Blackbeard’s Ghost

A citrus juice used in many cocktails, both for its sweet and tart taste and its color. Orange juice, unlike lemon and lime, can be kept fresh for days. In a blind taste test, most people liked day-old orange juice.

The most common fruit juice used in cocktails. This citrus juice is about 6% acid; pure citric acid. Lemon juice should be used the day it is squeezed, some like it freshly squeezed and others like it a few hours old.

The general term for the Carribean-based nonalcoholic syrup. Falernum is a sweet syrup commonly used in tropical drinks and usually flavored with almond, ginger, cloves, vanilla, allspice and lime. You can make it yourself, it takes a few days. Combine 1/3 cup toasted almonds with 1/2 cup for light rum. Seal and let sit for 2 days. Add the zest of 8 limes (no pith) and 30 whole cloves, stir and let sit for another day. Juice 4 limes and strain the juice into a sauce pot. Add 2/3 cups water and 1/2 cup sugar and cook until the sugar is dissolved. Let the syrup cool then combine it with the almond/rum infusion. Stir to combine then strain all through a cheesecloth or coffee filter. Add alcohol as a preservative and turn it into Velvet Falernum.

An apricot flavored brandy liqueur, similar to peach liqueur.

These rich rums get their dark color from added caramel, not necessarily aging. Flavors are caramel and brown-sugar forward. Common examples are Meyers's and Coruba (Jamaican) or Gosling's Black Seal (Bermuda). A key ingredient in many classic tiki-era cocktails.

Often referred to as silver or white, these rums are actually lightly aged (1-3 years), but have had their color removed by charcoal filtering. They are molasses based (as opposed to the cane juice-based rhum agricole, clairin, or cachaça). Flavors range from light (Bacardi, Caña Brava, Plantation 3 Star, El Dorado 3) to more flavorful (Probitas, Ten-To-One).

A concentrated aromatic bitters made in Trinidad from water, ethanol, gentian and other herbs and spices; used in many classic cocktails like the Manhattan.

An orange colored citrus fruit. Many types of orange make an appearance in cocktails. The peel and juice are equally valuable to diverse cocktails.

In cocktails, cherries are sweetened in a brine, like maraschino cherries (marr-ə-SKEE-noh) or in brandy, like brandied cherries. They are usually used as a garnish, muddled into the cocktail, or used simple for their sweetened brine.