Mixing the perfect holiday cocktail

Two ingredients make for a perfectly satisfying cocktail. The first is familiarity: You love a martini because it pushes a martini button, right?

The second ingredient is edge. You need that balance of sweet, sour, bitter and, sometimes, salty flavors against the burn of alcohol, and only you know where the edge lies.

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LOUIE FAVORITE /lfavorite@ajc.com

Steven Kowalczuk, bartender at Room restaurant in Twelve at Centennial Park, making a scotch sour.

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LOUIE FAVORITE/lfavorite@ajc.com

A dirty martini.

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LOUIE FAVORITE/lfavorite@ajc.com

The mojito.

Holiday cocktail recipes
• Advice: How to tell which cocktails are fattening
• Martini recipes
• Mojito recipes
• Margarita recipes
• Browse our cocktail recipes

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With these criteria in mind, we approached Steven Kowalczuk — the fine bartender at Room restaurant in the Twelve Centennial Park hotel downtown — and asked him to walk us through the most popular classic cocktails.

All you’ll need is a shaker, a muddling stick (a wooden pestle, available at any cookware store, works fine) and some choice ingredients to make the cocktails your holiday guests will really want.

THE RECIPES

Manhattan

• Recipe: 2-2 1/2 ounces rye whiskey, 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth, 4 dashes Angostura bitters: Fill serving glass with ice and add all ingredients. Pour contents back and forth between two glasses five times. Garnish with a cherry.

• Tricks: Pouring the drink mixes it but keeps the liquid perfectly limpid.

• Steven’s advice: “This drink is all about balance. You can use bourbon instead of rye but that’s sweeter and affects the balance.”

Dirty Martini

• Recipe: Splash white vermouth, 1/2 ounce olive juice, 2 ounces gin: Swirl vermouth inside shaker and pour out excess. Fill shaker with crushed ice, then add olive juice and gin. Stir very well but do not shake. Strain into a glass and garnish with the biggest olives you can find.

• Tricks: Stir the drink 21 times (that’s the classic bartender’s number) by rubbing the stirrer between your palms. Shaking this drink will dilute the flavor.

• Steven’s advice: “Use Bombay Sapphire gin. It has the best balance of botanicals — not too much juniper. A dirty martini is all about the gin.”

Caipirinha

• Recipe: 1/2 lime cut into 8 chunks, 2 teaspoons sugar, 1 1/2 ounces cachaça (Brazilian cane spirit): Muddle the lime and sugar well in the bottom of a serving glass. Fill with ice, top with cachaça and stir.

• Tricks: The abrasive sugar juices the lime well. Warm limes juice better than cold ones.

• Steven’s advice: “I don’t like to add too much sweetener to this drink. You really don’t want to mask the flavor of the cachaça.”

Mojito

• Recipe: 1/2 lime cut into 8 chunks, 7-8 mint leaves, 1 teaspoon sugar, 1/2 ounce simple syrup, 1 1/2 ounces white rum, splash club soda: Muddle the lime, mint and sugar until juicy. Add crushed ice, syrup and rum. Shake vigorously. Pour into a tall glass and top with club soda.

• Tricks: Syrup makes it easy to adjust the sweetness. Make it by combining equal measures of sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil just to dissolve sugar, and let cool.

• Steven’s advice: “This drink won’t be balanced if it’s not sweet. That’s what people like about mojitos.”

Old Fashioned

• Recipe: 4 wedges of a quartered orange, 3 maraschino cherries, 1 teaspoon sugar, one shake bitters, 1 1/2 ounces bourbon: Place the oranges, cherries and sugar in a shaker and muddle well. Fill with ice and add bitters and bourbon. Shake well and pour contents into a serving glass.

• Tricks: Use blood oranges for a richer color and tangier flavor. Don’t garnish further, as the muddled ingredients are the garnish. Look for orange bitters.

• Steven’s advice: “Maker’s Mark bourbon is the best base for cocktails. Its flavors of vanilla, smokiness, oak and caramel come through.”

Scotch Sour

• Recipe: 1/4 lemon cut into chunks, 1/4 lime cut into chunks, 2 teaspoons sugar, 2 ounces Scotch whiskey: Muddle the lemon and lime with the sugar in a shaker. Add ice and Scotch, and shake well. Pour into serving glass and garnish with cherry.

• Tricks: Use a good blended Scotch whiskey or bourbon if you prefer.

• Steven’s advice: “Fresh, muddled fruit tastes better than packaged sour mix.”