Kitsch'n'Kocktail

Two amateur cocktologists* living in Brooklyn, watching Mad Men and making cocktails. Never meet a tiki bar we didn’t love! *mixologists are for smoothies

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The Screwdriver

Simple, classic, what more is there to say?

Recipe from AMC's Made Men Cocktai Guide-

The Screwdriver

Ingredients 2 oz vodka Fresh squeezed orange juice Orange wedge

Instructions Pour vodka and fresh orange juice into cocktail glass and stir. Add orange wedge.

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Vodka Gimlet

Though insanely simple, the Vodka Gimlet is a fresh treat on cool spring day.  Betty Draper's drink of choice, she has them with Lobster Newburg, during the Cuban Missile Crisis and right before a dalliance with a random stranger.  Did I mention she drinks them while pregnant? (Do not do that! Instead, make a virgin mojito with lime juice, simple syrup, muddled mint and soda.  Much safer for the baby, refreshing, and sans many a dirty look).

AMC's 1960’s cocktail guide is very vague when it comes to the ingredients, but "The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook" swears by Rose's Lime (pg 43). Ever the purest, I will take the time to juice the limes and make my own simple syrup though I also prefer Rose's in the cocktail. A Gimlet can be garnished with lime slices or mint springs and is better when assisted by a cat named Fred, darling.

Vodka Gimlet

Ingredients 1½ oz vodka ¾ oz lime juice 3-4 lime slices Instructions

Pour vodka and lime juice into mixing glass. Shake and strain into martini glass. Add 3 to 4 slices of lime.

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Gibson

Though to find a variation on the Gibson cocktail is a rarity, there is some some discrepancy in the origin of this foxy drink.  Was it the invention of a of Charles Dana Gibson, the creator of the iconic Gibson Girls at the famous Bohemian Club, or created by a distinguished hypochondriac, Walter D K Gibson using onions in his beverage to stave of colds?  We will never know.  But what we do know, as does Rodger Sterling in Mad Men's "Love Among the Ruins," Season 2, episode 3, is that it is a dam fine cocktail.

Ingredients: 2½ oz of gin or vodka ¾ oz dry vermouth 3-5 cocktail onions Instructions: Stir gin or vodka and vermouth on ice in mixing glass. Strain into martini glass and add cocktail onions.

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Martini

It's a safe assumption that the first drink that comes to mind when thinking of Mad Men is probably the martini.  The clean taste, the classic shape, martinis look like one of Don Draper's suits. In the 1960's cocktail guide on AMC's Mad Men page, the cover both the Classic Martini and the Dirty (I would guess that would be called the "Rodger"). These gin based cocktails, washed with the bare minimum of dry vermouth (originally sweet vermouth, but that is another story for another time), are the preferred beverages of secret agents and poets alike.

In our martini’s we made both the classic and dirty variation with both gin and vodka.  And the jury was hung.  I preferred the gin, though it was harsh and Matt went with the dirty vodka martini (officially gin is the key to the cocktail, though many prefer vodka). 

Classic Martini

Ingredients 2½ oz gin (vodka) 1½ oz dry vermouth 3 green olives

Instructions Rinse martini glass in dry vermouth and pour out. Shake gin with ice until chilled. Pour into martini glass. Add olives.

  Dirty Martini

Ingredients 2½ oz gin (vodka) 1½ oz dry vermouth ½ oz olive juice 3-4 green olives stuffed with blue cheese Instructions Add dry vermouth to the martini glass, rinse, and pour out. Pour gin, olive juice and ice into mixing glass and shake until chilled. Strain in the martini glass and drop the 3 to 4 olives as garnish.