5 Easy Valentine’s Day Cocktails to Make For That Special Someone
By Andrew Tardif
Valentine’s day is here again, promising many subpar chocolates, hokey valentines’s day cards, and expensive dinners out. But what happened to a romantic Valentine’s Day at home with a nice meal and, of course, sexy valentine’s day cocktails?
Whether your heartthrob loves gin, whisky, or vodka, Chemist Spirits has the bottle for you and the cocktail. There’s no better way to impress your date than with these 5 easy Valentine’s Day cocktails, which emphasize our Chemist Spirits. After all, love is a sort of alchemy, isn’t it?
Clover Club
This pink-hued, foamy gin cocktail has its roots in the late 1800s at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. The hotel was frequented by many intellectuals and well-to-do folks who would gather to discuss the hot topics of the day, including politics.
Prohibition spelled the death of the cocktail as it fell out of favor. This is possibly due to the fact that an egg-white cocktail with raspberry syrup was labor intensive and speakeasies were always at risk of getting raided. This meant the quicker the drink the better.
In 2008, Julie Reiner opened the Clover Club bar where she served this lovely cocktail. We have her to thank for the resurgence of this luscious and eye-catching valentine’s day cocktail.
Clover Club Cocktail Recipe
Although this Valentine’s Day drink recipe calls for raspberry syrup (which is very easy to make), you can replace that with Chambord, or you can simply muddle and shake fresh raspberries with ½ oz of simple syrup. The raspberries give it a better color, in our opinion.
We also like to use our Chemist American Gin to add a floral essence and emphasise the notes of citrus.
Ingredients:
1 ½ oz Chemist American Gin
¾ oz Raspberry Syrup (or Chambord)
¾ oz Lemon Juice
Egg White*
Instructions:
Place Chemist Navy Gin, lemon juice, raspberry syrup (or Chambord), and egg white into shaker tin.
Dry Shake ingredients for 10 seconds to foam the egg white.
Add ice to the shaker tin and shake ingredients again for 10-15 seconds to chill.
Strain into a chilled coupe.
Garnish with fresh raspberries.
*Technique Tip: Dry Shaking
Out of these Valentine’s Day cocktails, this one is the most labor intensive at home due to the Dry Shaking required.
There are some different modes of thought surrounding dry shaking. Some bartenders will shake the cocktail with egg white but without any ice first to create foam without diluting it.
After “dry shaking,” ice is added and you can shake it for another 10 seconds to chill. An alternative way that some bartenders may use, including some at Chemist’s Antidote Cocktail Lounge, is to shake with ice the first time and then strain it, discard the ice, and then dry shake it.
The cold egg white will be able to foam better, like chilling heavy cream, the bowl, and whisk before whipping it. The colder it is, the more structure you can form.
Hot Buttered Single Malt
For those who share a deep, warm, and cozy love, this riff on the Hot Buttered Rum is for you. The Hot Buttered Rum cocktail is a hot cocktail typically served with rum and a batter typically made of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
This cocktail originated in the colonial era when rum had become popular, but a written recipe emerged as early as 1594 in Thomas Dawson’s The Good Huswifes Handmaid. This recipe used beer instead of rum, but otherwise looks similar.
This Valentine’s Day cocktail is perfect for the cold February weather, and we simply swap out the rum for our American Single Malt, which is well rounded with toasty notes of chocolate. Of the Valentine’s Day cocktails, this one is the best to prepare ahead of time.
Once dinner is finished, the dishes are cleaned, the candles are lit, and you’re ready to settle into each other’s arms, you can simply boil up some water, take out the premade batter and your Chemist American Single Malt Whiskey and get to Hot Buttering.
Hot Buttered Single Malt Recipe
Although we use our American Single Malt in this recipe, you can always swap that out for whatever spirit floats your boat. Rum is the typical spirit used, but this can range from a Jamaican Rum which has a grassier profile, to a Black Strap Rum, which is darker more molasses profile.
Ingredients for Batter:
1 cup of unsalted butter
2 cups of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of grated cinnamon
1 teaspoon of grated nutmeg.
Allow the butter to soften in a large bowl. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the butter and stir until completely combined. Put in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Ingredients for Cocktail:
1 teaspoon of batter (Or tablespoon, you’re the chemist, after all)
1 ½ oz of Chemist American Single Malt Whiskey
Hot Water
Instructions:
Place teaspoon of batter into a 8oz heat-safe glass or coffee mug
Add Whiskey
Fill the glass with hot water and mix to combine
Garnish with grated nutmeg and serve.
Chambord 75
This take on the French 75 gets its color from Chambord, a black raspberry liqueur. A small addition turns this French 75 from a simple champagne cocktail into something with more class and color.
The French 75 itself doesn’t have romantic origins and is possibly named from a French artillery piece the Americans encountered during WWI. It has also gone through a variety of adaptations.
The one that is most popular today is, as Jeffey Morgenthaler states, an evolution of the Tom Collins and uses gin, simple syrup, and lemon juice which is shaken, strained into a champagne flute, and topped with champagne.
The Chambord 75 Recipe
This cocktail can be altered in many ways. You can substitute the Chambord for a completely other liquor, say a passionfruit liquor, creme de cassis, or creme de mure, if you have some of that lying around.
You can also just switch it out for a fruit puree, but then you’re certainly entering Bellini territory. Then you’re talking brunch, but that’s a different conversation altogether. If you want a weightier gin, we also recommend a Navy Strength Gin, like our own that uses Thai ginger for a little more heat and spice.
Ingredients:
1 oz Chemist Navy Strength Gin
½ oz Chambord
½ oz Lemon Juice
Top with Champagne or Sparkling Wine
Instructions:
Pour gin, lemon juice, and Chambord into a shaker tin.
Shake with ice for 10-15 seconds or until thoroughly chilled.*
Strain into a flute and top with champagne.
Express lemon oil over the top and garnish with lemon peel.
*If you don’t want to shake all of the ingredients, this cocktail can also be built in the glass.
The Hanky Panky
No, not that kind of hanky panky, but hopefully that is in your future as well. This cocktail’s name is more likely associated with magic and trickery as it’s believed to be related to the term, “hocus pocus.” I mean, isn’t love a kind of magic?
It is said that in the 1920s Ada Coleman, the head bartender at London’s Savoy Hotel, made this cocktail for Sir Charles Hawtrey, an actor who was looking for a sort of pick-me-up. Some tales say that Hawtrey himself referred to it as “the real hanky panky” after downing it, and others state that Coleman named it.
Regardless, this cocktail is perfect for those who enjoy a Martini or Manhattan.
Hanky Panky Cocktail Recipe
This cocktail can be delicate or difficult depending on the type of spirits you use. We like to go with a floral and citrusy gin, like our Chemist America Gin, and a rich sweet vermouth, like Carpano Antica.
As for the Fernet, the recipe typically calls for Fernet Branca, but we like local, so we always reach for Eda Rhyne’s Appalachian Fernet. We find that the rich and complex botanicals match well with the florality of our gins, both sharing the botanicals of the region. It also can be nice to add a couple of dashes of orange bitters, although, then you’re entering Martinez territory.
But, we all do hanky panky in our own way, so, you know…you do you.
Ingredients:
1 ½ oz Chemist American Gin
1 ½ oz Sweet Vermouth
2 Dashes of Eda Rhyne Appalachian Fernet
Orange peel
Instructions:
Put the American Gin. Sweet Vermouth, and Fernet into a mixing glass with ice*
Stir for 30 seconds or until thoroughly chilled.
Strain into a chilled coupe.
Express orange oil over top and throw the garnish away.
*Technique Tip: Ice
If you want to properly chill a stirred drink, you want to make sure you have plenty of ice in the glass. Stirring the cocktail won’t dilute it as much since there is far less agitation than shaking, but that also means you need plenty of ice. If liquid comes above the ice in a mixing glass, you need more ice.
Chemist Alexander- A Before-Bed Libation
The Chemist Alexander is a riff on the Alexander cocktail which uses equal parts gin, creme de cacao, and heavy cream for a decadent drink. It originated in the early 20th century, although the origins are contested.
The story that seems to be the most likely is that Troy Alexander, the bar manager of New York City’s Rector, made the cocktail for officials of the Lackawanna Railroad. The result was a white cocktail as a nod to the new smokeless coal used in train travel.
The most popular rendition of this cocktail, and what people typically think of, is the Brandy Alexander, which traded out the Gin for Brandy.
Chemist Alexander Recipe:
Since the Alexander’s inception it has branched off into several renditions other than the Brandy Alexander, Vodka, Sherry, and Triple Sec have all hopped in to add variety to the name. For this, we use our Chocolate Orange Liqueur for a more luscious mouth feel and our American Single Malt to add a level of depth and heat.
The other change you can make is to use egg white instead of cream. Many find that egg white is the real way to make an Alexander, although the first printed recipe for the cocktail (appearing in Hugo Enslin’s Recipe’s for Mixed Drinks used cream.
That being said, allow this cocktail to be a starter template for your own ideas and creations.
Ingredients:
½ oz Chemist Chocolate Orange Gin Liqueur
½ oz American Single Malt
1 oz Heavy Cream
1 oz Creme de Cacao
Nutmeg for garnish.
Instructions:
Pour ingredients, except nutmeg, into a shaker tin with ice.
Shake for 10-15 seconds or until chilled thoroughly.
Strain into a chilled coupe.
Garnish with fresh nutmeg.
Give the Gift of Gin this Valentine’s Day
Hopefully these easy Valentine’s Day cocktails make it to your special dinner or date night this Valentine’s Day. And if you’re still looking for a gift to get that special someone, take a look at our lineup of Chemist Spirits. With gins, whiskeys, and liqueur, we have something for everyone.
Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions, don’t be afraid to reach out to us. Or visit our cocktail bar and try our spirits in some seasonal concoctions, curated by our own creative chemists.
