Classic Cocktails - Mojitos and Sidecar

FOOD & DRINK — REFLECTION

Building a Home Bar Catalog, One Cocktail at a Time

Four spirits, four decent drinks, and the slow realization that a good cocktail is mostly ratios.

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4

Core Recipes

4

Spirits Covered

3

New This Round

2026

Year

Table of Contents

1. ①A Growing Catalog
2. ②The New Additions
3. ③Refining the Margarita
4. ④What's Next

Section I

A Growing Catalog

2026 has quietly become the year I learned to make my own cocktails. It started with a couple of bar tools and a curiosity about what actually separates a good Old Fashioned from a mediocre one, and it's turned into something closer to a small, deliberate catalog.

I'm now at four drinks I'd call decent rather than merely drinkable, and between them I've got rum, vodka, tequila, and whisky covered. That's not a lot of ground, but it's enough to make most requests at a home bar without apologizing for the pour.

Section II

The New Additions

The Mojito is fussier than I expected — a lot of mint, a full minute of muddling and stirring before ice even enters the picture. It rewards the patience, but it's not a drink I'd make for a crowd on a whim.

The Sidecar has become an easy favorite, mostly because it's the one recipe here that doesn't ask for anything exotic. If cognac and cointreau are already in the cabinet, lemons are the only errand. I've pulled the lemon and cognac back slightly from the classic ratio, since US lemons run tarter than what most old recipes assume.

The Paloma surprised me the most. Fresh grapefruit makes it taste more like good juice than a cocktail, which is either a compliment or a warning depending on your mood. Half a grapefruit yields close to 6 oz of juice, so this one tends to turn into two or three servings whether I planned that or not.

BY THE NUMBERS

Recipe Breakdown

Four drinks, four spirits, and the same handful of building blocks in different proportions.  I'm also standardizing to help me remember each recipe to 1 1/2 oz base spirit, 1/2 oz of second liqueur and usually 1/2 oz of fruit, then either 1/4 or 1/2 oz sweetener.  This is also easier for me as my bar setup has a 1 1/2 oz jigger.

Specification	Mojito	Sidecar	Paloma	Margarita
	White Rum	Cognac	Tequila	Tequila
Base Spirit	1 1/2 oz white rum	1 1/2 oz cognac	1 1/2 oz tequila	1 1/2 oz tequila
Second Liqueur	—	1/2 oz cointreau	—
Citrus / Herbs	1/2 oz lime + 10-14 mint leaves	1/2 oz lemon	1/2 oz lime + 2 oz grapefruit	1/2 oz lime
Sweetener	1/2 oz simple syrup	1/4 oz simple syrup	1/2 oz agave syrup	1/4 oz agave syrup
Topper	2–4 oz club soda	—	2 oz club soda	—

Section III

Refining the Margarita

The Paloma is what introduced me to agave syrup, and once I had a bottle open it seemed obvious to fold it into the Margarita too. The 2026 version is a touch sweeter than what I was making before, with a small pinch of salt instead of a rimmed glass and also swapping Cointreau for Agave.  I’ve learned this is not new and is also known as a Tommy Margarita.

It's become the drink I reach for when I want the Paloma's flavor profile without dealing with the mess and yield of an actual grapefruit. Less ceremony, same instinct.

Section IV

What's Next

Four drinks across four spirits is a reasonable start, but there's an obvious gap: nothing in the catalog uses gin. That's next on the list, though I haven't settled on which one yet.

Beyond that, I'm circling Campari — a Negroni or a Boulevardier feels like the natural next lesson in bitterness and balance. Mostly what this year has taught me is that a cocktail is just ratios you've bothered to understand, which makes the whole project easier to take seriously and less easy to take too seriously.

I also putting here my whisky drinks and it always surprises me how similar they are w/ a few minor variations.

SPECIFICATION	Negroni	Manhattan	Old Fashioned	Whisky Sour
	GIN	whisky	Whisky	Whisky
BASE SPIRIT	1 oz gin	1 1/2 oz bourbon or rye whisky	1 1/2 oz bourbon or rye whisky	1 1/2 oz bourbon or rye whisky
SECOND LIQUEUR	1 oz Campari + 1 oz sweet vermouth	1/2 oz vermouth	—	—
CITRUS / HERBS	—	—	orange peel	—
SWEETENER	—	2 dash bitters	1/4 oz simple syrup + 2 dash angostura bitters	1/4 oz simple syrup
TOPPER	—	—	—	—