Quickly Make Incredible Drinks at Home
It’s fun to look for cocktail recipes but it’s easy to get discouraged when so many drinks include an ingredient you don’t have, or one that is expensive and you don’t know if you’ll like it, or ever use it again. When we recently visited the tasting room for Crater Lake Spirits in Bend, Oregon they shared cocktail recipes with us that included four ingredients or less, with what we probably already had in our pantry.
We put ten of these recipes to the test to see if they were right. For each recipe we’ll let you know if we had to make a trip to the store for an ingredient and if the cocktail was tasty.
A quick note. Some of the recipes call for simple syrup. This might not be something you already have made at your house but it is so simple and easy to make. All you need to do is combine equal parts sugar and water and cook it on medium heat until the sugars dissolve. This uncomplicated ingredient is often what balances the cocktail, so don’t skip it in the cocktail recipe. It’s worth the five minutes to make. Plus, it can last in your refrigerator for a up to a month. If you have a lot leftover you can use it in your coffee or tea instead of sugar.
Tumalo Mule
Ingredients:
- 2oz Crater Lake Sweet Ginger Vodka
- 1oz fresh squeezed lime
- 1oz simple syrup
- top with club soda
Mix in a cocktail shaker and serve on the rocks.
Taste:
This cocktail is light, citrusy and sweet with a tiny kick from the ginger. What’s nice is you don’t need to buy ginger beer but you get the same flavor from the combination of ginger vodka and club soda.
Did we need a trip to the store?
No. We always have lemons and limes on hand and the simple syrup was easy to make (see recipe above).
Oregon Bulldog
Ingredients:
-
4 oz Coca-cola
-
splash of half and half
Mix in a cocktail shaker and serve on the rocks.
Taste:
The hazelnut espresso vodka combined with the cola creates unexpected chocolate notes.
Did we need a trip to the store?
No. We use half and half in our coffee so we had all ingredients on hand.
Piña Picante
Ingredients:
-
3 oz pineapple juice
-
splash of simple syrup
-
squeeze of fresh lime juice
Mix in a cocktail shaker and serve on the rocks or up.
Taste:
This drink will take your tastebuds on a ride between sweet and spicy. Don’t skimp on the splash of simple syrup, it balances the cocktail.
Did we need a trip to the store?
Yes, we didn’t have pineapple juice. If you don’t typically drink pineapple juice you can use the leftovers in a smoothie or in a sweet barbecue sauce like this one.
Pumpkin Russian
Ingredients:
-
1 oz Crater Lake Vodka
-
2 oz Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer
Mix in a cocktail shaker and serve on the rocks.
Taste:
This tastes like Fall in a glass. Plus, your coffee creamer can do double duty by making a creamy, easy to drink cocktail. We didn’t try it but we’re sure this would make a great warm cocktail.
Did we need a trip to the store?
Yes, we didn’t have Pumpkin Spice Coffee Creamer. Even though we didn’t have the creamer it was worth the purchase because we could use it in our morning coffee. Better yet, we’ll use it to serve up cocktails on Halloween and Thanksgiving.
Apple Cider Ginger Cocktail
Ingredients:
-
2 oz apple cider
-
splash of simple syrup
-
splash of lemon juice
Mix in a cocktail shaker and serve on the rocks or up.
Taste:
This drinks like a light cup of fall. The apple and ginger play well together on your palate and it’s easy to drink.
Did we need a trip to the store?
Yes, we didn’t have apple cider. We found small bottles of apple cider so we didn’t have to worry about what to do with leftovers.
Desert Salty Dog Cocktail
Ingredients:
-
1.5oz Crater Lake Gin
-
1/2 cup fresh squeezed pink grapefruit juice
-
top with tonic water
-
rosemary sprig for garnish
Mix gin and grapefruit juice in a cocktail shaker. Strain into a glass and top with tonic water. Serve on the rocks or up. Garnish with optional rosemary sprig and grapefruit wedge.
Taste:
The tonic water makes this a lighter version of a citrusy Greyhound.
Did we need a trip to the store?
No. We had a fresh pink grapefruit and keep tonic on hand because we love G&Ts.
Whiskey Sour Cocktail
Ingredients:
-
2.5 oz Crater Lake Rye Whiskey
-
.5 oz simple syrup
-
1 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
-
cherry or strawberry garnish (optional)
Mix in a cocktail shaker and serve on the rocks.
Secret tip: if you have a particularly amazing cherries, like Italian Amarena, use the cherry syrup in place of the simple syrup.
Taste:
If you like whiskey this was made for you. It’s the perfect balance of bitter, citrusy and sweet so you might need to have more than one.
Did we need a trip to the store?
No. We had everything on hand including those amazing Italian cherries.
NW Berry Lemon Drop Cocktail
Ingredients:
-
1.5 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
-
1.5 oz simple syrup
Mix in a cocktail shaker and serve up (no ice).
Taste:
This is some amazing boozy lemonade! It’s not overly sweet because of the lemon juice and doesn’t have a strong alcohol flavor. So be careful, you could drink to many of these before you know it.
Did we need a trip to the store?
No. We had sugar and lemons so no trip needed. It was cool that this cocktail only had 3 ingredients.
French 75 Cocktail
Ingredients:
-
1.5 oz Crater Lake Gin
-
.5oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
-
.5oz simple syrup
-
top with champagne
Mix gin, lemon juice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Strain into glass and top with champagne. If you want to get fancy add a lemon garnish.
Taste:
This is a bold cocktail, the tartness from the lemon amplifies the flavors of the gin and champagne.
Did we need a trip to the store?
Yes. We don’t usually drink champagne so we picked up a split.
Summertime Fizz Cocktail
Ingredients:
-
2 oz Crater Lake Vodka
-
2 oz limeade
-
top with club soda
-
fresh mint
Mix vodka and limeade in a cocktail shaker. Strain into glass and top with club soda. Garnish with fresh mint. If you have extra mint and you want to get fancy you can muddle it in your cocktail shaker before you add the vodka and limeade.
Taste:
This is a light and refreshing summer cocktail. The sweet smell of mint with each sip is quite nice.
Did we need a trip to the store?
Yes. We didn’t have limeade or mint.
