Today is World Cocktail Day, as if we need a day set aside to encourage us to indulge in a libation in these troubled times. But, since some PR firm took the trouble to set this one day aside for cocktail observance, let me share a drink or two with you.

First, I want to point out that wine lovers can be cocktail lovers. some of my wine-loving friends get a look of horror when I suggest having a cocktail, even if it is a Happy Hour conducted via a Zoom video hookup. Some distilled spirits have their roots in wine (Cognac and Armagnac come immediately to mind, so wine is essential to the success of the Sidecar among many other drinks) and many cocktails depend on wine-based ingredients for their success - the Martini is a shining example, but also many others that use vermouth, bitters and sparkling wine. So, it’s not a big jump to associate a love of wine with a love of cocktails, and thus I feel totally within my comfort zone sharing a few favorite cocktails with you.

I don’t much see the point (beyond the alcohol) of vodka, but I like gin (which is in a sense, flavored vodka) and a lot of gin-based cocktails. Gin synthesizes the old view of spirits as vehicles for medicinal properties, so here are a few interesting gin cocktails you might enjoy during these days of self-medication as we try to steer clear of the coronavirus. I won’t go into a lot of detail on the history of these drinks, though I do find cocktail history a terrific subject. Instead, let’s mix it up:

The Negroni

This is an aperitif-style cocktail that uses two types of bitters with gin to make a winning combination:

• 1 part gin (for this drink, I like Beefeater)

• 1 part Campari

• 1 part Sweet Vermouth (lots of options, but I like Cocchi Vermouth di Torino here)

You can “build” this in the highball glass you serve it ink or make it in a shaker and pour it into a small martini glass to serve it straight up. Garnish with an orange peel.

The Coral Reef

This is a riff on the Negroni I created a few years ago when I was designing cocktails for Silversea Cruises. While working out the formula I shared the drink with a few guests on a Pacific cruise to get their impressions and one guest said, “oh, it looks like pink coral!,” and so the drink got it’s name

• 2 parts gin (I like Plymouth in this drink)

• 1 part St. Germaine Elderflower Cordial

• 3/4 part Aperol (this is where the color comes from)

• a splash of soda

Stir the first three ingredients with ice in a mixing glass or shaker, pour over ice in a highball glass and add a splash (and just a splash!) of soda. Garnish with a lemon twist

The Pegu Club Cocktail

This drink was concocted at the eponymous Pegu Club, which gave Brits in Rangoon a comfortable place to hang their hats, at least until World War II intruded on the scene in 1943. In case you were wondering, the Pegu is a river. The drink also flows very easily, so careful - this can catch up with you:

• 2 ounces gin -- any good London dry gin will work (I use Tanqueray for this drink)

• 3/4 ounce orange curacao (or Cointreau or even Grand Marnier for a slightly richer version)

• 3/4 ounce lime juice

• 1 dash Angostura Bitters

• 1 dash Angostura or Gary Regan’s orange bitters

Shake well with ice, then pour into a chilled cocktail glass where you can appreciate the delicate orange color that comes from the Angostura bitters. This is the ideal time to use those Nick and Nora glasses you’ve been dying to try.

[This is a good point for an aside: Nick and Nora Charles are characters in Dashiell Hammet’s 1934 novel The Thin Man, which was almost immediately turned into a film that then spawned five sequels. In the novel and the first film, set in 1932 as Prohibition was about to end, Nick is (there is no way to put this mildly) a lush - he seems to drink from dawn to well past dusk. But, key to this aside, he is drinking from the small cocktail glass of the time, that held no more than four ounces (roughly 120ml). It bears no resemblance to the gargantuan troughs called martini glasses today. A single martini filling today’s glass will knock a good sized fellow on his behind, but in the 1930s, drinking was much more genteel and a real cocktail makes no more than four ounces, the perfect size for the glass they used then and that is today called a Nick and Nora - the picture of the Pegu Cocktail above is in a Riedel Nick & Nora glass that holds four ounces. I see another blog post coming, but that’s enough for now. End of aside.]

This seems a good point to end the post as well - there are so many wonderful cocktails to explore and yes, I do drink cocktails that do not include gin, and I’ll highlight a few of those in upcoming posts. Meantime, celebrate the day, and cheers! Stay healthy and safe everyone.