3 Drinks Even a 5-Year-Old Could Make

This is obviously not your five year-old. Photo credit: Alanna Hale

In the search for Father’s Day drinks, we turned to Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s new “Bar Book"—even though it’s not really a recipe book. “It was a hard sell, when I pitched the idea [to publishing companies],” the bar manager of Portland, Oregon’s Clyde Common and Pépé Le Moko told us. “I was like, ‘I want to do a cocktail book that doesn’t talk about cocktails! And the agent was like, ‘No.’ She flat-out said no.”

But, with the conviction that existing cocktail books suffered in terms of technique talk, Morgenthaler pressed on. “It’s a part of the conversation that’s been totally missing.”

“There are three things that, in equal proportion, make a great drink,” he said. “The first one is the recipe that you select. Let’s say we’re going to make a daiquiri. There are 1,000 recipes out there, and they all argue with each other. Finding the right one is a huge part of the battle. I’ve spent the past 20 years trying to find the perfect recipe for these things.”

"The second thing is the ingredients. The third thing, which nobody ever talks about, is the technique you employ.”

The “Bar Book”’s recipes are really sidebars to pages of technique, in other words, and the three drinks below require little of the latter. In fact, they’re so easy your kids could make them for you.

Dads, take note.

Photo credit: courtesy Lush Life Productions

House Old-Fashioned
Makes 1 drink

“This is the standard old-fashioned we make at my bar. The formula has never disappointed even the most discerning classic cocktail drinker, but then again it’s pretty much cribbed word for word from Jerry Thomas (save for the Bogart’s bitters, which are sadly still extinct at the time of this writing).”

1 tsp. 2:1 simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 oz. bourbon whiskey
Large ice cubes
1 orange peel for garnish

Combine the simple syrup, bitters, and bourbon in a mixing glass and stir with ice cubes. Strain over fresh ice into an old-fashioned glass. Twist the peel over the surface of the cocktail, rub the rim of the glass with the peel, and drop in the drink to serve.

Dark and Stormy
Makes 1 drink

“A Dark and Stormy is one of my favorite drinks in spring, when the weather here in the Pacific Northwest is warm, but the clouds are heavy and full of rain. Sitting on a covered porch watching the rain clouds roll in is always better with one of these sunny refreshers in hand.”

Cracked ice
2 oz. dark rum
4 oz. ginger beer
1 lime wedge for garnish

Fill the glass with cracked ice and add the rum and ginger beer. Stir with a bar spoon and garnish with the lime to serve.

Tanqueray 10 Negroni
Makes 1 drink

“Equal parts booze, then rocks and an orange twist,” Morgenthaler says of this recipe, which is not in the book. “There’s nothing easier than that.”

1 oz. Tanqueray 10 gin*
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth (use classic Cinzano or Martini & Rossi, says Morgenthaler)
Large ice cubes
1 orange peel for garnish

Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass and stir with ice cubes. Strain over fresh ice into an rocks glass. Twist the peel over the surface of the cocktail, rub the rim of the glass with the peel, and drop in the drink to serve.

*The Negroni is kind of weird, because it’s a citrus-driven cocktail even thought there’s no citrus in it,” says Morgenthaler. ”Having a gin that’s really citrus forward, makes sense in this drink, and Tanqueray 10 is made with whole fruit, not just orange peels, in the still.”