Gin has a serious-cocktail problem. The Classic Gin Martini is a serious cocktail. The Negroni is a serious cocktail. The Gin and Tonic is a serious cocktail wearing casual clothes. The Aviation is the kind of drink that comes with a small lecture about Maraschino liqueur. All of them are great, all of them have their place, and all of them give gin a reputation as a spirit you have to think hard about before you pour.
That reputation is not the whole truth. Gin is also the spirit of the Gimlet, the Bee’s Knees, the Tom Collins, and a long list of bright, fast, friendly drinks that are great fun to make and even better fun to hand to somebody else. This piece is a list of the gin cocktails we pour when nobody is watching the bar and nobody is grading our work.
What makes a gin cocktail fun
A fun gin cocktail respects the gin without being precious about it. The juniper still has to come through. The botanicals still get a vote. But the goal is a drink that goes down easy, looks good in the glass, and rewards the person making it as much as the person drinking it.
A few markers of a fun gin drink:
- Bright citrus. Lime, lemon, grapefruit. The freshness lifts the gin off the ground.
- A little sweetness. Honey, simple syrup, marmalade, a splash of soda. Just enough to round the edges.
- Bubbles, sometimes. Soda, tonic, ginger beer, ginger ale. Bubbles make a drink playful.
- A garnish that earns its place. A flamed orange peel, a sprig of mint, a maraschino cherry, a cucumber wheel.
Gallon House Gin is built for these. Juniper-forward at 88 proof with rose, coriander, citrus, and a quiet touch of cucumber on the back end. The cucumber especially helps in the fun-cocktail category. It keeps the finish cool when the rest of the drink wants to get loud.
The Bee’s Knees
The Bee’s Knees is the easiest case for fun in gin. The story most often told is that bartenders of the 1920s reached for honey and lemon to cover the rough edges of bathtub gin during Prohibition. Modern gin does not need hiding, but the recipe survived because it is genuinely great. Two ounces of Gallon House Gin, three-quarters of an ounce of fresh lemon juice, and three-quarters of an ounce of honey syrup, shaken hard and strained into a chilled coupe.
It is bright, warm, slightly floral, and one of the most reliable home pours in the entire gin canon. We have a whole Journal piece on the history. Full recipe in the grid.
The NW Bespoke Bliss
The NW Bespoke Bliss is a house original, invented at our counter one evening by a bartender and chef friend who came over and ended up taking over the bar setup. We let him name it. The name is nonsense. The drink is a martini-glass sour built around gin, Üla Orange Liqueur, sweet-and-sour, and an egg white, all shaken hard until the egg foams up.
It looks dramatic. It tastes terrific. It is what we pour when somebody walks in for the first time and we want them to remember the evening. Full recipe. Üla is the ingredient that makes it work.
The Blue Angel
The Blue Angel is what happens when gin meets Blue Curaçao and somebody decides to commit to the bit. One and a half ounces of Gallon House Gin, three quarters of an ounce of Üla, three quarters of an ounce of Blue Curaçao, a quarter ounce of fresh lemon juice, all shaken with ice and strained into a chilled cocktail glass with a lemon twist.
The drink is, accurately, electric blue. It is a bright tart citrus cocktail wearing tropical-bar clothing. It is also, somehow, balanced. The Üla pulls the orange forward, the lemon keeps it from getting cloying, and the gin holds the bottom together. We do not pour it every night, but on the nights we do, it is a hit. Full recipe.
The Tom Collins
The Tom Collins is the godfather of fun gin drinks. It is two ounces of Gallon House Gin, an ounce of fresh lemon juice, a half ounce of simple syrup, and soda water, all built in a tall glass over ice with a lemon wheel and a maraschino cherry. The drink is older than most of the bars that still serve it. It is also, on the right hot afternoon, the right drink.
Tall, cold, fizzy, slightly sweet, slightly tart. The whole point of a Collins is that it lasts. You make one. You drink it slowly. You make another one. You do not get into trouble. Full recipe.
The Cascade Heights Buck
The Cascade Heights Buck is a house riff on the Buck format, a category of gin-and-ginger drinks that has been around for over a century and has very little marketing department behind it. Two ounces of Gallon House Gin, a half ounce of Üla, a quarter ounce of dry vermouth, ginger ale to the top, and a lime wedge.
The ginger lifts the juniper. The Üla rounds the edge. The vermouth gives the drink a little weight. It is a porch drink, a long-pour drink, a drink for an afternoon that does not need to end soon. Full recipe.
The Coronado
The Coronado is gin with pineapple, which on paper sounds like a 1970s cruise-ship menu choice and in the glass turns out to be a very smart cocktail. One and a half ounces of Gallon House Gin, a half ounce of Üla, two ounces of fresh pineapple juice, a dash of cherry bitters, all shaken with ice and poured over fresh ice in a rocks glass with a maraschino cherry.
The pineapple foams up when you shake it, which gives the drink a beautiful soft head. The cherry bitters give it depth. The Üla rounds it. We pour it on summer evenings when somebody hands us a fresh pineapple and dares us to do something with it. Full recipe.
How to throw a gin cocktail party
The easiest version: pick three from this list, set up one good gin and one bottle of Üla, get fresh citrus, get a bottle of soda, and pre-make a honey syrup. A Bee’s Knees, a Tom Collins, and a Cascade Heights Buck cover almost any guest who walks through the door. If somebody wants to be impressed, make them an NW Bespoke Bliss or a Blue Angel.
The most important rule of gin cocktails at home is fresh citrus. The second is cold ice. The third is a gin that can hold its own without disappearing. We have opinions on the third one.
A short note on Gallon House Gin
These drinks work because the gin works. Gallon House Gin is small-batch, juniper-forward at 88 proof, and built for Pacific Northwest cocktails. It earned Silver at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition. It is named for the covered bridge up the road in Silverton where locals traded bootleg moonshine by the gallon during Prohibition, which is a fun gin story all on its own. Find a bottle through Oregon Liquor Search.
The fun gin cocktails on this list need a gin that will show up. We make one.
The recipe (one to start with)
2 oz Gallon House Gin ¾ oz fresh lemon juice ¾ oz honey syrup (equal parts warm honey and water)
Shake with ice. Strain into a chilled coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.
That is the Bee’s Knees. Three ingredients. Make it once and you will see why it survived Prohibition.