Gin is It! (3 Gin Cocktails)

My darlings! I have been neglecting my blog. There are many reasons why, which are too many to go through right now, but please know that although I haven’t written as of late, I have many delightful dishes to share with you in the future (see photo, right).

But first, cocktails!

Due to parties and company, (and the fact that I am an absolute lush) my reserves have been reduced to bitters, vermouth, sherry, Lillet, gin, lemons, oranges, and one can of Blue Moon.

So, I’ve been making cocktails with gin.

Lots of cocktails with gin.

I present to you the Bees’ Knees, Gin Old Fashioned, and Bronx …

First the Bees’ Knees from The 2-in-1 International Recipe Card Collection.

The card notes, “We believe the recipe above is the most authentic relic of prohibition days, when the smoothness of honey was used to cut the “sting” of bathtub gin.”

This tasted like gin.  Just gin. I don’t know if the honey or the lemon took the “sting” off of anything. But my cocktail glass looks really pretty frosted like that. And that’s some organic honey that my mum got me when she was in Hershey the last time. One would think that the obvious choice for a gift from Hershey would be chocolate, but that’s why my mum is awesome. Thinking outside the box!

Next up, the Gin Old-Fashioned. This recipe is from, as it says in the picture, The Playboy’s Host and Bar Book. So, it’s an Old-Fashioned. But with gin.

And blah blah blah, knowledgeable old-fashioned men shun the fruit salad…I put a thin slice of orange in there. And if I had a cherry, or some pineapple, that would have gone in, too!

You know why?

Because this, much like the Bees’ Knees, just tasted like gin. Plain ol’ gin.

One last drink, also from Playboy’s Host and Bar Book, the Bronx: 

Here it is! (Please note the teeny-tiny Playboy bunnies on that sweet corkscrew):

Now this Bronx was delicious! You know why? It didn’t taste like just gin!

Yes, you could taste the gin (and I like gin, there’s nothing wrong with it). But the whole point of a cocktail is to be balanced. And interesting. And yummy. And this was all of these things.

So, the third time’s the charm. Bravo.