Easy to Prepare Cocktails : Mixed Drinks Made Easy

Easy to Prepare Cocktails : Mixed Drinks Made Easy. A cocktail is a combination of mixed drinks -- spirits usually mixed with other ingredients usually to have a distinct taste so as the taste of the spirit is easily complemented and it is more flavorful or tasteful to the palate. They are easy to do and normally done before you drink it and usually with ice. Mixing is easy as long as you know the quantity and the right ingredients for the main spirits like for example the rum in case of the pina colada ( I like this one), or bloody Mary (vodka) mixed with tomato juice and other garnishing. In this hub, I will show you how to make simple and made easy mixed drinks on your own, Usually you can get the desired taste with practice and combination and then you can make it your own taste specially those fruit punches combinations.

It is fun, not that expensive and one way to have a party and bonding with your friends specially if you enjoin them to make the mixed drinks with you. You can enjoy the cocktail and learn easy mixed drinks recipe. Besides it is cheaper and it is affordable too.

Cocktail or mixed blends are combination of a main spirit and usually juice or another wine :

In cocktail, you can mix the main spirits like :

• rum
• beer
• gin
• vodka
• tequila
• brandy
• whiskey

with other juices or garnishing and ingredients like seasonings plus sauce -- (Bloody Mary)

• Usually the main drink is not as expensive (depends on your choice)
• You enjoy moments with friends -- drinking mixed drinks or cocktails is for socialization purposes
• It is easier and fun to prepare
• It gives more flavor and distinct appearance to the spirits, it adds life -- more colorful -- specially if you garnish it
• It gives the kick to the main spirit
• Makes you want to drink and enjoy the sip
• It is not as bitter anymore, gives more the sweeter taste
• It is enjoyable preparing it and mixing drinks, experimenting according to your own preferred taste

• Mixing blends wine and spirits is largely dependent on your own taste and it is cultural in nature. In some colder countries they prefer the more concentrated and stronger wines.
• Gender preference is also taken into account, more men enjoy mixed blends now more than ever because it it a group thing -- partying etc. Unlike before that women are so called to prefer mixed blends as they prefer weaker concentration of drinks.
• You may choose between soda, juice depending on the color and taste of course. Like Jack Daniels, I like it with coke or Pepsi. With gin, lime is good. With rum, lime is also good and Coke too.

You will need these for mixing cocktails :

• mixing glass
• shaker
• stirring spoon
• another wine glass, tall glass
• strainer
• for measuring wines (ounces) called a jigger
• for garnishing fruits, knife

Pina colada is the main drink of Puerto Ricans and it is a rum combined with pineapple juice and coconut milk. So we are not going to make a rum, but rather mixed the commercial ones we bought to the rum which is the main spirit in pina colada. Ingredients of pina colada

Choose your um from among the best rum like : Sailor Jerry, Mount Gay Extra Old and my native rum Tanduay Rum, Pyrat XO and the list goes on.

Ingredients and mixing :

• blender
• coconut cream -- one cup
• rum one cup
• pineapple juice one and half cups
• ice crushed

Directions :

• Put all the ingredients in a blender and smooth it until it is well blended.You can put decorations or garnishing on the side of the glass like pineapple chunk or a cherry to make it more appealing otherwise just put it in a pitcher and drink it in a chilled glass
• Add to taste depending on how strong the pineapple tinge or the mixture

Ingredients

Vodka of your choice : Smirnoff, Denaka and Svedka, Skyy vodka and lots more but these are cheaper ones. The prices of vodka ranges from ten dollars (US) to 700 plus

• tomato juice -- 3 glasses
• lime juice -- one half glass
• vodka of your choice -- one and one half glass
• Worcestershire Sauce and Tabasco -- to taste
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• for garnishing use slice of celery or lime or orange cut

Directions :

Mixed all ingredients into a bowl and with cubes of ice. Stir it evenly until well blended.

Gin are distilled spirits using berries and other bitter plants, and the more famous gin we know is London dry, I am familiar with the gin (San Miguel) in the Philippines. Gin is a much cheaper spirits with a kick.

Gin cocktails are easiest to make, there are variations simply because you can mixed gin with any fruit juice like lime, lemon, orange pineapple even with soft drinks like soda and it is add to taste usually. I mean the ingredients like the punch or other juice you're going to add is add to taste. I usually do mixed gin with soft drinks or different juices during my college days it is cheaper.

Main ingredients are gin of course, and you can mixed this by simply adding the mixing by adding one half of the part of gin, like a half glass will need a full glass of juice, usually lime, lemon, orange, pineapple juices.

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Martini is a famous combination of vermouth (another spirit), olive fruit and gin

The most famous gin cocktail is martini

Simple Martini ingredients

• vermouth another wine 20 ml
• gin one hundred ml
• olive fruit

Directions :

Mixed it and drink straight up, the portion is approximately one vermouth to 5 martinis

Garnish it with olive fruit or lime peelings or orange peeling

Now, we are going to make tequila as the main spirit and combined with lemon juice and sweet sugar and salt dash on the rim . There are lots of variation in margarita depending on the fruits and juice which you are going to add. Here in Texas, they add some beer as well. Texas margarita is a combination of beer, tequila, orange juice and Triple sec.

Texas margarita

• The combination of Texas margarita is usually two, one and one -- two tequilas, one Triple sec and one orange juice. Add beer to taste

Tequila cocktail is a combination of another spirits, Triple sec (made from a dried oranges peel -- and with an orange flavor of course) with fruit juices like lime or other variants like orange juice etc, (strawberry, raspberry or mango and pineapple).

You can add your fruit juice and the amount of fruit juice to add according to your own taste by the way.

Sample of Margarita the basic one :

Directions :

• Mixed two glasses of tequila with one glass of Triple sec and one glass of lemon juice, Then mixed it well and blended with ice. Shake it until blended nicely or mixed if you are preparing in a bowl for lots of people. 

 Rice wine is a very strong kind of  wine stronger than the conventional wines and spirits derived from fermentation of fruits. Rice wine is produced form rice starch and fermentation. It is stringer that is why it is usually mixed with other juices for cocktails. You cna buy rice wine form Asian stores and big supermarkets. If you want to make cocktails out of rice wine you can follow this combination.

 Rice wine has a dictinct smell and strong flavor smeel, bitter.

Ingredients and mixing

• Orange juice or lemon juice three
• One cup of rice wine
• ice chunks to chill

Directions :

• Mixed and blend them nicely or with a shaker. (Add juice to taste)
• Garnish with lemon or orange

Note : You can also used other juices or drink like soda or sprite or lemon lime

Lambanog comes from "tuba" or coconut wine is distilled wine from the juice of the coconut plant -- the flower and distilled to achieve the taste. Like rice wine it is far stronger wine and it is also considered "cheap wine". The process takes days when a flower of the coconut is sapped and the juice is taken and later on distilled. They sell the commercial ones at Asian store and you can make a cocktail out of it by mixing it with other juices. I prefer the lime or orange juice to taste as it is bitter and  the taste is also distinct  with strong smell

Ingredients and directions 

one cup of coconut wine

• two cups of lime juice
• garnish it with orange peel or lime peel

Coconut wine cocktail-- Mixed and blend with chilled ice or you can drink it without chilling it at room temperature. Actually the locals when they drink it don't mixed it all together. They mixed it as they drink it and without ice.

This is a local wine in the Philippines but is available at Asian store everywhere. It is stronger like the rice wine and you may get drunk easily so it is taken moderately.

The brandy daisy cocktail is an old known cocktail and was famous in the 19th century until now. Brandy daisy is made by mixing the main base spirit brandy of course mixed with Chartreuse wine -- green or yellow chartreuse a French wine which is made from hundreds of herbs and a lime juice, then shake. chilled and mixed with seltzer. Although many prefer yellow chartreuse, the color is between yellow and green actually. Brandy is classified accordingto the length of its age, like Napoleon brandy is classified as X. O. -- meaning the aging process is four years minimum. The more expensive the brandy is the more years it is aged. Hennessy is a cognac and cognac is an example of a brandy. I still have Hennessy at the ref sitting.

Ingredients of Brandy Daisy, my style

• brandy -- Napoleon or Hennessy 3 ounces
• Chartreuse wine -- one and half ounces
• lime juice -- one and half ounces
• crushed ice
• soda water (seltzer) -- splash or dash
• Garnishing -- orange or lime

Directions :

Shake the top three ingredients with the crushed ice in a wine shaker and after it is well shaken put it in a glass with a splash of soda water. Granish with lime or orange

There are many whiskeys produced in each particular country, usually whiskey are classified according to the type of grains they are made from : malted rye, malted barley, maize, wheat etc. There are many variations of whiskey cocktail, but my main favorite is the simplest, Jack and Coca Cola whiskey cocktail. The more famous one which is American whiskey is Jack Daniels Tennessee (about 20 plus USD here in the US). There are lots of other whiskey, Irish whiskeys etc. It is relatively bitter for my taste but when mixed with Coke my favorite soda drink is good. Bourbon is a type of whiskey -- made from mostly corn grain.

Ingredients :

• one fifth of a glass Jack Daniels whiskey
• three fifths of a glass Coca cola
• ice crushed

Stir after mixing, add desire Coke with your own taste. Simple as that, this is a bitter spirit so have fun adding Coke. Drink moderately.

Beer is the preferred drink of many people around the world, and there are hundred of variations all over the world. Shandy is a combination of a beer with non alcoholic drink for example in UK they sell shandies. Beer cocktails are a combination of beer with another spirit. There are also lots of variations of beer cocktail. One example is the combination of alcoholic cider with a Lager beer which is called Snakebite.

Ingredients of a beer shandy cocktail with midori:

• Beer of your choice -- Lager, Corona, San Miguel Beer one half glass
• Lime juice with sugar -- one half glass
• midori --sweet tasting alcohol usually mixed with sour juice to give sweet taste one fourth of a glass

Directions :

• Mix all the ingredients
• Put ice

Drink moderately