I’ll never forget my first cocktail. I was the house of a friend, Keely, a budding mixologist. She handed me a short glass filled with a mysterious brown liquid, gently fizzing through the ice.
“Try it,” she said.
I did. It was magical, a sweet blend of something familiar with something new.
“It’s Kahlua and Coke!” she exclaimed, not giving me a chance to guess. I wouldn’t have guessed Kahlua, though — I had no idea what it was.
From then on, though, it became my go-to drink for years, mostly because it was one of the few things I knew how to order. I learned some other common orders, such as the deceptively simple screwdriver and pretty much any combination of liquor and Coke.
As Keely got better at making drinks, she accumulated a large collection of liquors, cordials, and mixers. She hosted a lot of parties and was very generous with what I later learned were expensive ingredients. One concoction she introduced me to, a Grasshopper, became one of my instant favorites. I started wanting to have these drinks at bars, but I learned the hard way that many bartenders have no idea how to make dessert cocktails and that ordering a Bloody Mary at a bar will earn you a scornful laugh.
