
Directions:
Shake over ice; top off with sparkling white wine. Strain into coupe glass and garnish with lemon twist and edible orchard.
Add all ingredients to a lowball glass filled with ice. Stir gently and garnish with thyme.
Raspberry Rosé Cocktail.
Raspberry Rosé Cocktail
Ingredients:
1 lime, cut into wheels
.5 part raspberries
Sugar, to taste
1 bottle chilled Mumm Napa Brut Rosé
Raspberries and lime wheel, for garnish
Directions:
Muddle lime wheels, raspberries and sugar. Let rest until sugar dissolves, then strain using fine mesh strainer. Add one part compote and five parts Mumm Napa Brut Rosé sparkling wine to a glass. Garnish with raspberries lime wheels.
1 oz Empress 1908 Gin
.5 oz génépi
4 dashes lavender bitters
2 dashes cardamom bitters Thomas Henry Tonic Water
2 dehydrated lemon wheels and lavender sprig, for garnish
Directions:
Add all ingredients into a goblet; garnish with lemon wheels and lavender sprig.
What’s The Tea, Rosarita.
What’s The Tea, Rosarita
Ingredients:
1 oz Patron Silver
1 oz St. Germain
.75 oz hibiscus tea
.75 oz beet juice
.5 oz freshly squeezed lime juice
Directions:
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice; add all ingredients and shake well. Strain into a chilled coupe.
Meatpacking Spritz.
The Meatpacking Spritz
Created by Federico Doldi at Gansevoort Meatpacking
Ingredients:
2 oz Martini Fiero
1 oz St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
Splash of Prosecco
1 slice of grapefruit
Directions:
Mix the Martini Fiero and St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur together in a wine glass with ice. Top with a splash of Prosecco and add a fresh slice of grapefruit.
Berry-Mint Kenny. 818 Tequila
Berry-Mint Kenny
Ingredients:
1.5 oz 818 Blanco
1 oz strawberry puree
.5 oz fresh lime juice
.5 oz agave syrup
Perrier
Mint leaves and strawberry slice, for garnish
Directions:
Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake. Strain into a glass filled with fresh ice. Top with a splash of Perrier sparkling water and garnish with mint leaves and a strawberry slice.
Bee’s Knees.
Bee’s Knees
Ingredients:
2 oz Barr Hill Gin
.75 oz fresh lemon juice
.75 oz raw honey syrup (mix two parts raw honey and one part warm water until honey dissolves)
Directions:
Combine gin cocktail ingredients in a mixer, add ice and shake. Double strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.
Combine all ingredients into a shaker with ice; shake well and strain into a rocks glass filled with ice. Garnish with a slice of lime or a slice of jalapeño.
Sake Blossom.
Sake Blossom
Ingredients:
2 oz Yes Way Rosé
2 oz Nigori unfiltered sake
.5 oz cherry liquor
1 oz peach juice
.5 oz simple syrup
Cherry blossom garnish
Directions:
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add rosé, sake, cherry liquor, peach juice and simple syrup. Shake well. Strain over a cocktail glass with a large ice cube; garnish with cherry blossom.
1 part vodka or liquor of choice
2 parts limeade (combine lime juice, cucumber juice, basil water, pineapple juice and honey syrup)
Directions:
Pour vodka and limeade into shaker; shake and serve straight up. Garnish with a cucumber ribbon or a lime wheel.
Blueberry Mojito Cocktail.
Blueberry Mojito Cocktail
Ingredients:
1.5 oz Hennessy V.S.O.P Privilège
.75 oz simple syrup
.5 oz fresh lime juice
Soda water
Blueberries
Mint
Directions:
Add all liquid ingredients except for the soda water, as well as four blueberries, into a cocktail shaker. Shake until blueberries are bruised. Strain into a Collins glass with fresh ice; top with soda water. Garnish with a sprig of mint and blueberries.
Pina Margarita.
Pina Margarita
Ingredients:
2 oz blanco tequila
1 oz Cointreau
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz fresh pineapple juice
Directions:
Combine all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice; shake until chilled. Strain into a chilled Old Fashioned glass and garnish with a pineapple slice.
The Jasmine.
The Jasmine
Ingredients:
1.5 oz Bulldog Gin
.25 oz Campari
.25 oz Grand Marnier
.75 oz fresh lemon juice
Lemon twist
Directions:
Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice; shake until chilled. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon twist.
Add blackberries into shaker and muddle. Add all remaining ingredients, except for rosé, into the shaker. Shake with ice and strain into rocks glass over fresh ice. Top with rosé and garnish with Mint.
Fill highball glass with ice cubes. Add all ingredients into glass; stir.
Aperol Spritz ‘3-2-1.’
Aperol Spritz ‘3-2-1’
Ingredients:
2 parts Aperol
3 parts Cinzano Prosecco
1 part club soda
Orange slice
Directions:
Pour Prosecco into a stemmed balloon glass filled with ice. Add Aperol, then add splash of soda. Stir gently and garnish with an orange slice.
Mana Daisy.
Mana Daisy
Ingredients:
2 oz Teremana Blanco
.75 oz lemon juice
.75 oz passion fruit syrup
Splash of soda water
Directions:
Add lemon juice, passion fruit syrup and Teremana Blanco into shaker. Shake and add a splash of soda directly into the tin before straining. Strain into a coupe glass and garnish with edible flower.
Raspberry Tequila Spritz.
Raspberry Tequila Spritz
Ingredients:
1.5 oz Tequila Cazadores Reposado
1 oz lychee juice
.25 oz fresh lime juice
5 raspberries
1 pinch kosher salt
2 oz Martini & Rossi Rosé
Directions:
Muddle raspberries in the bottom of a wine glass. Add ice cubes; pour in all remaining ingredients. Top with rosé and then gently stir to combine. Garnish with a lime slice and raspberry.
Lillet Rosé Spritz.
Lillet Rosé Spritz
Ingredients:
3 parts of Lillet Rosé
3 parts of tonic water
Grapefruit or orange, for garnish
Directions:
Shake Lillet Rosé and tonic water with ice; strain into a white wine glass filled with ice. Garnish with either a slice of grapefruit or orange slice.
Stranahan’s April Showers Sour. Kyle Ford
Stranahan’s April Showers Sour
Ingredients
1.5 oz Stranahan’s Original
.5 oz sweet vermouth
.75 oz simple syrup
.75 oz lemon juice
2 bar spoons cranberry preserve
Egg white
Italian bitters
Lemon oil
Cherries
Directions:
Combine whiskey, vermouth, simple syrup, lemon juice, cranberry preserve and egg white in a shaker. Shake and strain into glass over fresh ice. Garnish with cranberries on a stick and lemon oil. Add a dash of Italian bitters and stir. Pour into coupe glass and garnish with brandied cherry.
Pour rosé, grapefruit juice, sugar syrup and egg white into a shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously for 10 to 15 seconds. Strain into a fresh wine glass or coupe. Garnish with grapefruit slices or edible florals.
The Woo Woo cocktail is a tasty vodka drink with a quirky name. It’s also easy to craft at home and even easier to sip.
When we talk about the Woo Woo cocktail It’s difficult for us to keep straight faces.
For starters, there’s the drink’s silly name that’s practically impossible to say out loud without giggling. Then there’s its vibrant red color and ridiculously easy recipe.
But the real reason that the Woo Woo makes us smile is the way it tastes. This fruity drink tastes like summer in a glass.
What Is a Woo Woo Cocktail?
We paused to admire this Woo Woo cocktail before we took our first sips.
The Woo Woo is a sweet cocktail crafted with vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice. Mixed in a 2:1:4 ratio, these ingredients come together in a way that make us us want to say… wait for it… woo hoo!
The drink is red. It’s fruity. It’s also super easy to sip either with or without a straw.
History of the Woo Woo Cocktail
The Woo Woo tastes fresh after four decades at the bars.
The Woo Woo’s history dates back to the 1980s, the decade when the Cold War ended, hairstyles were as high as Mount Everest and MTV killed the radio star. It’s also the decade when 20 somethings wore acid-wash jeans as they nonchalantly ordered drinks like Woo Woo cocktails at bars in cities like New York and at the Jersey Shore. We may or may not have been two of those tragically hip 20 somethings.
Cocktail historians are as fuzzy as a navel when it comes to knowing where the Woo Woo cocktail was invented. Some trace its origins to a now closed Queens (New York) bar called First Edition where bartenders would shout “Woo Woo” when crafting Woo Woo cocktails.
Woo Woo Cocktail Ingredients
The Woo Woo’s ingredients include peach schnapps, cranberry juice, vodka and a lime.
You just need the following ingredients to craft a Woo Woo cocktail at home:
Vodka
Peach Schnapps
Cranberry Juice
Lime Wheel (for garnish)
Ice Cubes
If you don’t already have these ingredients, you should be able to find them at your local liquor store and/or market.
Peach schnapps and vodka are the Woo Woo cocktail’s two alcoholic ingredients.
Special vodka isn’t required to craft a Woo Woo cocktail. We typically use Absolut Vodka. Not only is Absolut our current vodka of choice, but it was one of the most popular vodkas during the 1980s when the Woo Woo was invented. Distilled in Sweden, Absolut vodka has an ABV of 40{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889}.
Discover our favorite vodka cocktails.
While you probably already have a bottle or two of vodka on hand, you may need to buy a bottle of peach schnapps. We bought a bottle of DeKuyper Peachtree peach schnapps with a 15{d2b09b03d44633acb673e8080360919f91e60962656af8ade0305d5d8b7e4889} ABV for this and other cocktail recipes. Beyond the Woo Woo, the sweet Dutch liqueur is also an ingredient in cocktails like the Fuzzy Navel and Sex on the Beach.
How to Craft a Woo Woo Cocktail
We were sipping our Woo Woo mere minutes after assembling the cocktail’s ingredients and two simple bar tools.
Our Woo Woo recipe is so easy that it’s practically impossible to make a boo boo, i.e. mistake. And, as a bonus, you only need the following two basic bar tools:
Don’t give up if you’re missing one or both of these basic bar tools. You could use an angled measuring cup instead of a jigger and a regular spoon instead of a bar spoon.
Discover 10 necessary bar tools for lazy mixologists.
The first step in our Woo Woo recipe is to fill a highball glass halfway with ice cubes.
Adding ice to a highball is the first step in this Woo Woo cocktail recipe.
Next, pour the three liquid ingredients into the same glass. We use a Japanese jigger for this step. It’s a handy bar tool that ensures accurate measurements while reducing spillage.
Buy a Japanese jigger from Amazon if you need a jigger or desire an inexpensive upgrade.
The next step is to pour in the three liquids – vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice.
The Woo Woo isn’t a particularly potent potable. However, the Woo Woo is so easy to sip that it would be easy to drink several in one sitting. In other words, drink Woo Woo cocktails in moderation.
Woo Woo Cocktail Recipe
Ingredients
1 ounce vodka
1/2 ounce peach scnhapps
2 ounces cranberry juice
lime wheel (for garnish)
ice cubes
Instructions
Fill a highball glass half way with ice.
Pour vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice into the highball glass.
Gently stir.
Garnish with a lime wheel.
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Saveur Magazine’s BEST TRAVEL BLOG award winners Daryl and Mindi Hirsch share their culinary travel experiences and recipes on the 2foodtrippers website and YouTube. The married Food and Travel content creators live in Lisbon, Portugal.
Disclosures
Article Updates We update our articles regularly. Some updates are major while others are minor link changes and spelling corrections. Let us know if you see anything that needs to be updated in this article.
Funding We purchased the ingredients and tools used to craft this cocktail.
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