Venom

Venom

***

A hugely popular cocktail in Scotland, created by Ross McGregor in Glasgow, 2008. As the orange juice and Blue WKD mix, the drink turns an eye-catching green.

Ingredients

25 ml (⅚ oz) vodka
25 ml (⅚ oz) Southern Comfort
275 ml (9 oz) Blue WKD
Freshly squeezed orange juice to top off.

Directions

Fill a pint glass with ice.

Add the vodka and Southern Comfort.

Add the Blue WKD.

Top off with the freshly squeezed orange juice and watch the green emerge.

Swiss Account

Swiss Account

***

Created by Griffin Cox of Lot Six, Halifax, Canada in 2017; this is Simon Difford’s variant which doubles the Benedictine D.O.M.

Ingredients

45 ml (1½ oz) vodka
15 ml (½ oz) Suze Gentian Liqueur
10 ml (⅓ oz) Benedictine D.O.M
2 dashes grapefruit bitters
Grapefruit twist for garnish

Directions

Half fill a mixing jug with ice.

Add all ingredients and stir until well-chilled.

Strain into a Nick and Nora glass.

Garnish with the grapefruit twist.

Aperol Cosmopolitan

Aperol Cosmopolitan

***

A grown up variant of the Cosmopolitan which replaces the cranberry juice with Aperol.

Ingredients

60 ml (2 oz) vodka
45 ml (1½ oz) Aperol
15 ml (½ oz) triple sec
15 ml (½ oz) freshly squeezed lime juice
Lime twist for garnish

Directions

Chill a martini glass or coupe.

Half-fill a cocktail shaker with ice.

Add all ingredients and shake until well-chilled.

Strain into the chilled glass and garnish with a lime twist.

Sloe Comfortable Screw Against the Wall

Sloe Comfortable Screw Against The Wall

***

Also known as the “Slow Comfortable Screw Against The Wall”, this is a variant of the Slow Screw and Harvey wallbanger and Sloe crew Against The Wall; the Southern Comfort gives this cocktail the “Comfortable” part of the name.

Ingredients

45 ml (1½ oz) vodka
30 ml (1 oz) Sloe Gin
30 ml (1 oz) Southern Comfort
120 ml (4 oz) freshly squeezed orange juice
20 ml (⅔ oz) Galliano L’Autentico
Orange wheel
Maraschino cherry

Directions

Fill a highball glass with ice.

Pour the vodka, sloe gin and Southern Comfort over the ice,

Top off with freshly squeezed orange juice until the glass is amostt full.

Carefully float the Galliano on top.

Garnish with a slice of lemon and maraschino cherry

Blue Monday

Blue Monday

***

Adapted from the 1930 book The Savoy Cocktail Book by Harry Craddock, the Blue Monday is a vodka based cocktail; this recipe uses blue Curacao where Craddock’s recipe called for blue food colouring.

Ingredients

60 ml (2 oz) vodka
7.50 ml (¼ oz) triple sec
7.50 ml (¼ oz) blue Curacao

Directions

Half-fill a mixing jug with ice.

Add all ingredients and stir until well-chilled.

Strain into a cocktail glass.

Slow Screw Against the Wall

Sloe Screw Against The Wall

***

Also known as the “Slow Screw Against The Wall”, this is a variant of the Slow Screw and Harvey wallbanger; the Galliano float from the latter gives this cocktail the “against the wall” part of the name.

Ingredients

45 ml (1½ oz) vodka
30 ml (1 oz) sloe gin
120 ml (4 oz) freshly squeezed orange juice
20 ml (⅔ oz) Galliano L’Autentico
Orange wheel and maraschino cherry for garnish

Directions

Fill a tall glass with ice.

Pour the vodka and sloe gin over the ice.

Top off with orange juice until the glass is almost full.

Gently float the Galliano over the drink.

Garnish with the orange wheel and maraschino cherry.