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Vodka guides

Vodka cocktails

Master the classics from your Martinis to your Marys (Bloody, of course) and learn some top serves with our cracking guide on how to drink vodka!

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Bloody Mary
Martini
Moscow Mule
Build your own
White Russian
Cosmopolitan
Espresso Martini

Contributed by

Adam O'Connell, writer at Master of Malt
Henry Jeffreys, editor at Master of Malt

The traditional way to drink vodka in Eastern Europe and Scandinavia is to have it well chilled and to serve it with little delicacies like pickles, smoked fish and cured meats. When drunk in this way, vodka’s lack of big flavours becomes an asset as it cleanses the palate, ready for another mouthful of something delicious. This is the best way to drink more expensive spirits whose subtle flavours and textures will be lost when mixed with fruit juices or Coca-Cola.


Vodka’s subtle charms mean that it’s the ultimate mixer, fruit juices, coffee, and of course Coca-Cola work brilliantly. But there's also many a classic cocktail made with vodka. Here's a few of the best.

Sea Breeze Recipe

The Sea Breeze is a variation on the Greyhound, a mixture of vodka and grapefruit juice, with the clever addition of cranberry juice. It was heavily pushed by Absolut in the 1990s. In fact, along with the Cosmopolitan, the Sea Breeze is the ultimate ‘90s cocktail. Those two words conjure up images of Kate Moss stumbling out of the Met bar with Liam Gallagher while Damian Hirst cuts a cow in half. Happy daze!


Prep time: 5 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

50ml Vodka

50ml Pink grapefruit juice

100ml Cranberry juice

Garnish: lemon wedge

Method:

Add all the ingredients to an ice-filled Highball glass, stir and serve with a lime wedge.


Bloody Mary Recipe

The Bloody Mary was probably invented in the 1920s at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris by a barman called Ferdinand “Pete” Petiot. His creation was a mixture of tinned tomato juice, vodka, and seasonings but he called it the Bucket of Blood initially before settling on the much more memorable Bloody Mary. It’s one of those cocktails that doesn’t really have an exact recipe, just add things to it until it tastes right.


Prep time: 5 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

35ml Vodka

100ml Tomato juice

20ml Lemon juice

1 dash Worcestershire sauce

1 dash Tabasco sauce

1 pinch Black pepper

1 pinch Celery salt

Garnish: celery stick, lemon wedge

Method:

Add all ingredients to a tall glass, stir well, and add ice. Garnish with a celery stick and lemon wedge.

Vodka Martini Recipe

This is definitely one of those cocktails where there’s nowhere to hide so use the best possible vodka you can find. You will notice the quality of a really good Polish rye vodka here. If you like yours really, really cold then do as James Bond does and have it ‘shaken not stirred’ though this will make it more dilute and a little cloudy.


Prep time: 3 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

50ml Vodka

Garnish: lemon twist

Method:

First, chill your Nick & Nora or Martini glass in the freezer. Then fill a shaker or jug with lots of very cold ice. Add the vodka and vermouth and stir for a minute. Strain into your chilled glass and garnish with a lemon twist.

Vesper Martini Recipe

The Vesper is a twist on a Dry Martini and first appears in Ian Fleming’s 1953 James Bond novel Casino Royale: ‘Bond insisted on ordering Leiter’s Haig-and-Haig “on the rocks” and then he looked carefully at the barman. “A dry martini,” he said. “One. In a deep champagne goblet. Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Got it?”’ Sadly Kina Lillet is no longer made but the nearest thing is Cocchi Americano.


Prep time: 5 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

25ml Vodka

Garnish: lime wheel

Method:

Shake in an ice-filled shaker, until really cold, strain into a chilled Martini glass or coupe, and serve with a twist of lemon.

Moscow Mule Recipe

The Moscow Mule probably dates back to 1940s LA where Jack Morgan was trying to shift a load of ginger beer. One day he met John G. Martin who had just acquired the rights to sell Smirnoff vodka in the US. It’s hard to imagine now, but vodka was considered a bit niche, and he was struggling to sell the stuff. You can just imagine the lightbulb moment when they both simultaneously thought: ‘Why not mix them together?’ Brilliant! The result was the Moscow Mule.


Prep time: 3 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

60ml Vodka

180ml Ginger beer

Juice of half a lime

Garnish: lime wedge, sprig of mint.

Method:

Fill a Mule cup or Highball glass with ice, add all the ingredients and give it a good stir. Garnish with a lime wedge and a sprig of mint.

Sex on the Beach Recipe

The story goes that in 1987, a company called National Distribution launched a new product – peach schnapps. As a way of selling their new liquid, they launched a competition in Fort Lauderdale during the famous party season, asking bartenders to create a cocktail using it. One bartender was Ted Pizio of Confetti Bar. He mixed the schnapps with vodka, grenadine and orange juice and the partygoers loved it. When Pizio was asked to name his cocktail, his mind went straight to what he believed the Spring Breakers came away to Florida to do… and so, Sex on the Beach was born.


Prep time: 5 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

50ml Vodka

50ml Cranberry juice

2 Oranges, juiced

Garnish: orange slice

Method:

Mix the vodka, peach schnapps and orange juice together and pour into a hurricane glass over ice. Pour over the cranberry juice and garnish as you please. Stir before drinking.

White Russian Recipe

The White Russian became a cult due to its prominent role as the Dude’s drink of choice in the 1998 film The Big Lebowski. It’s a derivation of the Black Russian (a mixture of vodka and coffee liqueur) with cream and/or milk added to it. Both Russians, Black and White are relatively recent cocktails, the Black was first mentioned in 1949 and the White in 1965.


Prep time: 3 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

35ml Vodka

35ml Full-fat milk

Method:

Add all the ingredients to an ice-filled shaker, shake quickly and strain into an ice-filled tumbler.

Cosmopolitan Recipe

Just say the word ‘Cosmopolitan’ and most of us will be transported to swinging ‘90s New York thanks to its association with ‘Sex and the City’. There is a cocktail of that name from the 1930s though it’s a little different from the version we know and love which probably assumed its current form sometime in the 1970s but as with most cocktails there are competing stories.


Prep time: 5 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

45ml Vodka

20ml Cranberry juice

20ml Fresh lime juice

Garnish: lime wheel

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a cocktail shaker, add ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass and garnish with a lime wheel.

Pornstar Martini Recipe

A perennial chart topper in the list of the world’s most popular cocktails, the Pornstar Martini was invented by the late Douglas Ankrah at the Townhouse in Knightsbridge, a landmark bar that put London back on the cocktail map. Ankrah then founded LAB (London Academy of Bartenders) in Soho, which opened in 1999 and finally closed its doors in 2016. It was here that the Pornstar Martini became a sensation.


Prep time: 5 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

50ml Passion fruit purée

2 teaspoons Vanilla sugar

Shot of Champagne to serve on the side

Garnish: half passion fruit

Method:

Shake ingredients except the Champagne with ice and double strain into a chilled Martini glass. Float half a passionfruit on top and serve with a shot of Champagne on the side. You could use Prosecco or Cava but then that’s not very pornstar now is it?

Espresso Martini Recipe

The story goes that the Espresso Martini was invented by legendary London barman Dick Bradsell in 1983 after a supermodel came into the Soho Brasserie and asked for a drink that would “wake me up, and then fxxk me up” (responsibly, of course). He christened it the Vodka Espresso, but it soon became known as the Espresso Martini because of the shape of the glass.


Prep time: 3 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

30ml Vodka

30ml Freshly-made espresso

Garnish: coffee beans

Method:

First make your espresso and let it cool. Fill the shaker with ice, add the vodka and coffee liqueur, stir, and then add the coffee. Shake very hard and double strain into a frozen Martini glass. Garnish with a coffee bean or three.

Your Vodka cocktail toolkit

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