When bars were closed for several months during the Covid-19 period, I started making a different cocktail at home each weekend. What began as simple recipe-following quickly turned into experimentation: adjusting ratios, trying different spirits, and eventually building drinks that were no longer strictly “recipes”, but personal variations, sometimes inspired by ingredients I was growing or made myself, such as basil or Elderflower Champagne.
This section is a record of those experiments. It is still relatively small, and it is not intended as a catalogue of classic cocktails. Instead, it reflects my own taste and curiosity, and mainly serves as a way to keep track of versions I want to return to.
I do not claim expertise in mixology. The focus is less on correctness and more on curiosity.
The solubility experiments so far:
Mezcal Plum Culture
A few weeks ago I made a batch of lacto-fermented plums. While the fruit itself was delicious, what really caught my attention was the fermentation liquid. It had an interesting flavor: bright acidity from the lactic fermentation, ripe stone fruit notes and less sweetnes than…
Upgrading My Elderflower Champagne with Islay Scotch and Sherry
When a batch of homemade elderflower champagne actually works out, it’s brilliant. It’s clean, bubbling, and incredibly refreshing just poured over a big block of ice on a hot afternoon. But as much as I enjoy it on its own, I couldn’t help wondering how…
An Elegant Solution for Summer: The Watermelon-Ginger Cooler
When summer hits, everyone starts looking for a refreshing drink. But let’s be honest: most seasonal cocktails are just sugar bombs that leave you feeling sluggish. So the goal here was to make something crisp, bright and intentionally not that sweet. To do that, I…
Optimizing the Penicillin Cocktail: A Smoky Trial
I had been looking for a cocktail with smoky whisky for quite some time until found the Penicillin cocktail. When searching for “Penicillin cocktail recipe” with google, you will find various different recipes. The basic ingredients are a blended whisky, a smoky whisky, lemon juice,…