Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse for a cocktail or two! Whether you are making pre-dinner cocktails before a date night or mixing drinks for Galentine’s Day gathering, you’ll find something for all occasions in these recipes.
Valentine’s Day Cocktail Recipes
1 Between the Sheets
Starting off steamy for Valentine’s Day… Between the Sheets is basically the cousin of the Sidecar cocktail with some added rum. You can also use brandy instead of cognac, and the rum should be unaged or lightly aged. Also, triple sec can replace Cointreau, but personally I prefer the latter.
There have been many variations of this cocktail throughout the centuries – dry gin has replaced cognac, or brandy was used with dry gin instead of rum. This means there have been many creators of the cocktail, but the credit mostly goes to a Scottish bartender, Harry MacElhone, who has come up with other great cocktails such as White Lady, Old Pal and Monkey Gland. Although it is likely that he simply swapped the gin to cognac or brandy, but as the recipe stuck, he surely deserves some credit.
Recipe:
22.5ml Cognac (I used Hennessy VS)
22.5ml Light Rum (I used Havana Club Añejo 3yo)
22.5ml Cointreau
7.5ml Fresh Lemon Juice
Flamed Orange Peel for garnish
The original recipe calls for 30ml of each alcohol but that would make it rather punchy, so I decided to stick to a more palatable measure of 22.5ml of each. Some bartenders like to use an equal amount of lemon juice for extra acidity so test both versions to see which you prefer – all in the name of research!
Shake all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Double strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with flamed orange peel.
2 French Kiss
There seem to be a large number of recipes named French Kiss out there, most of which include a raspberry liqueur like Chambord. Some use vodka, others have chocolate in them. Whether this actually is a French Kiss at all or whether I just made it up, none of it matters as long as it tastes good and is easy to make.
Recipe:
35ml Fruity Gin (I used Pinkster Gin)
25ml Raspberry Liqueur*
15ml Lemon Juice
Dash of Sugar Syrup (optional)
Prosecco
Shake all but Prosecco in a Boston shaker. Strain into a champagne flute and top up with Prosecco or other sparkling wine. Garnish with a raspberry.
*The liqueur can be replaced by raspberry syrup, but in that case, skip the plain syrup altogether.
Looking for more pink cocktail recipes? See my previous (Pink) Cocktails with Pinkster Gin.
3 Kentucky Kiss
If you prefer strawberries over raspberries or your partner is a bourbon drinker, then Kentucky Kiss is the perfect romantic Valentine’s Day cocktail for you. Likely to have been invented in the heart of Bourbon country on a hot summer’s day, many recipes go for Maker’s Mark, but I wouldn’t limit yourself to just one brand.
Recipe:
60ml Kentucky Bourbon (I used Woodford Reserve)
2–3 Strawberries
15ml Fresh Lemon Juice
15ml Maple Syrup
Soda Water
Mint for garnish
First muddle the strawberries, lemon and maple syrup in the bottom of a tumbler. Add bourbon and ice and give it a good stir. Add more ice if needed and a splash of soda water. Garnish with mint. Alternatively, you can muddle using your cocktail shakers, then add bourbon and shake before straining over ice and adding soda water.
4 Naked & Famous
Joaquín Simó, the creator of Naked & Famous, describes the cocktail as ‘the bastard love child of a classic Last Word and Paper Plane, conceived in the mountains of Oaxaca’. Made with four equal parts, it is an easy cocktail to make, and one of my personal favourites. You want to go with a mezcal with a good amount of smoke, something that’s pretty powerful to allow it to shine amongst the other ingredients.
Recipe:
22.5ml Mezcal (Try Del Maguey Mezcal Chichicapa)
22.5ml Aperol
22.5ml Yellow Chartreuse
22.5ml Fresh Lime Juice
Shake all ingredients with ice and double strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with lime peel.
Want to learn more about mezcal? See my Quick Guide to Mezcal.
5 Love & Murder
I think this is the first time I’ve tried Campari and Green Chartreuse together. I love them both, so this was an interesting experiment. If you dare to use your Green Chartreuse to test it (chartreuse shortage and all…), I recommend it. The saline solution is a must for balance.
According to Nick Bennett from Porchlight in New York City, the name comes from a Broadway play he thoroughly enjoyed, The Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.
Recipe:
30ml Campari
30ml Green Chartreuse
30ml Lime Juice
22.5ml Sugar Syrup
4 Drops of Saline Solution (5:1 water/ sea salt)
I tried the cocktail with both the sugar syrup and without. Even if there is a lot of sugar already in both Campari and Green Chartreuse, it is still worth adding the syrup. Without it the cocktail is not balanced and feels more bitter from the Campari, the sugar binds it all together better.
Shake all ingredients well with ice and double strain into a cocktail glass. No garnish needed.
5 Hanky Panky
Hanky Panky was created by English bartender Ada Coleman in the early 1900s, at a time when women were rarely seen in bars, never mind serving behind the counter. Her career as a bartender began when she was 24 years old, and four years later she became the head bartender at London’s flashy Savoy American Bar, where she came up with the Hanky Panky cocktail.
The cocktail has similarities to Negroni and uses only three ingredients: gin, bitter and vermouth. Or perhaps it is more of a Martinez, but instead of maraschino liqueur, Ada used Fernet. The original recipe didn’t include the orange juice, but it is worth adding the few drops in.
Recipe:
45ml Dry Gin (I used Kirkjuvagr Orkney Gin)
45ml Sweet Vermouth (I used Contratto Vermouth Rosso)
2 Dashes of Fernet-Branca
1 Dash of Fresh Orange Juice, optional
Orange peel for garnish
Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with an orange twist.
6 Café Amore
Café Amore is believed to have been invented in Paris – can’t get more romantic than that! Make this drink like you would an Irish Coffee.
Recipe:
Black Coffee
20ml Cognac
20ml Amaretto (I used Disaronno)
5ml Simple Syrup (optional)
Whipped Cream
Grated almond or nutmeg for garnish
This recipe usually has much larger measures of each spirit, but I believe that depends largely on the size of your serving mug. I didn’t want to make it overly boozy, so I’ve reduced the measures to 20ml each.
Pre-heat your mug with hot water and discard the water before adding the ingredients. Pour black coffee into your mug, leaving enough room for the remaining ingredients. Add both cognac and amaretto and simple syrup if using and give it a stir. Top up with some gently whipped cream and add grated almond.
Which one of these Valentine’s Day cocktails would you choose? Do you have a favourite cocktail for Valentine’s Day?
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