Three Ingredient Cocktails

You don’t need a degree in mixology or a laundry list of add-ins to make a great cocktail

You don’t need a degree in mixology or a laundry list of add-ins to make a great cocktail—just a bit of booze and some stuff that’s easy to buy or possibly hiding in your fridge behind that odor-packed box of baking soda.

Southern Shandy


9 parts beer (nothing too dark!)8 parts lemonade


1 part peach brandy


With built-in bubbles and lemonade, this beer-based shandy is basically a MacGyver version of Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Toss all the mixin’s together and give it a stir (shaking beer is a bad idea).

Paloma

2 parts tequila


½ part lime juice


Grapefruit soda to taste


Move over, margarita— a paloma tames tequila without sending you into a diabetic coma.

Gin Rickey

2 oz. gin


Fresh lime juice to taste


Club soda to top it off


Pour the gin and juice (like Snoop!) over some ice, spritz in some seltzer, and stir.

Rob Roy

2 parts scotch


1 part Italian


Sweet Vermouth


Dash of bitters


So what if it’s just a Manhattan with scotch? The Rob Roy is about as simple (and satisfying) as it gets. Just stir the ingredients with ice before straining this sucker into a chilled cocktail glass.

Sidecar

2 parts cognac or brandy


1 part Cointreau


½ part fresh lemon juice


The secret of the sidecar: It’s probably the sweetest drink a man can reasonably get away with ordering in public. Shake the stuff with ice, then strain it into a chilled cocktail glass with a sugared rim. Then book a dental appointment.

Brown Derby

2 parts bourbon


1 part grapefruit juice


½ part honey


This 1930s Hollywood classic brings you back to a time when Prussia was a thing and syphilis was a death sentence.

Vodka Gimlet

2 parts vodka


1 part Rose’s lime juice


1 lime wedge


If you don’t have Rose’s sweetened lime juice, just add a teaspoon of powdered sugar to the fresh stuff.

Black Stripe

1 part dark rum


1½ parts hot water


Honey or molasses to taste


Rum ain’t just for beach season. Pour the dark rum and a bit of sweetener into a glass, fill ’er up with hot water, and give it a good stir. Toss in a cinnamon stick to next-level this belly-warming bad boy.